COLORADO SPRINGS — As prices on everything from rent to gas to groceries continue to rise, food banks and pantries work to meet the need while fighting inflation.
Care and Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado noticed the increasing costs the last few months.
"Getting food into our organization has become more difficult, and more costly," said Lynne Telford, CEO of Care and Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado.
The organization is also struggling with the availability of food items.
"Availability is a huge issue for us. We are not able to get all of the products that we want and we are not able to get all of the quantities that we want," said Telford.
They're also dealing with high costs of transportation to their distribution center. They've recently paid $5.65 for a gallon of diesel fuel for their trucks, up 50 percent from last year.
"We cover 31 counties across Southern Colorado, about 50,000 square miles," said Telford. "The biggest line item out of budget is freight. We have less food than we've budgeted, yet the cost is greater than we budgeted. Just because of paying the freight costs of all the donated loads."
Care and Share is now dipping into their reserves to continue meeting the need of the community. Also, relying on partners and donors.
"We're working hard, we're working on adding another person to our procurement department so we can make sure we're reaching out to all of the places where we can get help because people are relying on us," said Telford.
Inflation is expected to continue, and the organization urges the community to give either their time, food, or funds.
"Food drives are really good for us at this time. Food that is essential like canned pork, chicken, and tuna. Our meat supply which mostly comes from grocery stores have been declining so we'd love to supplement that with more canned protein," said Telford.
For information on how to donate or volunteer, visit CareandShare.org.
