PADUCAH — Food pantries and food missions like Martha's Vineyard rely on donations from local farmers to get them by but because of the heat and drought, the quality of the food they're serving is suffering.
"This one is completely hard. Can't even cut it," said Martha Bell as she was attempting to cut squash.
She said the quality of the produce is not up to par, so much of the donated supply ends up in the trash rather than in the stomachs of the 116 people she serves.
"What we get from our local people, I've never seen it this bad," she said.
It's not just the squash, either. Bell said her corn and tomato supply is nearly non-existent.
"Usually, we get lots of corn in every year. We've not gotten much corn this year at all," Bell said.
Food markets are also seeing a decrease of product in the stores.
"We've had a lot of fewer supplies," said store owner Andrew Carloss. "I talk to a lot of farmers that are like, I can give you 50 pounds of tomatoes today. I'll call you Wednesday but I don't know if I'm going to have any of them or not."
He said he hasn't had to increase prices yet but the future supply and demand could change that.
Bell and Carloss said they don't what the future will bring in terms of what their products will look like in the next month or two but they said they are providing the best produce Mother Nature is supplying them for now.
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