{"id":285331,"date":"2026-05-26T22:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285331\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:44:11","slug":"st-pete-food-pantries-feel-impact-of-rising-gas-and-grocery-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285331\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete food pantries feel impact of rising gas and grocery prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Local food banks in St. Pete are struggling to keep their shelves stocked.<\/p>\n

Rising gas and grocery costs are now impacting nonprofits in our area.<\/p>\n

WATCH: St.\u00a0Pete food pantries feel impact of rising gas and grocery prices<\/p>\n

St. Pete food pantries feel impact of rising gas and grocery prices<\/p>\n

“People get hangry, they get hungry and angry, so it’s very important that they are able to have food so they won\u2019t be stressed out, they won\u2019t be hungry,” said Chris Berger.<\/p>\n

Berger spent her Tuesday at the Love Thy Neighbor food pantry, filling up her bag with food for the week.<\/p>\n

“Coming here, it helps because you know, especially when you\u2019re out of money or food stamps or whatever you get, this place really relieves stress because you\u2019re able to get some food,” said Berger.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s needed more help lately.<\/p>\n

“The gas has been extremely high, and so it\u2019s very difficult to budget, and you\u2019re able to get food and stuff because gas basically comes first because you have to get here,” said Berger.<\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t the only one needing a little extra support.<\/p>\n

“This past Saturday, we saw a total of 50 families, some had one, some had five, so it’s really increased because of all the gas prices,” said Tricia Butts with the organization.<\/p>\n

Aside from high demand, organizers with Love Thy Neighbor are having to buy groceries because individual donations have slowed down.<\/p>\n

“Really tough right now with all these increases,” said Butts.<\/p>\n

“As you can see, we are always slammed\u2026 there’s definitely a need for it,” said Jennifer Reber.<\/p>\n

Volunteers with Love Thy Neighbor said on the weekends the line for food comes out of the shop and wraps around the building, showing just how much need there is right now.<\/p>\n

Reber is one of the volunteers who spent her own money to buy food for the non profit.<\/p>\n

“The people really appreciate it\u2026I mean, they really need it. There’s not much of an alternative,” said Reber.<\/p>\n

Love Thy Neighbor has had to rely on donations from large organizations like Eckerd College for much of their food.<\/p>\n

The organization is now asking for help from anyone who can.<\/p>\n

“It’s very important that they get donations so they are able to keep this place going,” said Berger.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Casey

Casey Albritton is dedicated to telling your stories throughout South Pinellas County. From St. Petersburg to Largo, she\u2019s there to share the triumphs and struggles of the community she calls home. So, let Casey know about the stories that matter to you.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Father of deputy killed in murder-suicide and abuse survivor unite to fight officer-perpetrated violence<\/p>\n

Four years after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy Abigail Bieber was shot and killed by her boyfriend, Daniel Leyden \u2014 a fellow law enforcement officer \u2014 her father, Bruce Bieber, and a woman who survived abuse at the hands of the same man, Chynna Ratner, are now working together to prevent officer-perpetrated domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Father and survivor partner to fight officer domestic violence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Local food banks in St. Pete are struggling to keep their shelves stocked. Rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[13450,4805,11271,121063,596,107032,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670,208],"class_list":["post-285331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-food-bank","tag-gas","tag-groceries","tag-love-thy-neighbor","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}