MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Thirty-Five counties depend on the Heart of Alabama Food Bank to serve those battling food insecurity. But first, the food bank has to battle the rising cost of fuel to complete that mission.
“We operate 4 semi tractors. 5 box trucks, and two pickup trucks that are all run on diesel,” says interim CEO John Lucas.
And right now, that diesel is running at over six bucks a gallon in Alabama. That’s according to AAA, who add that it’s up 38 cents in a week and up $2.61 since this time last year.
Fuel costs aren’t just a concern when the food bank delivers, but also when they’re receiving an estimated two trucks a day drop off goods.
“It affects the amount of food that not only are we able to distribute, but the amount of food we’re able to acquire for that food that we have to actually purchase in order to fulfill the needs of our customers. Donated food sometimes doesn’t fulfill the full need. So we’ve got to augment that with purchases,” Lucas says. “We also have an impact that we also see on our distributors. Their costs have also increased. So the folks that we work with every day, all day that are providing food to us, whether it’s donated corporate food or food that we have purchased from a supplier, those costs have also increased primarily due to diesel costs.”
Lucas says what makes the situation even more concerning is that he’s seeing the need for food increase alongside gas prices, and warehouses are stocked with less food than this time last year.
You can donate to the Heart of Alabama Food Bank here. They say that each donated dollar turns into five meals.
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