Keeping the Doors Open, Putting Food on the Table During the Pandemic
While food insecurity affects millions of Americans every year, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has made hunger go from bad to worse. Nearly 1 million Tennesseans — 237,100 of them children — were food insecure in 2019, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Justice Center reports that during the pandemic, food insecurity increased 31% for families, with the percentage even higher for Hispanic and Black families. Omelia Isabell prepares food at United Ministries Food Bank of Robertson County in Springfield, Tennessee.
“It wasn’t good in 2020, that’s for sure,” said Donna Davaloz, executive director of the Harvest Share Food Pantry in Columbia. “People were coming in — people we’d never seen,” Davaloz continued. “People were calling me from different [Tennessee] counties, and even a few from Kentucky and Alabama, to see if we had food in our pantry. They were desperate. “Some people said we should close, but I couldn’t do that. … People need food!”
There was no escaping the crisis: Food insecurity didn’t recognize the difference between urban and rural communities. “Hunger doesn’t pick a color, a nationality — anything. It can happen to anyone,” said Sherry Martell, executive director at United Ministries of Robertson County. “It doesn’t matter what your background is.” “We have a lot of working poor people in rural areas,” Martell continued. “Industries don’t pay a living wage for a family of four to live on anymore.” 7
You don’t have to search far for evidence. According to Harvest Share’s Donna Davaloz, people were living out of their cars with no way to even cook the food made available to them. “I told one lady that I’d give her and her brother some pop-tops [canned food] after I’d dropped them off at the shelter,” said Davaloz. “She burst into tears but tried to hide her face so I didn’t see.” “I know when people do that, they really are hurting,” she continued. “And I understand the humiliation.” That’s because, 34 years ago, she was an original client of the organization. Davaloz had three children, and she and her husband were mowing lawns to scrape by. One of their clients informed her that Harvest Share, then known as Neighbors Concerned, needed to hire someone for two weeks. Davaloz was interested in the temporary position and didn’t have child care, but the organization said she could bring her children with her. It was settled, and for the next two weeks, Davaloz finally had a job. Then the woman for whom she was filling in, who was ill with cancer, needed another two weeks away. That turned into a couple of months. Eventually, she replaced her and worked her way up to executive director, a post she has served for 20 years. “We depend on grants, churches, individual donations — that’s the only way we work,” Davaloz said. “When we get money in, we always use it to purchase food.”
