Along with the bread, meat and vegetables, there’s always a lot of love at food banks. “This is my community,” said Sara Diaz, a volunteer at Growing Home, a food pantry that serves 2,000 families in a mostly Latino population in a suburb of Denver.

Their average client makes about $15,000 a year, working multiple jobs to make ends meet. “Yesterday, a man said to me, ‘Is it going to be open tomorrow?’ and I said ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘Because I went to the store and I couldn’t buy bread,’” Diaz said. “You must have a heart of stone if all this doesn’t hurt you.” “Families are having to make extraordinarily hard decisions,” said Karen Fox Elwell, president and CEO of Growing Home. Right now, they’re seeing about five to seven times the amount of families that needed services than they did before the pandemic. Across the country, it’s a similar story.

The need has increased 15% since the pandemic, but what’s impacting these shelves and food banks is beyond the pandemic—it’s inflation. “It is significantly driving up our costs,” said Elwell. It may come as a surprise but food banks buy the majority of their food. Nonprofits are used to operating on small budgets but inflation is putting pressure on them and their suppliers. “Pre COVID, we’re sending out $300,000 every month on food. Now, it’s almost a million dollars a month,” said Erin Pulling, president and CEO of Food Bank of the Rockies.

Grocery bills, overall, increased 8.6% in February, which was the biggest jump since April 1981. “Beef prices are up 27% over one year ago, canned fruit up 30%.” said Pulling. “Many families are struggling in many different ways, and you can’t always tell who really is in those situations,” said Elwell. Organizations like Growing Home need all the help they can get— through donations and volunteers—to continue to help as many people as possible. “This isn’t going to last forever and I know better days are coming,” said Diaz.

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1.The underlined word “pantry” has the closest meaning to _______.

A store

B chain

C community

D bank

解析：选D。D 词义猜测题。根据文章第一段第一句的 “Along with the bread, meat and vegetables, there’s always a lot of love at food banks.”可知Growing Home就是这样的一家食品银行，由此可以得知pantry与bank同义。故选D。

2.What is the condition of average clients of the food banks?

A They have the hearts of stone.

B They all have serious diseases.

C They are in great need of money.

D They like to make hard decisions.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据文章第二段第一句的“Their average client makes about $15,000 a year, working multiple jobs to make ends meet”可以得知他们需要做好几份工作来谋生，以及后面一个男人说的话“‘Because I went to the store and I couldn’t buy bread”他买不起面包，可知他们的经济条件不好。故选C。

3.What caused the shortage of foods in the food banks?

A The spread of COVID.

B The rise of the food price.

C The variety of foods.

D The lack of food shelves.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据文章第三段第一句的“but what’s impacting these shelves and food banks coast to coast is beyond the pandemic— it’s inflation”可以得知是inflation影响了食品银行的食品储备；结合后文的“It is significantly driving up our costs”增加了成本可知是食品价格上涨造成了食品银行的食品短缺。故选B。

4.What will Growing Home do in the near future?

A It will try to collect more help.

B It will store more foods.

C It will lower the price of foods.

D It will identify families in real need.

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据文章最后一段第三句的“Organizations like Growing Home need all the help they can get—through donations and volunteer”可以得知，该组织将要尽力获取更多的帮助。故选A。