最新杏吧原创

The people, many of them senior citizens, came from some of the poorest ZIP codes in 最新杏吧原创 County and north 最新杏吧原创, an area devastated by the May tornadoes. In recent months, the lines have been growing.

Those lines are a harbinger of things to come.

鈥淭here are more people who are food insecure than five years ago,鈥� says Andrew Diemer, executive director of the Wellston Center. 鈥淎nd food is more expensive.鈥�

In the past year, according to the , food prices have grown nationally by nearly 3 percent. Some key items 鈥� beef, eggs and vegetables, for instance 鈥� have risen even higher.

The rising costs don鈥檛 just hit people living in poverty who rely on a pantry for some of their food. They also hit the donors to those food pantries, many of whom are middle-class people or small businesses trying to do their part to help families in need.

For food pantries in the 最新杏吧原创 region, that鈥檚 created a double whammy. And it has them worried about how they鈥檙e going to feed people in coming months.

It鈥檚 not just donations that have decreased. So have deliveries from regional food banks, which have their own shortages after by the President Donald Trump administration. That means more food pantries are doing what Diemer has long had to do: buy the cheapest food they can find at grocery stores or other suppliers.

Donations are down. Food is more expensive. The lines are longer.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all experiencing the same things,鈥� says Patrick McKelvey, executive director of the in Jefferson County. 鈥淚t鈥檚 everywhere.鈥�

McKelvey serves a mostly rural population in Sulfur Springs, Arnold, Imperial and Jefferson County, but he is seeing the same issues as Diemer. To make his point, McKelvey pulled up a spreadsheet on his laptop. We met in the back of Diemer鈥檚 food pantry, as workers came and went to feed the folks in line. In the first six months of 2024, Gateway Food Pantry received more than $500,000 worth of donations from food banks and other large donors. This year, in the same time period, that number dropped to $244,000. McKelvey is using a far larger share of his budget to buy food from local sources.

In Overland, the is facing a similar dilemma. In May 2024, the pantry received the equivalent of $233,000 in food contributions, says executive director Angela Gabel. This May, the amount was cut by more than half, to $113,000. That鈥檚 a reduction of more than 60,000 pounds of food at a pantry that serves more than 1,400 families a month.

Diemer, McKelvey, Gabel and other pantry directors have started meeting regularly to share notes on where to get the least expensive food and how to meet the growing demand for their services.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the compounding effect of many things happening simultaneously,鈥� Diemer says of the fire-alarm emergency facing food pantries. 鈥淔or the family that cannot afford basic necessities, tariffs and inflation have already hit.鈥�

That鈥檚 not a political statement. It鈥檚 a simple stating of the facts that food pantry directors are seeing in real time. They are the canaries in the coal mine for an American economy that is shifting in the wrong direction.

At Gateway, in Jefferson County, the number of families served in the month of April had climbed steadily in recent years 鈥� from 122 families in 2022, to 140 the next year, to 153 in 2024. This April, it spiked to 202 families 鈥� at a time when costs were higher and food donations were down.

What comes next is what worries Gabel the most. Planned changes to Medicaid funding, and plans to shift some funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to states, has her on edge. Those cuts will hit the folks who rely on food pantries the most. Gabel anxiously hopes the Missouri Legislature can do its best to prop up the programs.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 going to happen to SNAP keeps me up at night,鈥� Gabel says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the unpredictability of everything right now.鈥�

Many of the food pantries already have stopped offering beef and eggs. And canned food is about to get more expensive because of tariffs on steel and aluminum. People are going to eat less healthy, Diemer says, because food pantries can鈥檛 provide basic staples like fresh fruit, meat and vegetables.

鈥淢ore people are coming, and we can afford less food,鈥� McKelvey says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know when it ends.鈥