- Valdosta Street Feed will be feeding neighbors Monday, November 6th at Goodwill on St. Augustine.
- Over 15,000 of Lowndes County's population is food insecure.
- Watch the video to see how VSF is addressing rising food costs.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
If you've been to the grocery store at any point this year, you've noticed the spike in the cost of food... and its hurting neighbor's wallets.
"I am kinda like... scared of the future as far as food is concerned."
I'm Malia Thomas, in Valdosta, and I'm asking some of our neighbors how they've been dealing with rising costs... and how a group of local activists may be able to help.
"If you could describe struggling with food insecurity in one word, what would it be?"
"Pain...pain."
Meet Rubi Hannon. She resides in an apartment complex under the Georgia Housing voucher. She's currently unemployed, and she tells me keeping her shelves stocked hasn't been easy despite receiving food stamps.
"I've I've been homeless for like three years up till now and now that I finally have a place I'm trying to like do flips just to be able to get what I need and it's frustrating."
When I told her about a new street feed initiative meant to help keep neighbors fed, she was happily surprised.
"I'm actually kinda surprised, considering its Valdosta."
Valdosta Street Feed is a group of neighbors looking to utilize public space with heavy traffic to help feed our community.
Sandy Bonner thought of the idea after seeing the Thomasville Street Feed and wanted to bring food directly to people in the area.
"There's so many things for our homeless communities here, but a lot of the soup kitchens and things like that are long walk from here. Like across town."
I checked with Feeding America's report on Lowndes County.
For 2021, the food insecure population was at 15,030. Black people make up 25% of the food insecure and white people make up 9% of the food insecure.
Rubi tells me she will be making her way to the street feed as its sure to help.
"It would help a lot... just to know that people are out there actually
Valdosta Street Feed will be hosting their next feed on Monday, November 6th. I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
