HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Empty shelves.

That’s what you see if you go to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank, which serves about 13,000 households monthly and turns no one away. The organization is running low on food, and it needs your help to keep local families fed.

“There is no more basic need than food when people cannot feed their families,” said Karen Joyner, CEO of the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank. “We are here to help.”

And now the shelves at the foodbank are empty of donated foods and they are asking for your help to stock them.

“I have been in foodbanking for twenty years, and last year was the first year that was really bare for so much of the year,” Joyner said. “So, last year, and we are starting out this year, already not having enough donated food.”

Skyrocketing fuel and food costs have made it more difficult for families facing hunger which has put a strain on foodbanks. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has predicted an increase of 2.9% in all food prices. With a 1.6% predicted increase to prices of at home food.

“Donations are down,” Joyner said. “And the need is really far exceeding what is was last year. We are feeding 50% more families than we were the same time last year.”

At the foodbank, they rely heavily on the generosity of the community for help. Hosting a food drive goes a long way to help end hunger.

Cash donations help in that $1 donated returns three meals. And for the past 23 years, Pam Oakes has volunteered her time with the foodbank and has seen many changes.

“Before, people would think of people that needed food as being homeless and being low income,” Oakes said. “But not anymore. … Everybody needs it with the price increases and loss of jobs.”

They estimate that one in eleven individuals is affected by food insecurities across the greater Peninsula and they are hoping to end hunger, which is closer to you than you think.

“We do say at foodbanking that the best thing we could do is to be out of a job,” Joyner said. “But the hungry will always be with us. So I do not see that happening any time soon.”