ORLANDO, Fla. – January’s inflation report, which was released Friday, came in higher than economists predicted and higher than the previous month’s report.
It was the first uptick in several months and shows families are continuing to struggle to make ends meet.
That couldn’t be more evident for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida whose distribution is back to the level they saw at the height of the pandemic: 300,000 meals per day.
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Derrick Chubbs, the food bank’s president and CEO, sat down with anchor Justin Warmoth on “The Weekly” to talk about how they’re continuing to scale their services to meet the community’s growing need for food assistance.
“It’s not really rocket science: the root cause of hunger is typically poverty,” Chubbs said. “But it’s only one facet of poverty. We have to factor in housing, we have to factor in childcare, we have to factor in inflation, and the list just goes on and on and on. What we’re finding is those who depend on our services on a regular basis are at the point now where they’re almost using food as a supplement to make the math work.”
Chubbs also talked about why simply meeting the need for food assistance isn’t enough and the new programs Second Harvest is working on to tackle this multi-layered problem.
If you or someone you know needs assistance or if you’d like to donate to Second Harvest, head to feedhopenow.org.
Watch the full interview in the video player above.
Check out the Florida Foodie podcast. You can find every episode in the media player below: