HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — As prices spike at grocery stores across the Tampa area, and the reality of inflation begins to set in, a local food bank is announcing it has expanded its warehouse space to accommodate the increasing need.

Nativity Catholic Church Food Bank is holding an open house walk through of its expanded warehouse in Dover on Monday, featuring 11,000 square feet of floor space, 588 square feet of refrigerated space and a new loading dock with a forklift to speed the process of food distribution to more than 50 pantries, ministries and nonprofits it works with daily.

“Our warehouse has the capacity for more trucks to come in and deliver the food and it can be done efficiently and effectively with less handling,” said warehouse manager Julie Ebert.

At a food distribution site in Brandon, the lines of people picking up food boxes are growing every week.

“It has been helpful to me like you would not believe,” said Susan, who was picking up a food box. “It just helps me because my standards are very limited right now with bills and everything. And this just helps me like a Godsend."

As the need increases across Tampa, Nativity Catholic Church stated its capacity to help has grown by more than 50%.

The expanded warehouse will increase the pounds of food it can distribute from around 2.5 million pounds a year to almost 4 million pounds.

For more information on the Nativity Catholic Church Food Bank, or to donate food visit here www.nativityfoodbank.org.