Report: Millions of hungry Americans turn to food banks for 1st time
Associated Press // Hunger // EEW Magazine Online
Hunger is a harsh reality in the richest country in the world. Even during times of prosperity, schools hand out millions of hot meals a day to children, and desperate elderly Americans are sometimes forced to choose between medicine and food.
Now, in the pandemic of 2020, with illness, job loss and business closures, millions more Americans are worried about empty refrigerators and barren cupboards. Food banks are doling out meals at a rapid pace and an Associated Press data analysis found a sharp rise in the amount of food distributed compared with last year. Meanwhile, some folks are skipping meals so their children can eat, and others are depending on cheap food that lacks nutrition.
Those fighting hunger say they’ve never seen anything like this in America, even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
The first place many Americans are finding relief is a neighborhood food pantry, most connected to vast networks of nonprofits. Tons of food move each day from grocery store discards and government handouts to warehouse distribution centers, and then to the neighborhood charity.
Briana Dominguez poses for a portrait outside her family's apartment building in Skokie, Ill., holding the bag of groceries she received at the Hillside Food Pantry. “I never thought it would be me…” she says of her visits to the food bank in Evanston, Illinois. “But you do what you gotta do to survive.” (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“We have seen a sharp increase in the demand placed on local food banks which is why we have concentrated on hunger relief more than ever in 2020,” said Dianna Hobbs, CEO of Empowering Everyday Women, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has launched multiple successful initiatives to fight food insecurity.
“A lot of people take it for granted when they open their refrigerators and there is food there to eat. My team and I are trying to build awareness right here in America that this is a privilege but not a reality for everyone,” Hobbs, 44, added.
Families are depending on resource centers, nonprofits, and food pantries for boxes of fresh produce, dairy, deli, meat and other basics. If that runs out, through some organizations, they can get an emergency package to tide them over for the rest of the month.
The history books are filled with iconic images of America’s struggles against hunger. Among the most memorable are the Depression-era photos of men standing in breadlines, huddled in long coats and fedoras, their eyes large with fear. An overhead sign reads: “Free Soup. Coffee and a Doughnut for the Unemployed.”
This year’s portrait of hunger has a distinctively bird’s eye view: Enormous traffic jams captured from drone-carrying cameras. Cars inching along, each driver waiting hours for a box or bag of food. From Anaheim, California to San Antonio, Texas to Toledo, Ohio and Orlando, Florida and points in-between, thousands of vehicles carrying hungry people queued up for miles across the horizon. In New York, and other large cities, people stand, waiting for blocks on end.
The newly hungry have similar stories: Their industry collapsed, they lost a job, their hours were cut, an opportunity fell through because of illness.
Handwritten “closed” signs appeared on the windows of stores and restaurants soon after the pandemic arrived. Paychecks shrank or disappeared altogether as unemployment skyrocketed to 14.7 percent, a rate not seen in almost a century.
Food banks felt the pressure almost immediately.
Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization, scrambled to keep up as states locked down and schools — many providing free breakfasts and lunches — closed. In late March, 20 percent of the organization’s 200 food banks were in danger of running out of food.
The problem with supply subsided, but demand has not. Feeding America has never handed out so much food so fast — 4.2 billion meals from March through October. The organization has seen a 60 percent average increase in food bank users during the pandemic: about 4 in 10 are first-timers.
