CLEVELAND — Tuesday marked 100 days of drive-thru distribution for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
At the pandemic's worst, the organization supplied nearly 5,000 families with food every week. On Tuesday — its 100th milestone distribution day — it saw saw more than 2,000 families stop at the Muni Lot. Families who waited in a long line of cars wrapped around the lot for hours say every item in the food box they receive is worth the wait.
"This week we had cabbage, and it's corn beef week," Orlawna Smith, a Cleveland mother of three, said. "So it's St. Paddy's day. It's coming up."
Rising food costs and gas prices have put an even higher demand on food supply and distribution, resulting in a total increase in food expenses of almost 20%. For many families, an end to pandemic aid has caused the food bank to serve more people now than before the health crisis began.
"Two years ago, a case of green beans was $9, and that same case we get now is $19," Greater Cleveland Food Bank CPO Jessica Morgan told 3News. "We're having to source more of the food when that food is even more expensive than it was."
But big donors like Giant Eagle help the food bank to make donation ends meet, and while the pandemic may be coming to an end, Cleveland families say the need for extra help is still there.
"It will help us a lot, especially this time of the pandemic," Charles Ntentinue said of his first time at the food bank. "We're getting out of it; it's a little tougher for so many homes."
Ntentinue, Smith, and others are banding together, neighbor helping neighbor.
"It's like eight of us," Smith explained. "My sister has four kids and I['ve] got three, and the lady next door, she['s] got two, and the lady down the street [has] four. It helps not just for my family [but] for the kids in my neighborhood."
Residents say the food bank distribution days help them to keep pushing through the hard times and higher prices.