Colorado Food Banks Grapple With 'Substantially Less Food' Ahead Of Holidays
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) - With prices for food going up, groups which provide groceries for those in need are being caught in need as well. One example is the Action Center on 14th Avenue in Lakewood.
They come by car, on foot, or send someone here for them, all in need of food. Some like Danielle Micheletti.
"We were doing alright and then the pandemic hit, and everybody needed a little extra help,"
she said while picking up boxes of groceries which were put into her car by volunteers.
Micheletti and her husband work, but with two children it's hard to put food on the table.
Now, it's also become difficult for those who distribute the badly-needed groceries like Food Bank of the Rockies.
"Our challenge is it is costing us more money than we imagined and more money than we ever spent on food before," Food Bank of the Rockies CEO Erin Pulling told CBS4.
She says eggs are up 15%, canned foods 30% more and beef up 35%. Then there is the cost of freight for delivery. The Action Center in Lakewood receives much of its stockpile from Food Bank of The Rockies.
The impact is being felt on their clients.
Carolyn Alexander, the director of operations for the Action Center talked about the result for those who have come there.
"They are getting less food, substantially less food currently."
She says a year ago each person would get twice as much food for their household. Much of it is donated, but that doesn't cover it all. Before the pandemic they would serve about 65 households in a day. It's now more like 175.
"I don't know where anyone would be without this type of help. Twenty to 30 years ago when they didn't have this type of thing available to people, I don't know what you would do, just cry," she said.
What the nonprofit food distributors say they need is cash and volunteers to help them assist others.
