Rob:  A recent poll shows Americans are not only cutting back on driving due to surging gasoline prices, but we are also changing our buying habits at the grocery store.  Food prices have shot up in recent months, due in great part to rising transportation costs.  And while all families are feeling the sting of high food prices, it is low income families who are the most affected.  As our Chaz Kyser reports, an Oklahoma based organization is helping feed such families, thanks to the work of some highly ambitious young people.
Chaz:  Cheryl Higdon is waiting, waiting in line for food. Like many Oklahomans, this Stillwater resident is needing help to feed her family. 
Cheryl Higdon:  It's just hard. It's hard to raise a family with the cost of living.  In the past year my grocery bill has almost doubled, just because of the cost of milk. Everything. It seems like even the box of macaroni and cheese I used to buy has gone up by ten cents.
Chaz:  According to the USDA, during 2008 the price for all food is projected to increase four and a half to five and a half percent. Putting a pinch on people’s pocketbooks and forcing families to rely on help from organizations like feed the children.
Jason Alexander:  We really hope that it will help the families around Stillwater, because in today’s society everything is going up. The price of fuel has driven the cost of food up as well.
Chaz:  Jackson Alexander is the state president of Oklahoma’s FCCLA.  The student organization raised 7200 dollars to sponsor a Feed The Children semi-trailer, loaded with enough food for 400 families.
Alexander:  The average family will leave with things like hamburger helper and canned foods and pre-boxed items. Nothing is perishable. It's items simple to prepare, simple to fix, that way it's easy for them to be able to consume the meals.
Chaz:  Meals Sheila White says many in her community just can’t afford.
Sheila White:  Without programs like this, you'd see a lot of people running around here hungry.  You go to the store; a loaf of bread is almost two dollars.  What can you do with that when you’ve got children in your home, and that isn't including your toiletries, the household items that you need in order to run a household. 
Chaz:  She plans to feed her grandbaby with the food she’s picking up, and help out some of her relative’s small kids.
White:  Little kids they don't know. You know, they don't know why they're not able to eat if you ain't got no food on the table. Children don't understand.  So to me, this right here today, it means a lot, a lot of families being able to eat, a lot of parents being able to sit back and relax. 
Chaz:  Feed The Children’s Chelsi Pitman says she’s happy the students were able to assist so many families.
Chelsi Pitman:  It really humbles me, because you don’t think that this is, like, going on around you. You kind of sometimes think that it’s just maybe like international or something like that. But, I mean, there’s a huge problem just around us, and it’s really great to be able to help in small ways and big ways.
Chaz:  And as Sara Wion will tell you, anything helps.
Sara Wion:  We have very little. I think we might have eggs and a gallon of milk.  When gas prices go up, food prices go up, everything goes up but your pay.  And, I don’t know how they expect us to make it.
Chaz:  But today, the divorced mother of three doesn’t have to worry about where their next meal will come from. 
Wion:  Can you say thank you for giving us food?
Chaz:  For that, she and hundreds of families can thank FCCLA’s enthusiastic and very giving students.
Alexander:  Being able to see students who want to help somebody, and give back to their community, is a truly amazing experience.