INDIANAPOLIS — High food prices are making it difficult for some Hoosiers to put food on the table this holiday season. Local food pantries are seeing the same need, too.
To try to fill in the gaps, the city of Indianapolis is hosting giveaways to help families gather everything they need for a holiday meal.
"It's one of those things from week to week, you're looking at paying your bills or feeding your family," said Robert Brooks, sitting at a table beside his wife, Sabrina, inside Westminster Neighborhood Services on Indianapolis's near east side.
It's an impossible situation for Robert and Sabrina many days.
Both work full-time as valets downtown, but even with tips they're barely getting by.
They are the faces of the working and impoverished.
"It's rough when you have two teenage boys and a 6-year-old daughter. God knows they eat everything in the house," Sabrina said.
The rising cost of feeding their family finally brought the couple to a food pantry in their neighborhood. The pantry is where they've been supplementing their groceries for the past three months.
"You come to the point where you got X amount of dollars you can spend on groceries and now you're trying to figure out what you need versus what you can afford to get," Robert said.
"Unfortunately, it's a narrative across the board right now," said Olivia Stewart with Westminster Neighborhood Services.
Stewart said their number of clients is up 30% from this same time last year, with 15% of those visits from people who have never been to the pantry before now. Many of them are people like Robert and Sabrina, who can't afford to pay for housing, rising utility costs and food.
"We want to be able to fill those gaps where people aren't just making ends meet," said Stewart.
Gaps, she said, food pantries across central Indiana are all seeing.
"Everyone is experiencing this uptick," said Stewart
Last year, the food pantry at Westminster Neighborhood Services gave out 270,000 pounds of food. That number is expected to be much bigger this year.
"The hardest part is showing up and admitting you need help," she said.
"I don't like to have to go because I'm not used to asking for help," Sabrina Brooks said.
She and her husband have no choice these days. They have children who need food, something these parents have gone without sometimes, just so their children wouldn't have to be hungry.
The Brookses are hoping this Thursday everyone gets enough to eat. That's why they've come to this food pantry.
"I do not have a turkey. Pretty much we're hoping to get what we can from this," Sabrina said.
Right now, she and Robert aren't even thinking about Christmas or what they can afford to buy for their children.
That's too far ahead. Life for Robert and Sabrina is one day, one meal at a time.