MERCEDES — As the Labor Department reports inflation reaching a four-decade high from rising food and fuel costs, the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley is still doing its part to provide relief to local residents, and on Wednesday, it distributed free food at the community recreation center and safe room here.
Valley residents are no stranger to struggle. They reside in one of the poorest regions in the country, and coupled with inflation, things can be outright unmanageable.
The consumer price index rose 9.1% from a year earlier in a broad-based advance, the largest gain since the end of 1981, Labor Department data showed Wednesday. The widely followed inflation gauge increased 1.3% from a month earlier, the most since 2005, reflecting higher gasoline, shelter and food costs.
According to Brianna Casares, public information officer for the city of Mercedes, the city partners with the food bank monthly to provide residents with fruits, vegetables, dry goods and pasta.
During Wednesday’s event, attendees were also given a disaster kit, which included cleaning supplies provided by the United Methodist Committee On Relief.
“It’s geared towards Mercedes residents, but we have been asking the members that come through where they’re from, and we get cities from across the Valley. So people are paying attention and they’re getting the help where they can get it,” Casares said.
Reynaldo Torres III, 21, feels that pain.
“The reason I’m here today is because it’s pretty tough out there with the gas prices and everything that is going on, so a little bit of food can go a long way,” Torres said at the event in Mercedes. “…When I come, I’m usually not coming for me half of the time; I’m coming for other people that can’t come — family members, friends, people that just need the food more than I do just so I could give it out to them.”
Like most people who shared their struggles Wednesday, Torres said the rising cost of food due to inflation has been particularly difficult to grapple with, and that as a barber who makes “my money as I go,” sometimes there’s no revenue being generated.
“If there’s no haircuts the whole day, I spend 12 hours sitting at a barber shop with no money coming in,” he added. “Coming and going from my house and back it’s pretty bad.”
He continued to lament food prices, saying that $20 doesn’t buy much these days, and that events like Wednesday’s save people hundreds of dollars in groceries.
“Every time we come out to these things, we look at the amount of food they give and you just kind of do the math in your head, and you’re like damn this would’ve been $200 or $300, or this would’ve been a hundred and something bucks that we just saved,” Torres added.
For 51-year-old Lussien Mena, a native of Mercedes, the current increase in prices has nearly doubled the amount she spends on basic necessities such as food.
“It’s really difficult right now, especially when (we’re) not receiving food stamps or anything, so this helps … it provides good produce,” she said.
Mena said she’s now spending almost double for the same products she’s been buying for years.
Dominga Loera, 51, of Donna, explained that with current prices and the general cost of living increasing, it leaves her little ability to afford her needs.
“Prices rise, but our salary doesn’t,” she said.
Loera expressed gratitude Wednesday for the assistance provided by nonprofits like the food bank, who she said has helped cushion the impact.
“Right now the current crisis and the gas prices rising have made things more difficult, so having the food bank here has helped us a bit,” Loera said. “Thank God, and may God bless them because if it weren’t for them, this situation would be more difficult.”
