GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Families across the nation are facing harsh realities as gas prices and inflation rise, forcing some to choose between paying rent and buying groceries.
In Sumner Co., the impact is also being felt at local hubs that offer community support, like food pantries.
At Gallatin Cares, a local nonprofit, executive director Blake Parks, is seeing the demand for food assistance grow every week. The pantry currently serves about 300 families a week, which is roughly 1,000 people, through its food distribution efforts.
"We’ve seen dramatic increases in that demand over the last 18 months or so. I would say we’ve probably doubled our demand by 100%," Blake Parks said. "Gallatin Cares is a local nonprofit ministry. Here’s support to Sumner County and the residents that need help, our neighbors."
The pantry is open each Wednesday morning for anyone that waits in line for food.
"Economically, inflation prices, now recently fuel prices… People are making tough choices. Do I pay my rent this month or do I go to the grocery store this month," Parks said.
The situation has become so difficult that some families have had to leave the food line because they cannot afford to burn the gas required to wait.
"For the first time today, I had four or five cars pull out of line and tell me they would have to come back because they couldn’t burn the gas to stay in the line," Parks said.
To meet the growing need, Gallatin Cares is finding new ways to expand its capacity, including the addition of a donated 26-foot refrigerator and freezer truck. The truck allows the pantry to store more perishable foods, such as meat, dairy, and produce, without worrying about limited cooler space inside the facility.
"We have partnerships with many grocery stores, wholesalers… Lots of places like that supply us with groceries all the time and we were ending up having to limit what we could take at one time if it was a cool or store or frozen product," Parks said. "This truck you see behind us is a 26-foot refrigerator and freezer truck. It changed our life to have it. It creates a mobile storage unit where we can increase our capacity and either freeze or cool food on the fly."
The mobile storage unit is already helping families receive more fresh food each week.
"Today, we gave frozen meat. We gave dairy products, milk and eggs. We had fresh produce on the ground," Parks said. "We don’t have to worry about shoveling it out of here to get rid of it on a Wednesday. We can keep it down to the family sizes and get them what they need."
The pantry continues to expand its reach through community partnerships and support from local organizations like Second Harvest. Every family is greeted and helped directly, making the pantry more than just a line for food.
"We’re not a charity… but we want folks to know they’re welcome here as friends and neighbors," Parks said.
Have you or your family been impacted by rising grocery and gas prices in Sumner County? Watch the full video above to see how Gallatin Cares is stepping up, and share your story with us by emailing kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com.
“In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.”
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