>>Hola!

>>Hola.

BILLY SHIELDS: David Chase is a volunteer for the Chesterfield Food Bank.

His job this Friday evening is to check in people who are waiting in their cars to get baskets of groceries.

DAVID CHASE: Once the holiday kicks in, that season kicks in, we get roughly, normally over 700 easily.

BILLY SHIELDS: That's 700 households turning this field into a parking lot to receive a basket of food.

And food bank workers say those cars come to this field starting at 9 a.m. Distribution doesn't start until around 4:30.

NICHOLAS JENKINS: And this is a sad reality of what our community is facing, and many of our neighbors are facing.

That their concern or insecurity of where their food is going to come from is so prominent in their life that they're willing to wait hours and hours in this weather to ensure that they get food.

>>We also direct traffic and we clean up as we go.

BILLY SHILEDS: Dozens of new volunteers get trained at the front door.

>>Here we go!

BILLY SHIELDS: So they can fill carts of greens, starches and meats.

SARAH BUCKLEY: People are struggling to put food on the table, to buy gifts, to pay for rent, to pay for heat, to pay for gas.

Everything is much harder now just because of the way it is.

So this is a way to help people that otherwise might not have dinner on the table tonight.

BILLY SHIEDLS: The food bank estimates around half of its clientele are immigrants.

In all, the bank serves 5,000 households in the county with an outreach arm trying to get people in need to the right place.

NICHOLAS JENKINS: And this could look like getting people connected to mental health treatment, drug rehabilitation, workforce programs, job training, resume building and how to navigate governmental services that [they] may qualify for, but not know how to access.

BILLY SHIELDS: The pantry plans to launch a capital campaign with an eye toward doubling its space in the next three years to keep pace with need.

NICHOLAS JENKINS: And this year is no different.

We are expecting to see our numbers continue to rise until the end of the year and into the beginning of 2025.

BILLY SHIELDS: We caught up with the food bank on a bitter cold Friday evening.

Luckily, this Grinch is in a giving mood.

He operates a forklift for the food bank.

Good thing too, because this holiday season it seems the cars here just keep rolling in.

Billy Shields, VPM News.