PHOENIX — Long lines are back at food banks around the U.S. as working Americans overwhelmed by inflation turn to handouts to help feed their families.

With gas prices soaring along with grocery costs, many people are seeking charitable food for the first time, and more are arriving on foot.

Inflation in the U.S. is at a 40-year high and gas prices have been surging since April 2020, with the average cost nationwide briefly hitting $5 a gallon in June. Rapidly rising rents and an end to federal COVID-19 relief have also taken a financial toll.

The food banks, which had started to see some relief as people returned to work after pandemic shutdowns, are struggling to meet the latest need even as federal programs provide less food to distribute, grocery store donations wane and cash gifts don’t go nearly as far.

Tomasina John was among hundreds of families lined up in several lanes of cars that went around the block one recent day outside St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix. John said her family had never visited a food bank before because her husband had easily supported her and their four children with his construction work.

“But it’s really impossible to get by now without some help,” said John, who traveled with a neighbor to share gas costs as they idled under a scorching desert sun. “The prices are way too high.”

Jesus Pascual was also in the queue.

“It’s a real struggle,” said Pascual, a janitor who estimated he spends several hundred dollars a month on groceries for him, his wife and their five children ages 11 to 19.

The same scene is repeated across the nation, where food bank workers predict a rough summer keeping ahead of demand.

The surge in food prices comes after state governments ended COVID-19 disaster declarations that temporarily allowed increased benefits under SNAP, the federal food stamp program covering about 40 million Americans.

“It does not look like it’s going to get better overnight,” said Katie Fitzgerald, president and chief operating officer for the national food bank network Feeding America. “Demand is really making the supply challenges complex.”

Charitable food distribution has remained far above amounts given away before the coronavirus pandemic, even though demand tapered off somewhat late last year.

Feeding America officials say second quarter data won’t be ready until August, but they are hearing anecdotally from food banks nationwide that demand is soaring.

The Phoenix food bank’s main distribution center doled out food packages to 4,271 families during the third week in June, a 78% increase over the 2,396 families served during the same week last year, said St. Mary’s spokesman Jerry Brown.

More than 900 families line up at the distribution center every weekday for an emergency government food box stuffed with goods such as canned beans, peanut butter and rice, said Brown. St. Mary’s adds products purchased with cash donations, as well as food provided by local supermarkets like bread, carrots and pork chops for a combined package worth about $75.

Distribution by the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Northern California has ticked up since hitting a pandemic low at the beginning of this year, increasing from 890 households served on the third Friday in January to 1,410 households on the third Friday in June, said marketing director Michael Altfest.

At the Houston Food Bank, the largest food bank in the U.S. where food distribution levels earlier in the pandemic briefly peaked at a staggering 1 million pounds a day, an average of 610,000 pounds is now being given out daily.

That’s up from about 500,000 pounds a day before the pandemic, said spokeswoman Paula Murphy said.

Murphy said cash donations have not eased, but inflation ensures they don’t go as far.

Food bank executives said the sudden surge in demand caught them off guard.

“Last year, we had expected a decrease in demand for 2022 because the economy had been doing so well,” said Michael Flood, CEO for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. “This issue with inflation came on pretty suddenly.”

“A lot of these are people who are working and did OK during the pandemic and maybe even saw their wages go up,” said Flood. “But they have also seen food prices go up beyond their budgets.”

The Los Angeles bank gave away about 30 million pounds of food during the first three months of this year, slightly less than the previous quarter but still far more than the 22 million pounds given away during the first quarter of 2020.

Feeding America’s Fitzgerald is calling on USDA and Congress to find a way to restore hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commodities recently lost with the end of several temporary programs to provide food to people in need. USDA commodities, which generally can represent as much as 30% of the food the banks disperse, accounted for more than 40% of all food distributed in fiscal year 2021 by the Feeding America network.

“There is a critical need for the public sector to purchase more food now,” said Fitzgerald.

During the Trump administration, USDA bought several billions of dollars in pork, apples, dairy, potatoes and other products in a program that gave most of it to food banks. The “Food Purchase & Distribution Program” designed to help American farmers harmed by tariffs and other practices of U.S. trade partners has since ended. There was $1.2 billion authorized for the 2019 fiscal year and another $1.4 billion authorized for fiscal 2020.

Another temporary USDA “Farmers to Families” program that provided emergency relief provided more than 155 million food boxes for families in need across the U.S. during the height of the pandemic before ending May 31, 2021.

For now, there’s enough food, but there might not be in the future, said Michael G. Manning, president and CEO at Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank in Louisiana. He said high fuel costs also make it far more expensive to collect and distribute food.

The USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which included Farmers to Families, was “a boon” for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, providing 5 billion pounds of commodities over a single year, said spokesman Altfest.

“So losing that was a big hit,” he said.

Altfest said as many as 10% of the people now seeking food are first timers, and a growing number are showing up on foot rather than in cars to save gas.

