COMING TOGETHER
TO BEAT THIS CRISIS, WE NEED TO FIGHT HUNGER by KATE LEONE
Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank in Akron, Ohio.
At a food bank distribution last month in San Antonio, an unprecedented 6,000 families pre-registered to receive assistance. 10,000 showed up. Just this week, the Arkansas Foodbank scheduled a mobile food distribution from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. but ran out of food after an hour. Cars had begun lining up before dawn, and they could have served 2,000 more families. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Kansas, photos of lines of cars that stretch over the horizon or of tightly packed lines in parking lots have gone viral. These photos will long serve as a testament to the unprecedented challenges the COVID-19 crisis has brought. 20
COVID-19 has upended our food supply chain. Over 72 billion pounds of food are wasted each year, a number that is likely to increase this year due to COVID-19 changes to the food supply chain. While we don’t have a problem growing enough food to feed everyone in our country, we do have a food connection problem. At the root of that problem is an overwhelming increase in demand, a stark illustration of how close so many families are to needing charitable and government assistance. The latest survey of Feeding America’s network of 200 food banks showed an average increase in demand of 70 percent. Our network estimates that 40 percent of
RIPON FORUM May 2020
