For more families in Northwest Florida, stopping at a food pantry is no longer an emergency measure. Instead, it has become part of the weekly routine, a stark sign of how rising grocery costs and cuts to food assistance are making it harder for households to remain stable and for local organizations to keep pace.
Here's what to know
At St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Milton, Florida, volunteers distribute produce, baked goods, and meat to about 90 households each week, between roughly 110 and 400 people, according to WEAR-TV.
Wayne Keen, the church's pantry coordinator, described the steady work it takes to keep the shelves stocked and food moving. "Every week we pick up food from Publix at 6 a.m. and then Walmart at 8 and bring it in," Keen said.
St. Mary's is also one piece of a much larger food-assistance system. Feeding the Gulf Coast CEO Michael Ledger told WEAR-TV that the organization works with almost 800 partners across the counties in its 22,000-square-mile service area, with partners like St. Mary's serving as the "backbone" of local distribution.
Ledger pointed to policy changes and inflation as major drivers of the growing demand.
"With the changes in the HR1 bill, there are over 600,000 people that are off to the SNAP rolls in Florida," he said. "All of those things conspiring, not to mention just the price of everything else that's inflation's impacting, is really driving numbers up."
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More background
SNAP is meant to help households afford groceries, so when people lose access to that support, many are left turning to food banks and churches to make up the difference. That strain also reaches the nonprofits and volunteers trying to meet the need.
Rising prices are squeezing both households and the groups trying to serve them, Ledger said. Feeding the Gulf Coast logs more than 375,000 miles each year to move 45 million pounds of food, making diesel and gasoline costs especially significant.
Policies that reduce food support can leave families with less room in their budgets for rent, medication, child care, savings, and other essentials.
What's being done?
As demand grows, churches and food banks are doing what they can to bridge the gap. At St. Mary's, volunteers pick up food from retailers, store meat and produce, and get it ready for weekly distribution to neighbors who rely on the pantry.
St. Mary's distributes groceries each Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Keen said the impact of the work is visible in the people who return week after week. "It's just seeing the smile on everybody's face and thanking us," he said. "It's every week, the same people pretty much, and they thank us and tell us how much this helps."
Where can I learn more?
For a broader look at the same financial pressures, these stories examine why more families are turning to food pantries and tightening their grocery budgets.
• Across the U.S., cutting back on groceries has become common as utility bills climb.
• In Wisconsin, a food pantry is partnering with community gardens and grocers to stretch supplies.
• Worldwide, food banks provided 1.7 billion meals while keeping usable food out of landfills.
• In Arkansas, a food bank served over 60,000 meals after storms cut grocery access.
• Families are buying discounted groceries through an app when food budgets get tight.
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