South Florida food banks, pantries brace for Christmas holiday
LIBERTY CITY - Food banks and pantries are bracing for a hard impact as inflation hits the economy.
CBS4 has been looking into how the growing need is showing up at local non-profits and food pantries, we checked back as they prepare for the Christmas holiday period.
"We rescue from here 7 days a week," Jean Marie Rusell with Food Rescue US Miami said.
Rusell showed CBS4 how volunteers go from supermarkets, hotels, to restaurants for extra produce that would otherwise end up in the dumpster, and they've noticed a trend.
"What we're seeing is not so much a shortage of food but in some cases, an abundance as people is not shopping as much," Ellen Bowen, the non-profit's director said.
Meaning, Bowen thinks the increasing costs have made people cut back. From the market volunteers then take it to small neighborhood pantries, today it's Village Pantry and Kitchen in Liberty City.
"This community is in the center of a food desert," Sherina Jones, the pantry's founder said.
Village Pantry started simply as a fridge on the side of the road for people to share food, now, it has expanded, but because of the recession, the need has also grown.
"Funds are not covering through the month as they usually do, they cover for two weeks," she said.
Jones estimates, Village Pantry in 2021 served about 150 families a day, now it's up to 300. She also thinks it is because of rising costs and the economy.
"It's bad, especially for parents walking the streets with their children, especially people sleeping in the parks in the rear with their children," she explained.
The same costs are having an effect on organizations trying to help.
"Our rent is about to go up almost 50% here in this facility so that's changing for us," Paco Velez, Feeding South Florida CEO said.
That's going to make it harder for Feeding South Florida to maintain its level of food supply that gets distributed to smaller pantries.
"So, our numbers have gone down, doesn't mean that we're not serving our families, we're serving every family that comes in and needs assistance," Velez said.
How they will sustain will greatly depend on the community's willingness to contribute and donate. Over at Farm Share, they came close to running out of food during the Thanksgiving period.
"We were experiencing food shortages that we've never seen before, our warehouses throughout the state were almost empty," Gil Zepeda, Farm Share Marketing Director said.
Farm Share works closely with growers, and Zepeda says, farmers are hurting.
"When it comes to not only labor but the actual maintenance of a farm, and the actual materials that needed to run the farm, everything shot up," he told CBS4.
That contributed to fewer donations.
"We were short on scheduling as many events as we usually do," Zepeda said.
He hopes for a rebound next year, but experts are still predicting a downturn.
"Even if we see a decline at any percentage there will still be a food that goes to waste," Bowen said.
Sometimes for these volunteers, it feels that the greater community is not aware of what's happening, but they tell CBS4, no matter what happens with the economy they will rise to meet the need.
