Inflation impacting grocery bills over the holidays

ATLANTA - One in four Americans plan to actually skip Thanksgiving this year because money is so tight according to a recent survey from Personal Capital. That same survey also showed around 88% of Americans are estimated to be cutting at least one dish from the annual meal.

Metro Atlanta non-profits like Feeding Georgia Families say stores are not keeping shelves stocked like they use to which means less inventory for possible donations. 

"We have more and more families coming in to get assistance, so we have three different issues coming up: lack of food on the shelves, lack of donations, more families coming in," said CFO Alicia Rivera. 

Hosea Helps says it has seen a 40% increase this year in requests for emergency rent, utility and food assistance. 

Kyle Waide, the CEO of The Atlanta Community Food Bank, says the organization distributed more than 10 million pounds of food to families in October, alone. 

"We're basically back to the same level of demand that we were at during the height of the pandemic," said Waide.

The consumer price index shows over the past year, the price for groceries to eat at home increased 12.4% and food away from home went up 8.6%. 

"There’s less government support than there was this time a year ago so we’re really having to dip into reserves and buy more food than we normally do to help meet that need," said Waide.

The non-profits say they hope the community sees just how big the need is and will donate if they are able to.