“The food they get from us is helping them save already-stretched budgets for other expenses like gas, rent, diapers and baby formula,” he said.

Meanwhile, food purchases by the bank have jumped from a monthly average of $250,000 before the pandemic to as high as $1.5 million now because of food prices. Rocketing gasoline costs forced the bank to increase its fuel budget by 66%, Altfest said.

Supply chain issues are also a problem, requiring the food bank to become more aggressive with procurement.

“We used to reorder when our inventory dropped to three weeks’ worth, now we reorder up to six weeks out,” said Altfest.

He said the food bank has already ordered and paid for whole chickens, stuffing, cranberries and other holiday feast items it will distribute for Thanksgiving, the busiest time of the year.

At the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation in Montebello east of Los Angeles, workers say they are seeing many families along with older people like Diane Martinez, who lined up one recent morning on foot.

Some of the hundreds of mostly Spanish-speaking recipients had cars parked nearby. They carried cloth bags, cardboard boxes or shoved pushcarts to pick up their food packages from the distribution site the Los Angeles bank serves.

“The prices of food are so high and they’re going up higher every day,” said Martinez, who expressed gratitude for the bags of black beans, ground beef and other groceries. “I’m so glad that they’re able to help us.”

The city’s Register of Wills office has launched a series of public service announcements (PSAs) on radio stations and the web and is waiving or deferring fees associated with probate court, to help residents with the problem of “tangled titles.”

A tangled title happens when a person lives in or has a right to own a home but does not have a deed or title to the home with their name on it. This can happen when a relative dies without a will or the deed was never transferred to the person living there.

“The most important thing we want people to understand is making a written will and probate are necessary to fix tangled titles,” Register of Wills Tracey Gordon said in a Tribune interview. “The main message is the importance of making a will, when you get an asset.”

As part of the process, a written will must be filed with the Register of Wills office and go through probate. In the probate process, a will is verified by a court of law and deemed a valid public document and a true last testament of the deceased, or settlement of their estate.

According to a 2021 study by Pew Charitable Trusts, more than 10,000 homes have tangled titles in Philadelphia, mostly concentrated in North, West and Southwest Philadelphia, where many Black and brown people live. An estimated $1 billion in generational wealth is tied up by tangled titles.

In one PSA, a “grandson” is urging a reluctant “grandmother” to complete her will. In another, a family is trying to come to grips with the death of a relative who didn’t have a will.

According to Gordon, her office hired more than a dozen Screen Actors Guild union members for the PSAs, which will run through April 2023 on WURD 900-AM, Power 99 FM and all social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

“We completed a deal with the Dell East and these PSAs are going to run at intermission of the concerts this summer,” Gordon said.

One-third of the PSAs are in Spanish, because tangled titles tend to be in areas where many people speak only Spanish, Gordon said.

Other problems associated with tangled titles are that they can prevent residents from selling their homes, transferring the deed to their heirs, or getting government assistance for repairs, back taxes, utility bills or even from FEMA in case of a natural disaster.

Many of these factors have resulted in people losing their homes.

Resolving a tangled title can be tedious, time consuming and expensive, according to the Pew Charitable Trust study. The problem typically affects people in neighborhoods with high poverty levels and low housing values.

So Gordon’s office is waiving and deferring many of the fees associated with the probate process for low- and moderate-income families as part of the office’s Probate Deferment Initiative.

Fees are related to the size of the estate, but even the lower end can be as much as $300 to $500, and that is not counting legal fees.

In addition, the city’s Division of Housing and Community Development has a Tangled Title Fund that provides grants up to $4,000 to income-eligible residents seeking to clear titles to their homes, for administrative, legal and other costs.

But the household’s income cannot exceed 200% of the federal poverty income levels. In addition, the home must be the applicant’s primary residence, or the applicant must plan to make the home their primary residence.

The Register of Wills office has a responsibility to protect generational wealth. The office processes marriage licenses, maintains historic records, and deals with probate estates and other issues.

“In Philadelphia, you transfer your wealth by leaving a written will,” Gordon said. “It’s not an automatic transfer and it’s not a transfer that you can do verbally. It’s not a transfer that you can do by video.”

KHIMKI, Russia — Brittney Griner’s drug possession trial resumed Thursday with the head of the Russian club she plays for in the offseason and a teammate from that squad testifying in support of her character and what the WNBA star has meant for women’s basketball in the country.

Griner, who pleaded guilty last week, did not testify as expected at the third day of the trial. She has been detained in Russia since February, and the U.S. government is under pressure at home to do more to secure her freedom. Her guilty plea could be an effort to expedite the court proceedings so any negotiations about a prisoner exchange could move forward.

Griner was arrested at the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She acknowledged in court that she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing. She is facing up to 10 years in prison.

In Russia’s judicial system, admitting guilt doesn’t automatically end a trial.

