The Bread of the Mighty Food Bank is seeking help from local government to purchase new vehicles to improve its food distribution to those in need.
"We have asked the city of Gainesville and Alachua County for any kind of assistance to help with our fleet," said CEO and President Marcia Conwell.
Gainesville's only food bank, Bread of the Mighty has served the city and four outlying counties for almost 30 years. It delivers food to different agencies in the communities, but it has become expensive to continue to fix its aging vehicles.
Summertime is the busiest time of year for the food bank, Conwell said, due to a summer food program for kids and as people face higher food prices at grocery stores.
"It’s people that work who just cant make ends meet that deserve to eat," Conwell said. "We need to reach those people and the only way we can do that is with two or three new vehicles, but even if we got one it would be more."
The city has already agreed to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of a new vehicle for the food bank for the next fiscal year. The other half would have to come from the county.
City commissioners will meet Wednesday to discuss the budget outlook for the 2018 fiscal year.