COVINGTON, Ky. — St. Vincent De Paul of Northern Kentucky they are seeing high demand for their help in the community.

What You Need To Know

  •  St. Vincent De Paul Northern Kentucky helps people with all kinds of needs

  •  They said demand for food, rent assistance, and more continues to be up

  •  They said thankfully clothing donors, other generous donations, and volunteers help them help others

  • They're always looking for volunteer help

“Rent utility assistance continues to be high. The need for food, in particular, has skyrocketed. The need for food right now is up about two and a half times what we experienced last year at this same time,” Executive Director Karen Zengel said.

Zengel said they’re noticing some of their resources being in pretty high demand as well.

“We’ve actually really seen the furniture need escalate as folks have maybe left their homes because rents have risen and they’re settling into a new place. They need furniture,” she said.

Zengal thinks there may a couple of reasons why the need is so high — one reason being prices are extremely high all across the board. The other reason is the rollback of SNAP benefits, which compounds the problem for those in need.

Paige Perkins said she comes to thrift and shop around once every few weeks and said high prices is something she and others she knows are noticing.

“We’re all kind of facing that everything is going up. But still when you do buy stuff at the store or anywhere, you’re kind of like in a sticker shock. Coming here helps relieve that,” Perkins said.

Zengel said it can be kind of scary and challenging to keep up with demand of everything, but said the northern Kentucky region is very generous. She said they’re always looking for volunteers to be a helping hand with all these items.