Most journalists were denied access to Thursday’s session, but the director of UMMC Ekaterinburg, for which she plays during the WNBA offseason, told reporters afterward that he testified as a character witness.

“Our task today was to tell the court about her characteristics as an athlete, as a person — tell about how she played a big role in the success of the Ekaterinburg club and Russian women’s basketball as a whole,” club director Maxim Rybakov.

“Today is the first day when we have seen our basketball player since February. Thank God, she feels well, looks good,” Rybakov said outside the courthouse in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, where the airport is located.

Player Evgenia Belyakova said she testified that “Brittney has always been a very good teammate, so my role here is just to be with her, to support her.”

“We miss her very much, we miss her energy,” Belyakova added. “I was very happy to see her, and I hope this trial will be over soon and with a positive outcome.”

Also in court were Elizabeth Rood, charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and other consular officials, and they were able to speak to Griner, who told them she appreciated their presence, the U.S. State Department said.

The trial’s next session is set for Friday.

Griner is one of the most prominent female athletes in the U.S., a standout for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said they were doing all they could to win her release, as well as that of other Americans the U.S. considers “wrongly detained” by Russia, including former Marine Paul Whelan.

Washington may have little leverage with Moscow, though, because of strong animosity over its military operation in Ukraine.

Russian media have speculated that Griner could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

Russia has agitated for Bout’s release for years. But the wide discrepancy in the seriousness of their cases could make such a trade unpalatable to Washington. Others have suggested that Griner could be traded along with Whelan, who is serving 16 years in Russia on an espionage conviction that the U.S. has described as a setup.

The State Department’s designation of Griner as wrongfully detained moves her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator. The classification has irritated Russia.

Asked about the possibility of Griner being swapped for a Russian jailed in the U.S., Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the senior Russian diplomat, has noted that until her trial is over “there are no formal or procedural reasons to talk about any further steps.”

Ryabkov warned that U.S. criticism, including the description of Griner as wrongfully detained and dismissive comments about the Russian judicial system, “makes it difficult to engage in detailed discussion of any possible exchanges.”

Griner’s detention has been authorized through Dec. 20, suggesting the trial could last months. Griner’s lawyers, however, said they expect it to conclude around the beginning of August.

It has been seven decades since Atlantic City, New Jersey, hosted the annual NAACP convention. But this week the event has returned to the Jersey Shore destination.

It will be the first time since the onset of the pandemic that the event will be held in person, and one of the first major events to take place as Atlantic City continues its comeback.

Kaleem Shabazz, the president of the local NAACP chapter, said that he was feeling a combination of “pride, daunting stress, challenges, and invigorated.”

“It’s a big undertaking,” he said. “I’m happy to report that we’ve had a lot of help.”

The event at the Atlantic City Convention Center also comes at a time when voting rights have been restricted in many states, several high-profile fatal police shootings of Black people have occurred — including that of George Floyd and, recently, Jayland Walker — and the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade has triggered state laws banning abortion.

The theme for the conference this year: “This is Power.”

“[The theme] indicates that we have to come together to manifest the power we have,” Shabazz said. “Power means ability to do things and the ability to affect change and that’s what we have to concentrate and focus on.”

Convention delegates will focus on several issues important to the African-American community, like relationships with law enforcement, economic disparities, student debt, abortion rights and voting rights.

“We’re hopeful, but at the same time, we are cognizant of the tremendous struggle that we have as some people try to push back the rights that we gained,” said Shabazz, who is also an Atlantic City councilman.

More than 90 events will be part of the convention, which runs through July 20. That includes U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn receiving the organization’s highest honor, The Spingarn Medal, for his work advocating for voting rights “and protect[ing] our democracy.”

The convention will also pay homage to Chicken Bone Beach, the unofficial Black section of the beach created in 1900 by hotel owners to appeal to guests from the Jim Crow South (despite Atlantic City beaches being shared by Black and white people since the city’s founding).

Several community outreach events will also take place, including a discussion on law enforcement and interaction with communities of color on Friday featuring Acting New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin.

Atlantic City landed the convention after a collaborative effort between city and state officials that began in 2019. The state provided a $2 million grant to the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to support costs associated with the convention. That’s on top of the $1.2 million the agency fronted on its own. Meet AC, the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau, made a sizzle video to appeal to organizers.

Much is at stake for Atlantic City as it continues to recover from the pandemic, according to Jane Bokunewicz, director of Stockton University’s Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism. The convention is expected to have a $9.3 million economic impact on the city, which will be in the national spotlight as a conference destination, she added.

“Atlantic City [will be] on the national stage as a conference destination,” said Bokunewicz. “If all goes smoothly, I think it’s going to really help to build the reputation of Atlantic City as a good choice for conferences and conventions.”

Bokunewicz said that by choosing Atlantic City organizers showed they are confident “the city can provide a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.”