'Never Seen Anything Like It': Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks

[babylonsister]

‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks
Millions are flooding a charitable system that was never intended to handle a nationwide crisis.
By Nicholas Kulish
April 8, 2020


In Omaha, a food pantry that typically serves as few as 100 people saw 900 show up on a single day. In Jonesboro, Ark., after a powerful tornado struck, a food bank received less than half the donations it expected because nervous families held on to what they had. And in Washington State and Louisiana, the National Guard has been called in to help pack food boxes and ensure that the distributions run smoothly.

Demand for food assistance is rising at an extraordinary rate, just as the nation’s food banks are being struck by shortages of both donated food and volunteer workers.

Uniformed guardsmen help “take the edge off” at increasingly tense distributions of boxes filled with cans of chicken noodle soup, tuna fish, and pork and beans, said Mike Manning, the chief executive at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “Their presence provides safety for us during distributions.”

Mr. Manning, who has worked at the food bank for 16 years, including through Hurricane Katrina, said that he had never witnessed such a combination of need, scarcity and anxiety. “‘Crazy’ pretty much sums it up,” he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research organization in Washington, D.C. She has studied food security for more than a quarter century. “People love the phrase ‘the perfect storm,’” she added, “but nothing is built for this.”

Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks, with more than 200 affiliates, has projected a $1.4 billion shortfall in the next six months alone. Last week, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced that he was donating $100 million to the group — the largest single donation in its history, but still less than a tenth of what it needs.

more...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html

[kentuck]

1. This has been my biggest fear...

That people will have nothing to eat. That children will go hungry.

[gibraltar72]

2. The company from which I'm retired announced double matching grant for

one of 3 charities. Feeding America was one of them. I have been with company since 1974 and have never seem a double match on anything. I contributed after a little research Feeding America was my choice. My contribution was double matched I could so I did.