The Community Food Bank relies on donations from individuals, corporations and the U.S.D.A. This year, they are getting 90,000 pounds less food than normal.
Each box of food Al Spanier loads up represents another family in need. Usually he serves 35-40 families a week out of his food pantry in Grand Lake.
"You've got to stretch your dollar more than you ever had to before," he says.
But now this food bank that supplies food to pantries like his all around northeast Oklahoma has empty shelves of its own.
Less food is coming in from the U.S.D.A. and National companies are giving less. The food bank is looking for private donations to fill the space.
"Right now families in low income groups are very hard pressed by increasing prices in gasoline and increased prices at the grocery store," says Carol Foley of Community Food Bank.
Nearly half the people going to pantries for help have one person in the family that works. Thirty percent are retired or disabled. There's a good chance the person needing food is your neighbor.
Saturday is the stamp out hunger food drive. You can fill a back with non-perishable food, leave it by your mailbox and it will be picked up by a postal worker and donated.
NewsChannel 8 to leave comments on news stories.