EVERETT, Wash. -- A power failure wiped out the contents of a local food bank refrigerators, leaving families in dire need with nowhere else to turn.

On Tuesday volunteers were forced to throw away pounds of much-needed food at Hands of Hope Food Bank, where every can and every box of food goes to those who otherwise may not have anything to eat.

"I try to think on the part of what if it was my kids or my family that couldn't make it that month," said Sue Osborn, a volunteer who knows what it's like to struggle.

Twice a month families pick over the shelves and coolers at Hands of Hope. But Osborn says it will be slim pickings the next time around.

An electrical problem shorted out three refrigerators full of meat. Osborn had no choice but to throw every package of meat.

"It makes me want to cry," she said. "I just try to rely on the Lord but in the economy we're in, we have to get out there and fight for the food."

Unlike the coolers, the shelves at the food bank look quite full, that is until you consider that the stacked boxes are all the bank really has left with hope for little else to come.

The power outage hit the bank at what was already a trying time with the rising cost of food. Before all the meat went bad, the bank was already getting a thousand pounds less in food donations each month.

"(We're) just a little food bank, getting bigger all the time, helping more and more people. Its just that many more people we're going to have to turn away if we don't get any more product," said Kevin Osborn with Hands of Hope.

Nearly a hundred people are set to show up, many with children, to see the empty freezers.

Anyone who wishes to donate food to Hands of Hope can do so at the Everett Free Methodist Church near Everett Mall Way and 7th. Donations can also be made online.