MISSOULA — At the intersection of rising gas prices and rising needs, Montana Food Bank Network continues delivering vital food across the state. Every six weeks, its fleet of trucks hits the road, bringing food to where it is needed most.
“Our trucks do about 125,000 miles a year,” said Gayle Carlson, CEO and president of Montana Food Bank Network. “It takes them about four weeks to complete all their deliveries, and we do cover all 56 counties.”
MFBN is a food bank distribution center. Their trucks fan out across Montana —bringing much-needed food to 330 local food pantries, shelters, senior centers and more. With the high costs of food, gas, housing and more, Carlson said their services are especially important.
“What we are seeing is just, across the board, an increase in the number of households that are utilizing food banks and food pantries,” she said. “But, we're also seeing an increase in the number of times that they have to utilize those services each month.”
Like a lot of Montanans, MFBN is grappling with rising gas prices.
“Our average costs are around $60,000 to $65,000 a year in fuel for those vehicles. With some of the projections that we're hearing because of the conflict over in Iran, we're looking at possibly $75,000 to $78,000 for the upcoming fiscal year,” Carlson said.
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Robert Sonora, a professor of finance with the University of Montana’s College of Business, said there is a lot of uncertainty in the oil and gas markets right now.
“Clearly gas prices are rising at the moment, due to higher oil prices, and not only just the oil prices, but the expectation of higher oil prices,” he said. “I think we're sort of in a holding pattern at the moment and we won't really know anything sort of solid for a week, two, maybe a month or two.”
He attributed the rising costs to the war and delays in the oil supply chain. He believes gas prices will eventually come down a bit, but when or how much remains to be seen.
“Trump announced that he thinks that oil prices, or at least the war is ending relatively quickly, but that doesn't mean that the supply chain will unclog itself overnight,” Sonora said. “So, I think it's still going to be some time before we see lower gas prices.”
In the meantime, Carlson said MFBN is working to make sure their services keep getting to the people who need them most.
“The pinch that we're feeling in fuel is absolutely being felt by the families in Montana as well,” she said.
With rising demand, Carlson said MFBN does not feel comfortable cutting back on the services they provide.
“Dealing with some of our rural communities, the challenges that we have there is for them to have access. There's a lot of poverty, food insecurity in general, but just access,” she said. “Even if we can get them involved in nutrition programs, driving to a grocery store could be 75 to 100 miles so, of course, the fuel costs play into that.”
To keep the deliveries coming, Carlson said they are looking at other ways to reduce costs and increase fundraising efforts. No matter what happens at the pumps, MFBN plans to keep on trucking across Montana.
“We also have to realize that the demand and the food insecurity is still there in our state regardless of what our expenses are,” she said.
