Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As gas prices continue to hit record highs, organizations that help provide food to people in need are being affected. But they say volunteers aren't leaving just yet.
At FeedMore WNY, Catherine Shick says record gas prices have already hit the bottom line. "Looking at what we spent last month, compared to February of 2021, we actually saw a 150% increase in our fuel costs. And this makes a big difference," says Shick.
Shick says the gas crisis will also be an increased drain for clients. "So many of the people that we serve live paycheck to paycheck, and when you experience things like rising costs of food and rising costs of transportation, if people are trying to fill up their gas tank to get to their jobs, oftentimes working multiple jobs to make ends meet, this will only increase the burden on them and really make it very difficult for them," she notes.
As large a concern is the impact the skyrocketing gas prices will have on FeedMore volunteers. "Our volunteers are a really wonderful, wonderful group of people. They make our mission possible," says Shick. She says there were nearly 120,000 hours volunteered last year. She says the volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization, and so far, they're not going away. "We haven't seen any direct correlation at this time. But we know that it is something that we always are in need of more volunteers," explains Shick.
Over at Meals on Wheels in Amherst, Rick Ellis says gas prices haven't hit the bottom line yet, and he has volunteers to thank. "We have 350 volunteers who do most of the driving for us," says Ellis. He says the organization is trying to help reduce the strain for volunteers. "What we do to try to help out the volunteers is to balance out the routes. So everybody has about the same amount of deliveries, and we tried to make the routes as efficient as possible," he explains.
Ellis says there are other ways to accommodate volunteers. "Some of the volunteers who used to drive now they're just delivering," so Ellis hasn't lost those volunteers entirely. He says that's important because a lot of volunteers are retired, so it affects them more than affects people who who still are working.
Ellis says other price hikes are leading to an impact on the bottom line. "We have seen an increase in the cost for paper products, which means the bags, the tins that you put the meals in, the containers to put in our fruits and vegetables in our salads, everything has gone up. We budgeted 24 cents apiece, per client per meal, it's gone up to 48 cents,'" says Ellis.
The average price is $4.37 a gallon in Buffalo.
