WEBVTT NOTE duration:"00:02:41.0870000" NOTE recognizability:0.857 NOTE language:en-us NOTE Confidence: 0.78384614 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.196 We can get this done not NOTE Confidence: 0.78384614 00:00:02.196 --> 00:00:03.863 giving up, but it's real. NOTE Confidence: 0.78384614 00:00:03.863 --> 00:00:06.050 Come look at the lines, it's real. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:07.730 --> 00:00:09.986 From the gas station to the grocery store, NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:11.122 with prices for just NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:11.122 --> 00:00:12.254 about everything going up, NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:12.260 --> 00:00:13.922 we're all being forced to spend NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:13.922 --> 00:00:15.650 more money to live our lives. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:16.502 Good evening everyone, NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:16.502 --> 00:00:17.638 and thanks for watching. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:18.504 I'm Katie Moore, NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:18.504 --> 00:00:20.750 and I'm sure he Gibson gas prices are NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:20.750 --> 00:00:22.045 getting close to $5 a NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:22.045 --> 00:00:23.860 gallon in a lot of places, NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:23.860 --> 00:00:25.558 and the prices at the grocery NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:25.558 --> 00:00:26.690 store also extremely high. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:26.690 --> 00:00:28.388 I haven't spent less than $50 NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:28.388 --> 00:00:29.237 every visit now. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:29.240 --> 00:00:30.932 A lot of people don't have NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:30.932 --> 00:00:32.349 that extra money to spend NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:32.350 --> 00:00:33.765 putting them in situations they NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:33.765 --> 00:00:34.897 never would have imagined. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:34.900 --> 00:00:36.598 And as Mike McDaniel explains in NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:36.598 --> 00:00:38.180 tonight's top story, places like. NOTE Confidence: 0.89051116 00:00:38.180 --> 00:00:39.640 Food banks designed to NOTE Confidence: 0.94520134 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:42.570 help those people are struggling NOTE Confidence: 0.94520134 00:00:42.570 --> 00:00:45.550 for the same reasons. These boxes NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:45.550 --> 00:00:47.452 are part of the distribution that NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:47.452 --> 00:00:49.319 happens here at the Food Bank NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.252 in Houma, three times a week NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:51.252 --> 00:00:52.770 distribution that sees more and NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:54.030 more people, and for NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:55.908 some these boxes are lifeline soups, NOTE Confidence: 0.8117779 00:00:55.910 --> 00:00:59.230 beans. Peanut butter boxes packed up NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:00:59.230 --> 00:01:01.250 ready to be handed out more macaronis NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:02.698 and John McConnell already knows NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:02.698 --> 00:01:04.432 there won't be enough to hand NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:04.432 --> 00:01:05.868 out Wednesday. You got people NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:05.870 --> 00:01:06.758 coming through here. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:06.758 --> 00:01:08.534 We've never had to ask for NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:08.534 --> 00:01:09.630 anything in their life. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:09.630 --> 00:01:11.358 Been between COVID and the storm, NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:12.810 they got just hammered at NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:12.810 --> 00:01:14.544 in the increase of food prices NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:14.544 --> 00:01:15.700 and the terrible churches. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:17.338 United Food Bank is making tough NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:17.338 --> 00:01:19.169 decisions to meet a growing need. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:21.738 We're cutting back on things like. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:23.390 Toiletries and things like that. NOTE Confidence: 0.83839744 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:26.690 We try as hard as we can not to cut NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:26.690 --> 00:01:28.881 back on the actual food folks line NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:28.881 --> 00:01:30.568 up outside hours before distribution NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:30.568 --> 00:01:32.955 begins by the end of the year, NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:34.940 the food bank expects to feed NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:34.940 --> 00:01:36.260 more than 36,000 people. NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:37.910 We were 27,000 last year. NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:37.910 --> 00:01:40.550 We were 21,000 a year before. It's it's NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:40.550 --> 00:01:41.830 climbing, McConnell says there's NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:41.830 --> 00:01:44.142 a big increase of older folks on NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:44.142 --> 00:01:45.797 fixed incomes paying higher costs NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:45.797 --> 00:01:47.822 for everything while trying to still NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:47.822 --> 00:01:49.460 feed themselves. In many cases, NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:49.460 --> 00:01:51.850 we are their only option. NOTE Confidence: 0.8834105 00:01:51.850 --> 00:01:53.018 Executive director Lawrence Dehart NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:53.020 --> 00:01:54.184 says Hurricane Ida donations NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:54.184 --> 00:01:55.348 are gone and filling NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:55.350 --> 00:01:57.394 the void is an easy in a NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:57.394 --> 00:01:58.270 community already struggling. NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:58.270 --> 00:01:59.730 Not giving up. But it's NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:01:59.730 --> 00:02:01.488 real. Come look at the lines, NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:01.490 --> 00:02:03.818 it's real and so are inflation costs to NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:03.820 --> 00:02:05.280 serve people. In those lines, NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:07.324 we'll have an 18 Wheeler full of NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:07.330 --> 00:02:09.610 stuff donated, but we got to pay to NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:12.289 go get it and haul it back over here. NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:12.290 --> 00:02:14.036 And the price has gone up NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:14.036 --> 00:02:15.790 2530% to get it here. Food NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:15.790 --> 00:02:17.265 drives help, but McConnell says NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:17.265 --> 00:02:19.010 with prices the way they are, NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:19.010 --> 00:02:20.465 the food bank must get NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:20.465 --> 00:02:21.338 creative with solutions. NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:23.000 But no matter the cost. NOTE Confidence: 0.8525655 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.148 Will help people if NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:24.150 --> 00:02:26.341 possible, you bang on the door and NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:26.341 --> 00:02:28.450 need something and if we have it, it's NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:28.450 --> 00:02:30.178 yours to help fill these shelves. NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:31.320 Food donations, of course, NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:31.320 --> 00:02:32.175 are always welcome, NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:33.812 but workers say it's the cash NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:33.812 --> 00:02:35.237 donations that work the best NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:35.237 --> 00:02:36.929 because the workers are able to NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:36.929 --> 00:02:38.500 stretch the dollar even further. NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:39.976 Reporting from home might NOTE Confidence: 0.83154464 00:02:39.976 --> 00:02:41.083 McDaniel Eyewitness News.