Workers at Bread for the City, a Renowned Capital Charity, Thought They Were Ready for Annual Food Donation Holiday helpers until Thanksgiving this year. The Covid-19 pandemic had faded, but inflation was high, so they budgeted for 12,000 meals, 20% more than normal levels before the pandemic.
But they were quickly overwhelmed, with long lines of customers who waited hours to receive a free turkey and a $50 debit card for groceries. They were forced to close three days early after helping 16,000 people, far more than anticipated.
“We don’t want to re-traumatize our community by having them wait outside for four hours for a turkey,” said Ashley Domm, the charity’s director of development. “We are not prepared to have hundreds of people lined up on a city street,” she noted.
The Bread for the City experience reflects a larger dynamic unfolding across the country. What many Americans had hoped would be the first normal Christmas season in three years is back an intensified hunger crisis, with Christmas on the horizon.
A September report by the Urban Institute, a Washington-based economic and social policy research group, estimated that about one in five adults have experienced it. food insecurity at home last summer, about the same number as in the first year of the pandemic, but up sharply from spring 2021.
Black and Hispanic adults reported higher rates of food insecurity than their white counterparts, according to the report.
“During the pandemic, nobody had a job and nobody had money,” said Nancy Murphy, a 45-year-old caregiver who last week removed a frozen turkey and other food items from a donation to El Cristiano’s Asamblea Vino Nuevo parish church. of God. Redeemed, Northeast Washington. “Now they are back to work, but the money is not enough. It’s still hard,” she complains.
Joe Biden’s government estimates that food prices will rise between 9.5% and 10.5% this year.
And that is straining the budgets of many Americans and the food banks that have helped them, especially after the massive influx of pandemic aid has expired.
“Inflation was the story of the year,” said Michael Altfest, director of community engagement at Alameda County Food Bank in Oakland, California.
requests for help
Altfest added it the level of need in the community is still 50-70% higher. compared to pre-pandemic levels and about 30% of calls to the food bank’s emergency line are from first-time contacts.
In many cases, charities and food banks had braced for higher numbers due to inflation, only to find that the level of need had far exceeded their projections.
Washington’s Capital Area Food Bank originally estimated it would need to deliver about 43 million meals during the July 2022 to June 2023 financial year. Now, four months into that fiscal year, it’s already 22 percent higher than those forecasts.
“It was an informed forecast with a good four to five months of data,” said Radha Muthiah, CEO of the food bank. “We always think of Thanksgiving and Christmas when everyone goes to the beach in the summer,” he added.
In Illinois, Jim Conwell of the Greater Chicago Food Bank says the need is still high. “So we’re buying more and spending more on what we buy,” he said.
His organization’s network served about 30% more homes in August 2022 than the previous August.
“Families that were just doing things right are facing a whole new challenge, or even if they have employment, or have multiple jobs or sources of income, (money) they just don’t behave like they did two years ago,” he added. .
Higher prices are forcing people to make “food sacrifices,” Altfest said.
For example, he said, the price of chicken has more than doubled: from 78 cents per pound (453 grams) last year to $1.64 per pound this year. Estimates from the Farm Bureau foundation put the cost of turkeys at 21 percent higher than last year.
And marketing researcher Datasembly estimates that a 16-ounce bag of stuffing costs 14 percent more than last year, and a five-pound bag of Russet potatoes costs an average of 45.5 percent more.
pandemic and famine
Mike Manning, president of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank in Louisiana, makes a distinction between the rising levels of hunger caused by the pandemic and the current crisis.
During the pandemic, the jobs and incomes of millions of people all but disappeared, creating an immediate surge of need that he likened to the aftermath of a hurricane.
But the current crisis has been a slow and steady increase started in late February and continues to grow. Manning said his food bank has seen a 10% to 15% increase in local food insecurity in the past two months alone.
“You’re talking to people who are on lower incomes and have multiple jobs, just think of the cost of switching between jobs, with gas consuming whatever extra they’re trying to earn,” he added.
“What are they going to do? Do they give up petrol, and therefore cannot get to work, or do they sacrifice themselves for food and come back to us for help?” he wondered.
And with no clear indication of when the wave of inflation might subside in the long run, “this looks almost more like a marathon with no finish line in sight,” said Conwell, of the Chicago food bank.
Domm recalls lines from Bread for the City that “stayed extraordinarily long” for weeks.
That customers were willing to wait outside for hours for a turkey and a debit card speaks to “the intensity and depth of the need,” he said.
Domm also believes there’s a psychological element at play, too: After two consecutive holiday seasons hit by the pandemic, families are longing for something closer to normal.
“People have avoided getting together with their families for the past couple of years. So this year there’s more pressure to go shopping and have a group meal,” she concluded.
Source: AP
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Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.