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NEW YORK: American families affected by the coronavirus pandemic are increasingly turning to food banks to survive, waiting hours to receive donations in lines of cars that stretch as far as the eye can see.
And with 22 million people apparently out of work overnight when the business closes after the Great Closure, these charities that feed hungry and frightened people fear the day will come when they will not be able to cope with the demand tsunami. .
On Tuesday (April 14), for example, about 1,000 cars lined up at a distribution center established in Pennsylvania by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Demand for its food bags increased nearly 40 percent in March.
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At eight centers like that, about 227 tons of food were placed in the trunks of the cars of families who suddenly couldn’t put meals on the table, said the organization’s vice president, Brian Gulish.
“Many people are using our service for the first time. They have never used a food bank before,” said Gulish. Therefore, they do not know that there is a network of 350 distribution points in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“That’s why those lines are so long. Because they don’t know the network we have,” added Gulish.
Across the United States, from New Orleans to Detroit, people abruptly stripped of a paycheck flock to food banks, sad scenes of despair among people waiting for their small share of the stimulus money included in the package. $ 2.2 trillion emergency aid passed by Congress last month. .
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Perhaps the most dramatic image of some Americans’ new food insecurity unfolded on April 9 in San Antonio, Texas, where an astonishing 10,000 cars appeared at a food bank, and some families arrived the night before to sit and wait.
National Guard soldiers prepare food packages in Indiana AFP / Justin ANDRAS
“We’ve been out of work for months,” said a woman who only identified herself as Alana said at a food distribution center in Chelsea, in the Boston suburbs.
“Yesterday I found a lady with a 15-day-old baby, a newborn. The husband is not working, he has two more children. He had no food at home,” said Alana.
Everywhere, food bank officials say their needs in the pandemic era have skyrocketed: by 30 percent, for example, in a network in Akron, Ohio.
“We built a supply chain over the years that would meet a certain anticipated need for food. Increasing it by 30 percent overnight is almost impossible,” said Dan Flowers, CEO of Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank.
In part, this is because food banks are caught in the whirlwind that has hit the U.S. food industry.
With restaurants closed due to closure, Americans are storing everything in grocery stores, which can no longer make as many product donations as they usually do. The same goes for restaurants that often donate surplus food to homeless shelters.
Fortunately, the United States food industry is making donations.
Food banks that include 200 local branches of an organization called Feeding America are even receiving special types of charges to distribute.
People queue at a food bank in Los Angeles AFP / Frederic J. BROWN
American food giant JM Smucker, maker of many products known as Folgers coffee, is a regular donor and has sent additional pallets of food to banks in Ohio. And a distillery called Ugly Dog in Michigan shipped a truckload of hand sanitizer made from residual alcohol and packaged in beer bottles that normally contain alcohol, Flowers said.
“WORN OUT”
Cash donations are also pouring in, from anonymous people to people like Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, who donated $ 100 million to Feeding America.
“If not for that, these food banks would not be able to meet this demand,” Flowers said.
The Food Bank for New York City, one of the largest in the Big Apple, is ordering a larger volume than it normally does, said Zanita Tisdale, its director of member engagement.
“We know that if we are to return in a week, the cost may have increased significantly or the response time to bring that product to our warehouse may have increased exponentially,” he said.
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As supply chains become more complex and legions of desperate families grow, there is the problem of those who run food banks, who are simply exhausted after weeks of work.
“Our staff is exhausted. They have been working very hard. We are all ready for this to end,” Flowers said.
After a month of all this frantic work, food banks are holding up, at least for now. But the future, like much of the new world created by the pandemic, is uncertain.
“The supply is still good, but in a month we don’t know,” said Gulish.
The congressionally approved aid plan includes $ 850 million for food banks, and Flowers says he expects that cash to start flowing in June.
“I think we’ll be back to normal then. I am primarily concerned with the next six to eight weeks,” Flowers said.
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