Rising gas prices hurting nonprofit meal delivery services

CHARLOTTE, NC — Prices at the pump hit $4 per-gallon on Tuesday for the first time since the war in Iran began. Those are the highest costs to fill up since 2022 and the high prices are putting nonprofits in a real bind.

The shelves are stocked but nonprofits like Nourish Up are having trouble getting that food to those who need it. Just down the road from the northwest Charlotte nonproft, gas prices creep closer to the national average of $4.

Nina Postel is the CEO of Nourish Up. An organization that offers meal delivery services to those in need.

“I’m worried about reaching the breaking point so far to date, other than two volunteers who have told us that they just simply can’t afford to drive anymore,” Postel said.

Postel tells WCCB they have lost about five volunteers per day since the start of the month who would deliver meals. That means other volunteers have to add to their routes or the nonprofit must pay employees to do the job. Costing money, time and resources. They’re not the only ones.

“This can turn very quickly into a full blown blown crisis,” said Kenya Joseph.

Joseph is with Hearts and Hands Food Pantry. Like Nourish Up, they are seeing more donation recipients who can’t afford to drive to the pantry because of the cost of fuel.

“We have a priority level on who we can serve with our delivery and so that kind of exacerbates it. You  have folks who are begging us for delivery simply because they can’t afford to gas in their car,” explained Joseph.

If you’d like to donate or volunteer to Nourish Up click here. To help Hearts and Hands Food Pantry click here.