HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The latest gas price inflations have inched up only slightly from last month, but now we are seeing the highest food jump in a generation.

Gas prices; hovering at $4.00 a gallon are making fundamental changes in some people's lives.

Lori Workman works part time for $5.20 an hour, after taxes. It takes an entire paycheck to buy eight gallons of gas.

“It's not worth working, I guess,” Workman said.

For people squeaking by, it's a similar story: especially people who live in more rural parts of the region.

“This week I had a person whose husband had to quit his job because the hours at work were being diminished. He had to commute from Huntington to Milton or vice versa, and the cost of the gasoline was outweighing the cost of what he was making per day," Marcia D., with Information and Referral, said.

The Salvation Army is the face of charitable giving and receiving every holiday: helping children at Christmas.

"There's a change and it's coming. I think it'll eventually mushroom,” Bob Mullins, captain of the Salvation Army, said.

Now the help isn't so obvious: helping pay for some people, just to get to work.

“We’ll do it as best we can. To me, if it's someone who has a job and needs a bus pass to get back and forth to work because they can't afford gas, then we're going to try to help them as best we can," Mullins said.

Gas is now at historic prices, and the impact is snowballing in all facets of people's daily budget.

“We are seeing people who are working 40 hours a week at low wages, running out of food because of the cost of commute. They're also complaining about the cost of food going up. Part of that's tied in to the transportation to get to the grocery store. So, everything's going up," Marcia D. said

“We’re seeing different people who have not come through the doors through assistance before. We don't have files on them, and they are people who are working," Mullins said.

Gas prices typically peak around Memorial day, then decline through the summer, but some analysts are beginning to question whether that will happen this summer.

Some economist say there are no signs China’s demand for fuel is going down. That's going to keep the gas and heating oil market hot, unless the dollar gets significantly stronger against the Euro.

Oil prices Wednesday crept near $127 a barrel.