Food Insecurity (Again)

Food insecurity is a topic I've written about, but there's no way to finish with this topic! For a very large number of Americans the economic crash that resulted from the Covid 19 pandemic was a catastrophe. "Due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 54 million people may experience food insecurity in 2020, including a potential 18 million children. (FeedingAmerica.org) There's plenty of data to show that hunger in third-world countries is much worse than here, but in this post, I'm only going to explore what's happening in the USA, and try to understand the results of our crashing economy, irresponsible national leaders, and unprecedented demand on social services.

-- Source: "Food pantry distributed free groceries to more than 200 families Monday" June 23, 2020

At the beginning of the pandemic, food banks and social welfare programs were overwhelmed with people in need. Long lines of cars formed at food distribution sites. Donations of surplus food to the food banks disappeared as panic buying emptied the shelves of food markets and donations from restaurants ended as the restaurants shut down almost everywhere in the country. Although the dramatic events have become more manageable, and thus less news-worthy, extreme food insufficiency still exists in many parts of our society, with several times as many people needing food aid than did before the pandemic. Long lines still form at many distribution sites, and food packages run out while people are still waiting.

To say it simply: many children are going hungry, many adults are going hungry and many families are suffering deeply. Of great concern: it's about to get worse. Government measures to help the suddenly unemployed and newly poor citizens are about to expire at the same time as untimely opening of public accommodations and businesses drives Covid 19 numbers upward again.

About the economy, Paul Krugman wrote a summary on Twitter on June 27:

"Wage and salary income fell $800 billion (at an annual rate) between Feb and May, but this was more than offset by $1.2 trillion in unemployment benefits. This kept lockdown of contact-intensive sector from spilling over into a much wider slump. 

"But expanded benefits are set to expire at the end of next month, and for technical reasons will actually vanish for most workers on 25 July. There was supposed to be OK because of a rapidly recovering economy — but the failure on virus control means slow recovery instead. 

"In effect we're set to impose devastating austerity on an economy not remotely ready to handle it — and to head that off we'd need major policy action in *less than a month*. With the White House still in denial, what are the odds of that happening?"

Unemployment benefits have been difficult to secure, thanks to dysfunctional application systems and bureaucracies, but by now a large number of unemployed people have received payments and many are now going back to work, though new increases in the number of Covid 19 cases may disrupt the apparent progress. Further, as Krugman points out, the special benefits seem likely to expire, thus leaving many people without the means to put food on the table. Adding those who will lose benefits to those who didn't qualify for benefits is a scary prospect.

For example, many families relied on school lunch programs for much of their children's nutrition before the pandemic. Many shut-down school districts managed to supply meals to students although no actual classroom teaching was going on. Now summer vacation is putting new stress on social service organizations that normally provide summer replacements for the school meals. I've tried to find out how they are coping this year.

In my local area, I'm aware of SOS Community Services in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the next town over from Ann Arbor where I live. This organization and many others like it organize summer meals for children who rely on school lunches during the school year. Food for the SOS programs to cook and serve is provided by the county's central food bank, Food Gatherers. This summer, however, the need for social distancing makes their usual approach of communal meals impossible. Under special regulations of the Michigan Department of Social Services, "Each week, sites will distribute bundles of free, to-go meals (breakfast and lunch), to provide 14 meals/week for each child. Parents/guardians may pick up the food." (source)

A major source of food for low-income people is the Federal program SNAP. Of course SNAP has experienced major increases in demand since the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. Obtaining SNAP benefits has always been difficult, even when a huge surge created new problems and when hunger was an emergency for many people. Efforts are slowly being made to improve the roadblocks. From the website Food Bank News:

"The notoriously difficult process of applying for SNAP — involving pages of documentation and even face-to-face interviews — is finally entering a more modern age, as mobile applications optimized for ease of use start to become more widely available. For example, GetCalFresh, a mobile app developed by the non-profit Code for America, makes it possible to submit an application for California’s version of SNAP in a matter of minutes. 

"In the face of crushing demand, improvements to the SNAP application process cannot come quickly enough. GetCalFresh processed 115,000 applications in March, compared to only 40,000 in February." (Source) 

Another US Department of Agriculture program, initiated last April and still growing is the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program (link).  More than 20 million food boxes have been distributed since the start of the program, though there's much about it that isn't clear, and I'll be trying to learn more. Marion Nestle writes that the benefits to farmers and to end-recipients have not been well-documented, and she lists a lot of open questions about the program (source).

Hunger, especially, haunts the black community along with racism, which has received particular attention recently, as everyone knows. Combine civil unrest, fear of police violence, widespread illness, job losses, difficulties applying for social benefits, and yet more problems -- Black Americans are disproportionately affected by all the problems in our society, including this:

"African American households face hunger at a rate more than twice that of white, non-Hispanic households. And getting enough to eat is a consistent struggle for 1 in 4 African American children." (source)

Poverty, food insufficiency, and diseases of poverty lead to worse risks and worse outcomes for those infected with the virus. Per 100,000 members of the Black community, there have been 178 hospitalizations due to Covid 19; for the non-Hispanic white community, the comparable number is 40. (As of June 13, per the CDC.)

What can we do -- those of us who are mainly locked down because of high risk from the virus? Various organizations have suggestions such as this one from Feeding America: "How to help your neighbors get by this summer and beyond."

Every stratum of our society has been affected by the pandemic, and the more I try to find out, the more I suffering I see. Economic pain, poor health, and social problems are all worse than ever.  The impact of the coronavirus reaches every part of the food chain. Farmers, food processors and packers, grocery workers, food preparation professionals, restaurant workers, food banks, transport workers and any other part of the chain you can think of all have new problems which all have an impact on food insecurity. There's just too much to cover in a short post like this!

This blog post © 2020 by mae sander and written for mae food dot blog spot dot com.