CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Nischelle Buffalow's Chesapeake nonprofit group, Buffalow Family & Friends Community Days, serves neighbors in need who walk up to the BFF community pantry.
Volunteers also drop off food, especially to senior citizens.
"Our drop-off services to different individuals will probably have to decrease due to the cost of gas," said Buffalow. "We're going to keep moving forward as long as we can."
Serving more people than ever before, Buffalow hopes that gas prices drop soon.
"Will it fall as quickly as it rose? That, we do not know yet," said Peter Shaw, a Tidewater Community College professor of business administration.
Shaw monitored a roughly 15% dip in U.S. oil prices and an approximately 12% dip globally on Wednesday.
He said traders likely took a tighter grip on pricing, "and that they realized, you know what, it’s not quite as bad as we thought.”
"If today's actions hold and you see some more slights reductions, you should start seeing relief at the pumps — starting to go down a little bit — starting next week," said Shaw.
To reflect lower prices at the pump, Shaw believes oil production ramping up domestically and in countries like Canada and Saudi Arabia will be key.
"You could see very quickly the gap being filled. If I were the Russians right now, I would be very nervous right now," said Shaw. "The other piece is the refineries because we're talking about oil prices, but we have to convert that oil to gasoline. We've got to make sure all the refineries are all clicking on all cylinders."
Because of those double-digit declines in oil prices Wednesday, the U.S. stock market rebounded.
To put it in perspective, the S&P 500 rose 2.6%. That's its highest surge since June 2020.