Food Insecurity Soars: Food Banks, Schools Struggle To Feed Millions Joining Long Lines For Assistance
Some of the nation’s food banks and soup kitchens are having to suspend operations and find novel ways to get food to people where they need it. More food-supply news reports on infections spreading among poultry workers and grocery story workers.
The New York Times: Facing Food Insecurity On The Front Lines
In an average year, meeting the needs of hungry New Yorkers is challenging. In 2020, food banks in New York and beyond are finding that taking on this mission requires resourcefulness, resilience and the rethinking of how those in need can be served. Food Bank for New York City usually supplies about 1,000 institutions, such as food pantries and soup kitchens, with groceries. Now, 40 percent of them have suspended operations because of the coronavirus outbreak, said Leslie Gordon, chief executive of Food Bank for New York City. (Aridi, 4/10)
The Associated Press: Schools Struggle To Safely Get Free Meals To Needy Students
When schools started closing across the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, they scrambled to keep feeding millions of students from poor families who depend on free and reduced-price meals every day. Cities big and small quickly ran into problems: food workers, teachers and volunteers manning curbside pickup locations came down with the virus themselves or were too scared to report for duty. Some districts have been forced to suspend their programs altogether. (Vertuno, Attanasio and Mone, 4/10)
Reuters: Sign Of The Times: Mile-Long Line Of Cars Outside California Grocery Giveaway
A pop-up food pantry in Southern California on Thursday drew so many people that the line of cars waiting for free groceries stretched about a mile (1.6 km), a haunting sign of how the coronavirus pandemic has hurt the working poor. (Nicholson, 4/9)
The New York Times: Poultry Worker’s Death Highlights Spread Of Coronavirus In Meat Plants
Annie Grant, 55, had been feverish for two nights. Worried about the coronavirus outbreak, her adult children had begged her to stay home rather than return to the frigid poultry plant in Georgia where she had been on the packing line for nearly 15 years. But on the third day she was ill, they got a text from their mother. “They told me I had to come back to work,” it said. Ms. Grant ended up returning home, and died in a hospital on Thursday morning after fighting for her life on a ventilator for more than a week. (Jordan and Dickerson, 4/9)
The Washington Post: He’s Delivering Your Groceries To You. He’s Also Risking His Life.
You have to protect the things you can, so when the cashier at the Harris Teeter checkout counter asked Matt Gillette if he wanted anything double-bagged, he considered the stakes. “I’m really just worried about the eggs,” he said, before carefully wrapping a second bag around a carton. The eggs were not his. (McCarthy, 4/9)
KQED: Another Whole Foods Employee In SF Tests Positive For Coronavirus
A worker at a Whole Foods Market location on Market Street in San Francisco has been diagnosed with COVID-19, a company spokesperson confirmed to KQED on Thursday. The diagnosis marks at least the second confirmed case of a Whole Foods employee in San Francisco coming down with the coronavirus. A worker at the grocery chain’s Stanyan Street location previously tested positive in March. Both stores remain open. (Garces, 4/9)
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