Local food banks feeling the pressure of rising prices

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - The pressure to put food on the table is becoming an all too familiar feeling for families nationwide.

“With gas prices and with inflation and with rent going up, it doesn’t matter their profession,” Jeanette Best, the CEO and Founder of A Hand Up International, said. “People are struggling. Families are struggling.”

It’s a struggle A Hand Up has been taking on extra hard recently, doing what they can to meet the need. Best said they’ve had to bump up their grocery list more than 30% in the last two and a half months.

A Hand Up is a nonprofit organization that feeds roughly 1,000 local families every month through mobile events and distributions.

Each box has about 50 pounds of food, with everything from meats and loaves of bread to sweet treats. The organization also makes sure to accommodate how much food they give out based on each family’s size.

“We generally don’t start our food banks on Saturday until 9 a.m. and we have people in line as early as 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m. because they want to you know be ensured that they’re going to receive food,” Best said.

It seems the lines to pick up these boxes just keep getting longer.

“The parking lot is full, the fields are full. We have to have security because we have to make sure the traffic doesn’t go out to 231,” Best said.

Now officials are asking for help to keep the pantry stocked.

“We are right now actively planning fundraisers for this very purpose. To enlist more help from the community but the need is so great and getting greater and greater. And we are here to serve all day long.”

For more information on how you can get involved or donate, you can visit https://www.ahandupintl.org/get-involved.

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