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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -Inflation has had an impact on all people and local food assistance programs are seeing this impact.

Programs like Faith Temple Church Food Giveaway, and the Mobile Food Pantry of Sioux Falls say they have been busy keeping up with demand.

Director for the Faith Temple Food Giveaway, Jeff Hayes, has been director for thirteen years and he says he has never seen demand this high.

“We load the boxes here, fill the boxes here and then the people drive through the parking lot but no longer is there three or four hundred people, there is usually eleven to twelve hundred people that come every Friday,” said Jeff Hayes, director of the Faith Temple Food Giveaway.

He says with inflation it can be hard for even the average family to keep up.

“You’re paying almost five dollars a gallon for fuel and then you go to the grocery store and of course the prices of everything there have gone up dramatically too,” said Hayes.

He says for many people, it is their first time using these programs.

“We found that a lot of people that are coming now are people that have never been here before,” said Hayes.

Todd Smith has been coordinator of Food To You, another drive-through food assistance in Sioux Falls, for over five years and he says his demand has doubled in the last year.

“Something has to give and so yes my numbers have doubled, so when I look at last year, we did fifty-eight families last week last year and we did one-hundred and eighteen last week,” said Todd Smith, Coordinator of Food To You.

He says this can be seen on the pickup days each week.

“We get to the point where they don’t all fit in the parking lot or they don’t all fit down the street around the corner on the street, that will be our problem on Thursday night,” said Smith.

For more information on local food assistance programs and how you can volunteer you can follow the links at Friday Food Giveaways | Faith Temple Food Giveaway | United State And Charis Ministry Partners (charissf.org)

Copyright 2022 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.

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