OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) – The Lord is My Help food pantry in Ocean Springs embraces the needy in its community every day, providing hot meals and a shoulder to lean on. Pantry organizers are concerned because it’s seeing a shortage in food supplies as the holiday season approaches.

The Lord is My Help General Manager Barbara Ruddiman said it’s hard to keep a full stock this time of year because more people are coming in need of food.

“We do the best we can with what we have to work with,” Ruddiman said. “About 400 to 500 people go through our food pantry, but we find during the holidays that does increase to over 600.”

George Gray said he discovered the food pantry 2 months ago. Gray said he’s homeless with a low income and that the pantry has provided him and others with good food and a place to unwind.

“It’s a God send,” Gray said. “It puts something in our bellies, so I mean we can come here while they’re open and get out of the elements for a minute.”

This is why Yates Construction is coming to the rescue with this 5-thousand-pound replica of the Old Shed in Jackson County. It’s made up of over 4 thousand cans of food Yates’ workers have collected and will donate to the Lord is My Help and the Home of Grace in Vancleave.

“What we do is give back in the communities that we work in,” said Marianne Banks, of Yates Construction.

Ruddiman said she thinks rising inflation in the United States is a big reason why food pantries are lacking goods.

“When you go into a store right now, you are paying much more than you did just a year even two years ago,” she said. “That really affects how you can feed your family and how much you can feed your family.”

Banks said she is sure this donation will be an early Christmas Gift for the food pantries.

“It is a lot of pounds of food going to these two shelters,” she said. “It may not fill them all the way, but they won’t be empty.”

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