When Teena Smith drives her truck around Long Beach, California, she knows it comes at a cost.
The Golden State has long been the luxury state when it comes to gas prices, which are routinely more than $1 per gallon higher than the national average there. But with the ongoing Iran war, California gas prices are now $6 per gallon on average, with some fuel stations charging up to $8.
Much of Smith’s driving feeds the hungry across Los Angeles County. Through Light & Life Fellowship, a Free Methodist church in Long Beach, she aims to get a week’s worth of groceries into the hands of 200 families each week. Lately, it’s been more like 1,000 per week.
California is also one of the most expensive states for groceries. “You have to make a decision,” Smith said of the pantry’s growing number of visitors. “Are you gonna go grocery shopping this week, or are you gonna put gas in your car? They need help.”
Life & Light Fellowship stocks its pantry with support from local farmers and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. It also hosts a free monthly farmer’s market in partnership with Long Beach Unified School District. Every month Smith wonders, Am I gonna have enough?
“Unlike the regular pantry, I don’t have any specific resource for getting the produce for the farmer’s market. I have to go and hustle it up. Every month I’m concerned. And every month God shows up. Every time. I’m talking pallets of things—potatoes, fresh produce, you name it. … I thank God every night.”
Smith, who’s retired, could’ve soaked up the Los Angeles sun doing plenty of easier things. Instead, she keeps serving and sometimes sweating. “This isn’t stuff that’s going bad, rotten,” she said of the farmer’s market supply. “It’s beautiful fresh food. It’s like going to a regular market [where food] would cost an arm and a leg. That’s the thing: He always shows up, and it’s always an abundance.”
April Jacek is the director of operations at Sunrise Christian Food Ministry, a nonprofit based in Citrus Heights, California. Her team redistributes surplus food around Sacramento County, feeding tens of thousands every year, and has a weekday walk-up service for homeless individuals. Sunrise’s opportunities have increased due to California Senate Bill 1383, designed to reduce food waste and methane emissions by diverting scraps from landfills. This has led to far more donations from restaurants, hotels, school districts—any business or organization that might have edible excess food to unload.
That’s a good thing, according to Jacek: Sunrise is receiving more food for more people from Costco, Sam’s Club, and other retail giants. But it also means the organization has to retrieve and preserve those leftovers, when a single fill-up at the fuel pump exceeds $80. Jacek said Sunrise is “recovering 1.5 million to 2 million pounds of food every year, and we’re just one of about 150 food closets in Sacramento County.”
Sunrise receives assistance for purchasing equipment or carrying out specific projects, but not for pesky regular expenses like gas, insurance, and routine vehicle maintenance. “We can’t charge the stores to recover the food and haul it away,” Jacek explained. “They’re getting a tax write-off. So it’s a win-win on their side, but we have costs.”
The gas price surge may eventually require a pivot to electric vehicles, but right now the additional costs affect budgets that were planned “before the [oil] climate changed.” Sunrise has surrendered one of its farther pickup locations to another organization and partnered with a transportation agency to “better use a carpool situation.” Yet, Jacek notes, “As a Christian organization, we’re no strangers to the Holy Spirit just kind of providing. … We have seen an increase in donations. The hedge of protection is going to protect us from everything, including inflation.”
She speaks about this faith from experience: “I came into ministry six or seven years ago, and it was a really hard lesson to learn, but now … I sleep very well at night. I would worry we’re not gonna get enough donations, enough food, enough produce. But then I would realize, Wait, it just keeps coming. I feel like if we lay our burdens on the heart of the Holy Spirit and Jesus, it just shows up for us—and I’m not saying that to be flippant or take the Lord for granted, but he sees we’re the hands and feet and rewards us with peace.”
Jacek said of her volunteers, “Not all of them are Christians, but we’re feeding the Lord’s sheep. I love that we have our faith and fall back on that.”
