Putting the food on the table every night is becoming more difficult for more families.
The Sioux Falls Food Pantry provides help to more than 20,000 people every year, but that number's increased by 70 percent over the past 18 months and it only goes higher as cooler temperatures make their way to KELOLAND.
All tolled, the growing demand is putting a strain on the pantry's resources.
These open spaces and empty shelves are proof that plenty of families are still struggling to make ends meet.
“Although you may be hearing signs that the economy is turning, I don't think we have seen that here yet in Sioux Falls so we are continuing to see an increase in food demand,” Matt Gassen with the Community Food Bank said.
The busiest times of year tend to be the summer months when kids are home without school lunches and in the middle of winter when families struggle to pay heating bills.
“Because our demand has increased month-to-month what it has done is put a strain on our inventory at the pantry and in fact our pantry is as low as I've ever seen it,” Gassen said.
To fill those empty shelves, the food bank depends on food drives and donations from the community, but the next drive isn't scheduled until the end of October.
“If we don't get that food through a food drive, we're forced to try to fundraise to try to buy food and the cost of food retail, wholesale is so much more expensive than getting it through donations,” Gassen said.
Despite the diminishing supplies, Gassen says the Food Bank plans to continue distributing as usual, but they're crossing their fingers that what they have in stock will make it through the end of the month.
