一箱整齐打包的纸箱装着通心粉、干豆、罐头食品和奶粉，让托尼娅·金（Tonya King）哭了出来。
A neatly packed cardboard box of pasta, dry beans, canned goods and powdered milk made Tonya King cry.
“我一直在等这个，”65岁的底特律祖母金说，声音哽咽，泪水顺着脸颊流下。“终于，我女儿给我打电话说‘他来了’。”金一直在等弗兰克·库比克（Frank Kubik），他是“聚焦希望”（Focus: Hope）非营利食品项目的主管，他带着这箱食物来了，足够她六口之家吃两周。这家食品银行主要服务固定收入的低收入老年人，许多人因油价上涨已无力前往领取食品捐赠，而随着杂货价格上涨，他们需要更多援助。
“I’ve been waiting for this,” said King, a 65-year-old Detroit grandmother, her voice cracking while tears streamed down her face. “Finally, my daughter called me and said ‘he’s coming.'" King had been waiting for Frank Kubik, a director at the Focus: Hope nonprofit food program, who arrived with the box of food that will feed her household of six for two weeks. The food bank caters mostly to lower-income seniors on fixed incomes, many of whom can no longer afford to pick up food donations because of higher gas prices and need more assistance as grocery prices increase.
全美对食品援助的需求正在增长，而食品银行的配送成本却越来越高。由美国主导的对伊朗战争推高了柴油价格，导致食品配送成本上升；通胀加上联邦食品援助削减，让更多陷入困境的美国人求助食品银行。
The need for food assistance is growing across the United States just as it is becoming costlier for food banks to deliver it. Soaring diesel prices driven up by the US-led war on Iran have raised delivery costs for food while inflation and cuts in federal food assistance have increased demand from struggling Americans.
生活成本已成为密歇根州选民在联邦参议员竞选中权衡选择的核心关切，这是11月3日中期选举中多场胶着竞争之一，将决定民主党能否重夺联邦参议院控制权。根据路透社/益普索（Reuters/Ipsos）最近的一项民调，近半数全美登记选民表示生活成本是他们中期选举投票时最重要的考量因素。
The cost of living has become a central concern for voters weighing their choices in the US Senate race in Michigan, one of several competitive races in the November 3 midterm elections that could decide whether Democrats can retake control of the US Senate. Nearly half of registered voters nationwide cited the cost of living as the most important factor in their midterm vote, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
金计划投票给民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（Abdul El-Sayed），他是一名流行病学家、底特律卫生部前主任，希望他能解决不断上涨的生活成本和医疗费用，这两个问题是他竞选活动的核心。他的共和党对手迈克·罗杰斯（Mike Rogers）则主张暂停州和联邦汽油税并推出减税措施，以解决负担能力问题。
King plans to vote for Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former director of Detroit's health department, hoping he will address the rising cost of living and healthcare, two issues at the center of his campaign. His Republican rival, Mike Rogers, has called for suspending state and federal gas taxes and introducing tax cuts to address the issue of affordability.
“我不得不在抗癫痫药和糖尿病药之间做选择，”金说。“我们需要有人进来改变现状。”对金来说，食物只是她买不起的一长串必需品之首，因为高昂的汽油价格蚕食了她一家从政府救助中获得的微薄收入。
“I have to decide between my seizure medication and my diabetes medication,” King said. “We need someone to come in and change things.”For King, food is just the first in a long line of necessities she can’t afford as high gas prices cut into what little income her family gets from government assistance.
他们的暖气坏了，随着冬天临近，一家人无力修理。屋里弥漫着尿味——已经一个多月没自来水了，金因脑瘫导致行动不便，只能用便盆。露出地下室的地板大洞、露出粉色保温层的窗框和歪斜的门廊，在她的优先事项清单上排在最末位。“当时我强忍着泪水，”库比克走回车旁时说。
Their furnace is broken, and the family can’t afford to fix it as winter looms. The house smells of urine – there hasn’t been running water for over a month and King uses a bedpan as cerebral palsy has made her immobile. The gaping hole in the floorboards that shows the basement, exposed window frame where pink insulation peeks through and a crooked porch are the lowest on her list of priorities. “I was having to hold myself back from tears,” Kubik said as he walked back to his car.
重点：随着油价上涨让低收入老人更难前往食物分发点，希望组织现在每月向他们发放1300箱食物，较年初的800箱有所增加。全美各地的食物储藏室都感受到了压力。
Focus: Hope now delivers 1,300 monthly food boxes to low-income seniors, up from 800 at the start of the year, as rising gas prices make it harder for them to reach food distribution points. Food pantries across the nation are feeling the strain.
在加利福尼亚州，中央加利福尼亚食物银行联席首席执行官基姆·迪尔丁表示，与去年同期相比，该食物银行7月至9月的柴油开支上涨了61%。
In California, Central California Food Bank co-CEO Kym Dildine said the food bank’s spending on diesel rose 61% from July through September, compared to the same period a year ago.
“相当于本可提供给社区的约25万餐食物，现在不得不挪作燃油成本，”她说。该食物银行是该地区最大的饥饿救助组织，为每月喂养30多万人的慈善机构提供食物。
“That equates to about a quarter million meals that we could have provided in the community now being redirected to fuel costs,” she said. The food bank is the largest hunger relief organization in the region and provides food to charities that feed more than 300,000 people every month.
“我们的捐赠者在加油时也感到吃紧。食物银行依赖25美元到250美元的捐款，而正是这些捐赠者受不断攀升的燃油价格冲击最大，”迪尔丁说。
“Our donors also are being pinched at the pump. Food banks rely on $25 to $250 donations and it’s those donors who are being most impacted by escalating fuel prices,” said Dildine.
同时，她表示，以前可能承担捐赠食物运输费用的零售商，现在要么分摊费用，要么要求食物银行自行承担。
At the same time, retailers who previously may have covered transportation expenses for the food they donate are now either sharing the cost or asking food banks to shoulder it, she said.
大芝加哥食品储藏库是该市最大的食品银行之一，一位发言人表示，该机构正转向提供鸡蛋等更便宜的食品，以抵消不断上涨的燃油成本对其自身预算造成的压力。
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, one of the city’s largest food banks, is shifting toward providing cheaper foods, such as eggs, to offset rising fuel costs that are straining its own budget, a spokesperson said.
针对低收入家庭的政府福利削减，给食品银行和饥饿人群增加了另一重压力。自唐纳德·特朗普总统签署的标志性税收和支出法案去年生效以来，全美已有超过470万人失去了补充营养援助计划福利，即俗称的食品券。
Cuts to government benefits for lower-income households have added yet another strain to food banks and the hungry. Nationwide, more than 4.7 million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, since President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending law took effect last year.
84岁的乔娜·贝里是底特律一名退休店员，她也从“希望聚焦”组织领取了食品箱。她说，随着食品杂货变得更贵，这些食品箱帮助她靠固定收入维持生计。“我能应付，”她说，“我知道怎么把东西省着用。”
Jona Berry, an 84-year-old retired store clerk in Detroit who also received a food box from Focus: Hope, said the boxes have helped her get by on her fixed income as groceries get more expensive. "I manage," she said. "I know how to stretch stuff."