The business of feeding Southwest Florida’s hungry has had to adapt—just like the rest of the world—to higher gas prices, and the increased demand for food donations.
Area food banks such as Harry Chapin Food Bank, Midwest Food Bank and Community Cooperative partner with hundreds of partner agencies, including other nonprofit organizations and churches, to make sure no one goes to sleep hungry.
Their missions became challenging in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Thousands lost hospitality and other jobs, which boosted the need for food by about 400% that summer, according to those agencies. Since, as much of society has returned to work, the demand for food remains high—about 25% to 30% higher this year than pre-pandemic times—because of other problems: inflation, supply-chain issues and higher gas prices.
“The situation in a nutshell is there’s still plenty of need out there,” said Richard LeBer, the CEO of Harry Chapin, which serves the five-county area. “We are actively engaged and responding to it. We’re seeing demand for emergency food and our services running about 30% above from before the pandemic. Still.
“That’s lower than it was at the peak of the pandemic. When we were more than double. But it’s still well above the previous levels.”
WINK-TV, a partner with Gulfshore Business, spent February promoting a “March to a Million Meals” annual fundraising campaign with Harry Chapin Food Bank. The campaign has raised $529,183 and counting.
“It’s more than a million meals worth of food that it helps us source,” LeBer said. “We can basically do 2.5 meals for a dollar. Forty cents for a meal.” LeBer’s math shows the campaign has helped provide more than 1.3 million meals. “It’s possible because the majority of our food is donated to us. What we need money for is to pay for a driver or to pay for the diesel fuel for a truck.”
Therein lies a new challenge.
During the pandemic, gas prices plummeted as people stayed home. Now, people are moving again. There’s war in Ukraine. And gas prices have skyrocketed to more than $5 a gallon for diesel fuel.
“We grew in 2020 by 130%,” said Karl Steidering, executive director for Midwest Food Bank of Fort Myers. “It was a blessing to be able to expand that rapidly. As we tried to manage that growth, we’ve become more streamlined. We’ve identified some efficiencies.”
Midwest Food Bank has grown from using 160 to 196 partner agencies. Its business model calls for turning $1 into $34 worth of food. Because of food donations, the food bank’s biggest expense has been paying to transport that donated food. The organization reported recently paying $788.55 for 162.38 gallons of diesel fuel ($4.68 per gallon) to fill the tank of its semitruck.
“It’s a new development,” Steidering said. “We haven’t been able to really quantify that yet.”
Neither has the Fort Myers-based Community Cooperative, said CEO Stefanie Ink-Edwards, who has experienced the same challenges as her food-serving peers.
“We didn’t anticipate that when we started drawing our budget for 2022,” Ink-Edwards said. “Not the way that it’s increasing. As it continues to go up, it can cause problems for us. We have to fundraise more and work harder to make sure we have the money to pay for the gas and get the food to where it needs to go. The food can’t not go where it needs to go. People can’t go hungry.”
The three agencies have looked at transporting the food from shorter distances and finding other efficiencies in getting it to the region.
“It does put a lot of pressure on our budget,” Ink-Edwards said. “It’s a stressful thing, for sure, with our mobile food pantry—to be able to operate. We’re starting to see some of our suppliers adding a fuel surcharge now because our distributors are seeing the effects of the fuel prices. It’s the trickle-down effect.”
Another issue: The rising fuel prices impact the volunteers.
“Our Meals on Wheels program, in particular, that’s the one where we’re seeing a lot of pressure on our volunteers,” Ink-Edwards said. “They’re donating their time and the mileage on their cars to deliver meals to our clients. Maybe they can’t volunteer twice a week anymore, but they can do it once a week.”
How to Help
Harry Chapin Food Bank accepts donations at harrychapinfoodbank.org, where you can also sign up to volunteer by clicking on “Take Action.”
The Fort Myers distribution center address is 3760 Fowler St.
The food bank is discouraging holding food drives for now to minimize contact, and some people have fears about possible contamination even if food is nonperishable and packaged.
Midwest Food Bank accepts check donations at midwestfoodbank.org/donate or at its physical location, 5601 Division Drive, in Fort Myers.
Community Cooperative accepts check donations via mail to PO Box 2143, Fort Myers, 33902, and food drop offs at 3429 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Fort Myers. Visit CommunityCooperative.com/donate for more information.
St. Matthew’s House accepts check donations at its Naples location, 2001 Airport Road S. Visit stmatthewshouse.org/give for more information.
