Bay Area food bank says rising diesel prices are ballooning its delivery costs

By Kenny Choi

Record-high diesel prices in California are putting new pressure on food banks and could contribute to higher food costs as businesses pay more to move goods across the state.

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank said it is now spending about $29,000 a month on diesel fuel, roughly $10,000 more than usual as the cost of fueling its delivery trucks surges.

Most of the food bank’s trucks run on diesel and are used to deliver food throughout San Francisco and Marin counties.

Barbara Abbott, the food bank’s chief supply chain officer, said the higher fuel costs are particularly concerning because many of the people the organization serves are already struggling with rising expenses.

“They are seeing the same impacts at the grocery store, at the fuel pump,” Abbott said. “They are hurting even more.”

California’s average diesel price stood at about $8.44 a gallon Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, according to AAA. A year ago, diesel averaged about $5.16 a gallon in California.

“This is a really big issue for us right now,” Abbott said.

The impact extends well beyond food banks. University of California, Berkeley economist Aaron Smith said diesel has risen more sharply than regular gasoline because of the fuel’s importance to commercial transportation.

“It’s increased more, which often happens for diesel because diesel is used in a lot of commercial activities like in trucking, transporting goods, and in powering trains and ships,” Smith said.

The war in Iran, and the one involving Russia and Ukraine, has disrupted global energy and refining markets, contributing to tighter diesel supplies and higher prices. Those costs can ultimately make their way to consumers.

Smith said farmers receive roughly 15 cents of every dollar consumers spend at the grocery store for a farmed product. Much of the rest reflects expenses associated with processing, packaging, transportation and other parts of the food supply chain, many of which are affected by diesel prices.

“It’s not just the farmers having higher expenses for operating their tractors,” Smith said. “It’s all the other stuff that goes into the food that we actually eat, the other 85 cents. Those things are also affected by diesel, and diesel is going to be also raising those prices.”

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has some protection from the surge. At the beginning of the year, it added five all-electric trucks, which now make up about a fifth of its fleet. Abbott said those trucks are saving the organization an estimated $8,000 a month compared with what it would be spending if those vehicles also ran on diesel.

For now, the food bank says it is absorbing the higher fuel expenses and hopes to avoid cutting programs that people rely on.

Every additional dollar spent on fuel is money that cannot be directed toward food and other services at a time when many families are already facing higher costs.