More than half of the shelves at the Atlanta Community Food Bank are bare, in part because of supply-chain issues, but mostly because demand for food assistance is as high as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit’s executives said. They said two in five people seeking food assistance in the Atlanta region this year have not done so before, Reuters reported.
“Nobody anticipated this,” said Debra Shoaf, chief financial officer of the private charity, which relies on corporate and individual donations, as well as government grants, to distribute food to the hungry in 29 Georgia counties. Shoaf, who also serves on the finance steering committee for the national charity Feeding America, says she’s hearing similar reports across the United States. “We’re back up to pandemic levels,” she said.
In some regions, demand is exceeding even the starkest days of the COVID pandemic. In central Ohio, the local food bank says the number of households seeking aid has increased by nearly half since last year.
More than 11.4 million households collected free groceries in early April, up 15% from a year ago, according to data from the Census Bureau.
“Food banks have been around for 50 years, but this is the first time we are seeing unprecedented high food demand combined with historically low unemployment rates,” said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer for Feeding America, which supports 60,000 food pantries.
The sustained demand comes as most government pandemic emergency aid ends - notably, temporary COVID-related increases to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, a federal program that provides debit cards to directly purchase food at stores.
Inflation is a major factor, too. Grocery prices have increased 23% since March 2020, when the pandemic began, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Such post-COVID demand for free food is “not a good signal” for the economy “and perhaps an indicator of an impending recession,” said John Lowrey, a business professor at Northeastern University whose research focuses on food bank management and public health.
“The fact that we have a lot of first time users who are no longer concerned about the stigma of going to a food pantry – and actually see value in it because they can no longer afford retail food – is a reasonable proxy for the health of the economy and consumers,” Lowrey said.
Houston Food Bank Chief Executive Brian Greene, who has worked in the industry since 1988, said it is difficult to make comparisons over time because demand has historically outstripped supply. He said the Houston Food Bank, the nation’s largest by volume, is distributing less food this year than last but that is because cash and food donations are down.
Pantries supplied by the Blue Ridge food bank in Virginia also reported recent spikes. In April 2021, the Dulles South Food Pantry served 109 families a week. In April of last year, it helped 147. This month, the figure is 183 families a week.
The Highland Food Pantry in Winchester, Virginia, said it served about 90 families a week during the pandemic. This month, it’s serving about 135. Among the new clients is Haywood Newman, a 47-year-old handyman, who made it through COVID without assistance but says he’s struggling now.
U.S. food banks warn of strain as Republicans seek food aid cuts
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-food-banks-warn-strain-republicans-seek-food-aid-cuts-2023-04-21/?
President Joe Biden, who this week criticized Republicans' proposals to further cut benefits in order to shrink the country's deficit, pledged last year to end hunger in the U.S. by 2030.
Food banks in Atlanta, New Jersey, Ohio, California, and Washington State and national anti-hunger groups told Reuters that demand is rising because of inflation and the end of a temporary expansion of federal food assistance benefits that kept millions out of poverty during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four food banks told Reuters that demand is up between 46 and 125% since last spring, and that visits to their pantries are as high or higher than they were at the height of the pandemic.
More than 11.4 million households collected free groceries in early April, up 15% from a year ago, according to data from the Census Bureau.
"It feels like we've moved on from the pandemic," said Leslie Bacho, CEO of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, which served 480,000 people in March – up 92% over last year. "But for food banks, we're still deep in a crisis."
Republicans in Congress are considering cuts to food assistance as one way to shrink federal spending as lawmakers debate whether to raise the country's borrowing limit.
A proposal on the debt issue released Wednesday by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy included an expansion of work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the largest federal food aid program.
Currently, adults aged 18 to 50 without dependents must work or participate in a job training program at least 20 hours per week to receive SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, for more than three months.
People get free groceries at nourishing hope food pantry in Chicago, Illinois, U.S, August 29, 2022. REUTERS/Eric Cox/File Photo
McCarthy's plan would raise that age to 56. Republicans have often proposed stiffer work requirements for SNAP to lower program costs.
Biden, a Democrat, slammed McCarthy's proposal on Wednesday and warned it would harm low-income Americans.
Anti-hunger advocates told Reuters that policies that make it more difficult for people to access SNAP could put further strain on food banks and other emergency food providers.
"Making [work] requirements harder only worsens hunger," said Heather Taylor, managing director of Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger group.
'IT'S NOT SUSTAINABLE'
Households are facing food costs 8.5% higher than last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one reason people are heading to food pantries. Food banks also feel the pinch: two organizations told Reuters their food costs are up 25 to 30% this year compared to last spring.
Meanwhile, SNAP participants saw their benefits decrease by an average of $82 a month in March when the pandemic-era temporary expansion ended, according to Food Research and Action Center. Democrats in Congress negotiated a compromise with Republicans to end the benefits in exchange for a new summer food program for children.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in December that it would allocate an additional $1 billion to food banks to meet rising demand. So far, $300 million has been distributed, an agency spokesperson said, with the rest to be allocated by the end of September.
March was the busiest month on record at the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, where first-time visits are up 63% this year compared to the same time last year, said senior vice president of communications Mike Hochron.
The organization is purchasing more food than ever to keep up. "It's not sustainable," Hochron said.
Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Aurora Ellis