Tampa-area food pantries see increase in families experiencing food insecurity

Local food pantries are struggling to keep up with demand as more families experience food insecurity.

Love Thy Neighbor prides itself on feeding those in need, but lately their shelves are emptier.

"It's really hard for us to turn families away," said Joanne Braccio, who volunteers at the St. Petersburg food pantry.

"We can't keep the shelves stocked, we are trying our best to supply people with what they need but it's going as quickly as we get it in," said Braccio.

The demand is higher than ever.

"We have noticed that after school started, that we have a 30% increase in people coming here. We are getting slammed every day," said Braccio.

They're seeing more and more young families.

"The free school lunches stop. And then only the kids who are in school get the free lunches at school. The kids who are at home, their resources die out during the year because they aren't feeding the younger children," said Linda Fox, with Radiant Church.

"We have to actually say, 'let me see what we have,' when we don't really have that much to feed them," said Eileen O’Brien with House of Hope Church.

Braccio isn't giving up, as she works to bring in more donations, she is also working with local churches to open a new food pantry location in St. Pete.

"So that we can serve more people," said Braccio.

The new location will be at House of Hope Church, and organizers say they hope it will make a difference.

"My goal is to make sure nobody goes hungry in this county," said Braccio.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a consumer alert for replacement airbags that have killed at least three people in the past year. I-Team investigator Adam Walser discovered one victim was a young Florida mother whose family has filed a lawsuit alleging a counterfeit Chinese airbag exploded in her car and killed her.

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