SAGINAW, Texas  — After waiting for more than an hour in line, a woman named Jennifer finally received bags of groceries for her family.

The mom of five and grandmother of three said she’s grateful for the food bank.

“Without Community Link right now, we would hardly have anything. You know it’s great help, just knowing that my kids are going to be fed right now,” she said.

Since last year, Jennifer has been coming to Community Link in Saginaw. She has noticed an increase of families needing food assistance, as the grocery pickup line grows.

“It’s now every bit of tree or five blocks usually. During Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s longer than that,” Jennifer said.

Community Link Director of Development Trey Harper said their food bank is seeing a higher demand now, more than they saw during the pandemic.

“We’ve already seen 26,000 families. And we have our busiest month. Still ahead, we’re seeing people who’ve never been to a food pantry before. And so we’re trying to keep up. We’re serving them with less food,” Harper said.

The nonprofit organization used to give each family 100 pounds of groceries. That’s now down to 50.  As many as 180 families receive those groceries four days a week.

Harper blames inflation and changes to government aid programs such as SNAP.

“So in February or March or so, SNAP benefits changed, and so families were receiving less financial resources that way. Of course, we all know that grocery prices have increased and so to kind of fill in the middle there, I think that’s one reason people are relying heavily on food pantries,” he said.

Harper said other Texas food banks had to shut down because demand and food costs are high. Now, Community Link purchases food from wholesalers to keep up with the demand. Previously, most of the food was donated.   

“About 35% of our food comes from our partnership with Tarrant Area Foodbank. We purchase that at a reduced rate to get the food here,” he said. “The rest come from local businesses around. We are fortunate to have several food industry and businesses here that partner with us to provide food and then the community donates.

If you would like to volunteer or donate to Community Link, click here.