MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A mobile food pantry in Grahamwood served more people than expected Friday, as hunger and food insecurity impact many Memphis neighbors.
Roger Jones Jr. waited in line an hour Friday morning, hoping to get food to last him the next week.
“Everything is so sky high, people are out of work,” he said. “I just got my unemployment disability because I had heart failure at work after working 25 years.”
Jones was one of countless cars that lined up for the mobile pantry at Treadwell Middle. There were two trucks filled with enough food to serve at least 1,000 families.
“The money goes so fast. I was like, Lord I really need the help,” Jones said.
Volunteer Aaron Litzey believes there were more than a thousand who showed up.
“We have cars literally wrapped around Treadwell all the way back to Summer Avenue,” Litzey said.
The Mid-South Food Bank teamed up with Memphis Shelby County Schools and other area partners to make it happen. Volunteers gave out potatoes, fish, frozen goods and nonperishable goods.
“It’s very important. We know that many of our communities are food insecure,” MSCS interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond said.
The demand for food assistance has skyrocketed as a result of higher grocery prices, people out of work and recent cuts in federal funding to food distribution programs.
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It’s been especially problematic for the Memphis area, where the poverty and child poverty remain high.
“A lot of people are uncertain about the future. But to be able to be a voice of hope to the hopeless is extremely vital to those individuals who lined up for miles and waited,” Litzey said.
What we saw here was a growing need, met with endless compassion.
“Memphis always steps up and helps,” Jones said.
► To find out more about upcoming mobile pantries, click here.
