Stories Of Hunger In Polk County Duplicated Across America

YOUR COUNTY, ST — The reports Patti Habeck hears from the managers and directors of food pantries and meal programs served by the regional food bank she oversees probably sound a lot like the stories of some of your neighbors in Polk County as they struggle to put food on their tables during the coronavirus pandemic.

“People are scared,” Habeck, the CEO and president of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, told Patch. “They’re worried.”

Their fear comes with good reason. They’re real people who once had jobs, paid their bills and gave little thought to their grocery bills. The pandemic is clobbering them.

Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, estimated last summer as many as 50 million Americans could face food insecurity by the end of 2020.

There’s no reason to think they weren’t on target, said Craig Gundersen, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign economist who made the projections for Feeding America’s “Map the Meal Gap.” He shaved about 4 million people off his original coronavirus-related food insecurity projections, largely because of congressional relief packages and an unemployment rate that didn’t surge as high as first feared.

“But 50 million people is still a big number,” he told Patch.

In Polk County, that translates to 111,000 people.

The vaccine rollout offers hope that America is winning its war against the virus, but Habeck of the food bank in Wisconsin said many Americans are still swimming in a sea of uncertainty:
Will their jobs come back, or has their industry been irreparably damaged? When will they have access to child care again. When will the kids return to in-person learning?

And, as if all of that wasn’t burden enough, how are they going to feed themselves and their families?

“We’re in the heart of Wisconsin, the breadbasket, and our urban centers are smaller than Houston and New York, but the stories we hear are very much the same,” Habeck said.
“They’re tired.”

The New Faces Of Food Insecurity

The areas of Wisconsin served by the food bank Habeck oversees have been “terribly affected” not only by job losses but the difficulty — and, in some cases, the impossibility — of doing their jobs without child care, Habeck said.

“These are people who would love to be working again — people who are able and want to be back in their jobs — but can’t work through child care or school issues,” she said.

Feeding America estimates 17 million more Americans, including 11 million children, are struggling with food insecurity now than before the pandemic. At Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, which covers 65 percent of Wisconsin’s population in 35 counties, Habeck said the number of people stocking their cupboards at the food bank has increased to 600,000, up from 400,000 before the pandemic.

“That’s been sustained,” she said. “The number puffed up quickly at the start of the pandemic, and it’s stayed really level and high.”

Before the pandemic, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and its sister organizations around the country were making strides to reduce food insecurity and hunger.

“We were doing a lot of work around hunger in working families who were either or just above the poverty line and working two or three jobs,” Habeck said. “On paper, they were getting by or just barely getting by, and we knew if they received support like hunger relief, they would stay above that line.”

Then the pandemic hit, reversing those gains.

The needle didn’t move on the number of people who are chronically hungry and food insecure.

“A percentage of those people, probably a fifth of them, who use the hunger relief system will always use it for some reason — the elderly, the homebound and other people who can’t change their situation, and that’s OK.”

For most people, Habeck said, food banks are a temporary Band-Aid.

“They will come and go out of hunger relief — maybe (use programs) for a couple of months until they get back on their feet,” she said. “We’re seeing more people coming in and expecting them to be there longer. There’s so much uncertainty.”

Habeck said her food bank has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of people who, before the pandemic, never fathomed needing help to put food on their tables.

“Hunger stories are all over the board,” she said. “There are so many different reasons they’re in hunger relief.”

But among them are people who were just barely getting by before the pandemic, and would slip through holes in the federal food safety net if Feeding America and other hunger-relief organizations didn’t exist, Habeck said.

Holes In The Food Safety Net

The pandemic has exposed problems with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Millions of Americans who are now facing food insecurity either don’t get SNAP assistance or don’t qualify for it.

The average pre-pandemic SNAP benefit of about $1.40 per person per meal was bumped up to a maximum benefit of about $2 a meal. But those food assistance recipients at the maximum — those struggling the most, before and after the pandemic — received no additional money.

“Our social safety net isn’t as strong as we would like it to be,” said Gundersen, the University of Illinois economist, pointing out a paradox wrought by the pandemic: 70 percent of low-income households already receiving food assistance are food secure, while 15 percent of households with incomes above the poverty line are food insecure.

“And a lot more are close,” he said. “We’re not talking about people making $100,000. It’s a family of four making $35,000 a year.”

Gundersen said from his perspective, “the solution is easy”: expand SNAP benefit levels and expand eligibility to include more of the working poor.

A $160 monthly increase in SNAP benefits received by a family of four with an annual household income of $35,000 would wipe out 60 percent of the food insecurity among that group, Gundersen said.

Some steps have already been taken.

The Biden administration asked the Agriculture Department, which administers SNAP, to look for ways to increase food assistance benefits to help the nation’s lowest-income households and those struggling with food insecurity during the pandemic.

Those benefits are based on the “Thrifty Food Plan,” which sets the minimum cost of a nutritious meal. The plan hasn’t been revised since 2006 and wasn’t due for review for another two years, but President Joe Biden asked the Ag Department to review it early.

An executive order signed by Biden in early February holds promise to get more food on the tables of hungry Americans. It directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover 100 percent of the cost of partnerships developed by restaurants with cities and nonprofits to prepare meals for soup kitchens and other meal programs. The order essentially makes the bipartisan FEED Act, originally part of the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, a reality without a vote by Congress.

“I’m Seeing Something Beautiful”

Habeck said she’s moved by the number of people who “know some people have nothing” and want to help their neighbors through what is nothing short of devastating.

“When we do direct service in the community and distribute boxed food, what we see are people asking for extra boxes because they want to take care of others,” she said. “We hear that story more and more.”

That’s been a huge morale booster for her team, Habeck said, showing them the value of the work they’re doing.

“My staff has been on the front line since the day pandemic started and will be throughout it,” she said. “We’re exhausted, overwhelmed and concerned about our communities, but what drives us is the truly good human nature we’re seeing in our communities.

“I’m seeing something that is absolutely beautiful.”

You can be part of that.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimated that in 2020, more than 50 million Americans would not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.