Marianna- "We have a fixed income, my husband's disabled. I have four children at home that are disabled," said Jackson County resident Joanie Garrison.

Times are tough for Garrison and her family.

"It's basically just a fixed income, we live day to day," Garrison told News Channel 7.

She said most of their money goes to bills and rent, and sometimes they don't have enough money for groceries, but that's where Chipola Family Ministries comes in.

"If it wasn't for them I don't know what we would do sometimes," said Garrison.

The food bank has helped her family for the past five years, and the Garrisons aren't alone. In fact, last year more than four thousand eight hundred other families depended on this food pantry. That's nearly one thousand five hundred more families than in 2009. But as it continues to grow, Director Fred Cook said his team is struggling to provide food for everyone.

"(The food supply is) low enough that we couldn't see everyone that was here Tuesday," said Cook.

"So you had to turn some people away?," asked News Channel 7's Bryan Anderson.

"Yes," answered Cook.

He said they had enough food the next day to help the families turned away, but as for why there's been such a high demand lately, Cook partially blamed the state.

"A lot of those people that worked at Dozier, they donated food here. Now they lost their jobs, so now they can't donate food. But guess who needs food now? And a lot of employees over at the state hospital, it's the same thing," said Cook.

But he said they're not giving up anytime soon because for many families like the Garrisons, Chipola Family Ministries is their only hope to put food on the dinner table.

"I know a lot of people would starve," said Garrison.

If you'd like to help the pantry, you can call 850-482-6407 or email Chipolafm@yahoo.com.