WACO, Texas — Food costs are on the rise, and it’s impacting a local Waco food pantry just over a week before Thanksgiving.
Caritas of Waco provides free food to those who need it, and its officials said Tuesday that they gave out 900 turkeys for Thanksgiving this year.
Executive Director Ann Owen said that wasn’t enough because they ran out of turkeys, but for those who did get one, it made all the difference.
“As I was helping some folks out at the pantry some of them had tears in their eyes and they were just saying 'God bless you all for offering theses, we didn’t know what we were going to feed our family on Thanksgiving and now we’re going to be able to have a really nice Thanksgiving meal'," Owen said.
While they need more food on their shelves, consumerd are going to pay more at the grocery store this year.
According to this year's Wells Fargo Consumer Thanksgiving Report, canned cranberries are up by 60 percent.
Canned green beans are up by nine percent.
However, consumers are going to pay ten percent less for a turkey this Thanksgiving — experts believe those prices will continue to drop the closer it gets to Thanksgiving.
Owen told 25 News' Bobby Poitevint that they still need more canned goods.
They will accept donations from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m, Monday through Friday, at their location on South 15th Street.
They are unavailable from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch.
Owen said they also accept monetary donations.
