Combatting Food Insecurity Takes More Than a Village | Sustainable Brands (2024)

As Congress signs off for Thanksgiving, roughly 12 million Americans could soon lose jobless benefits. The hope is that people and companies continue to step up; government programs continue, and the flexibility the food supply chain has gained during COVID will enable a nimbler switch to accommodate future need.

It’s hard to believe that in a country that has so much, so many don’t even haveone nutritious meal each day. In 2019, 10.5 percent or 13.7 million UShouseholds — more than one in ten — had low or very low food security. Even moredisturbing, households with children are more likely to experience foodinsecurity and may not qualify for federal nutrition programs. Feeding Americaestimates that 17 million children are among the more than 50 million people whomay face hunger due toCOVID-19.

“We are in a 100-year flood of hunger,” said Susannah Morgan, CEO ofOregon Food Bank. “Before COVID, we were already on a trajectory buildup ofescalating need in migrant and immigrant groups who don't qualify for federalbenefits.”

COVID-19 further impacts food insecurity

With the pandemic shutdown, families and communities were hit by a perfectstorm: overnight unemployment coupled with the dramatic reduction in supermarketdonations to food banks due to food hoarding and supply chain issues.

In April, the United Nations estimated that 265 million people worldwidecould face severe food insecurity. At the same time, the five-week US job lossnumber rose to 26 million, and closures of churches, schools and daycareseliminated other daily food sources for families and children.

“In July 2019, 500,000 Rhode Islanders were employed. In July 2020, only 460,000had jobs and the unemployment rate topped 11 percent,” says Andrew Schiff,CEO of the Rhode Island Food Bank (RIFB), which has 168 member agencies.

In the spring, farms wereovercomewith food and dairy products earmarked for commercial-scale processing andmarkets. The pandemic closed processing facilities and distribution systems setup for large-scale commercial packaging that couldn’t retool fast enough tohandle consumer packaging specifications.

Much of that surplus was dumped or buried — at a huge loss to the farmers andthe agriculture sector and to the horror of hungry US families and those tryingto help. On the bright side, donations, direct sales from farms to consumers ofnon-USDA-regulated food; and milk-donation events sponsored by companies,farmers, and associations such as Dairy Farmers of America acrossthe country got food into the hands of the hungry, but it was only a fraction ofwhat was needed.

A new food relief system emerged

Faced with almost insurmountable demand, food banks and relief organizationsretooled their food acquisition and distribution approaches.Massachusetts-based Food Link — an organization that rescues andredistributes food through partnerships, including the Greater Boston FoodBank — collaborated with Boston College at the height of the pandemic.They used the college’s idle commercial kitchen and staff to repackage largemilk, yogurt and egg donations, originally destined for food-service channels,into consumer portions. While this innovative partnership ended with the returnof college students to campus, new partnerships are being formed — including onewith a local vocational high school to have students process the food donations.

Image courtesy of Vanguard Renewables

RIFB switched models overnight, prepackaging donations and holding outdoor,drive-up food distribution events. In New York City, where drive-up eventsare not practical, City Harvest pivoted to walk-in donations.

The Oregon Food Bank built a food distribution network with mobile pantries,home deliveries, and new brick-and-mortar support. It also provided $300,000 tohelp establish the Oregon Worker Relief Fund, which provides immigrantOregonians excluded from worker relief programs with a cash payment alternative.

Companies join the recovery efforts

Private corporations contributed some relief in the food access battle bycollaborating with associations, food banks, government and elected officials toget food and milk into the hands of those who needed it most.

Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation sourced food and critical suppliesfor public donation events and to support frontline workers in Rhode Island viaits global supply chain. And Publix Supermarket purchased milk and producedirectly from farmers, and donated it to Feeding America member food banks.

Vanguard Renewables’ collaboration with DairyFarmers of America’s Farmers FeedingFamilies got more than 17,000gallons of whole milk to families in Massachusetts and Rhode Island over afour-week period via drive-up events and collaboration with regional foodpantries.

For our team, pulling together the milk donation events was a hell of an effort,but it really felt good as people were pulling up in cars and we were puttinggallons of milk in their trunks. So many families are just a few paychecks awayfrom not having their nutritional needs met, and that’s devastating in a countrywith such abundance.

The food insecurity crisis continues

Although the latest unemployment rate is now down to 6.9 percent, it is stillwell above the 3.5 percent rate of February; and an additional 2.4 million jobshave been permanently lost since then. Elise Springuel, Operations Managerof Food Link, points out that “unemployment recovery can be misleading; someAmericans may be back working, but at a lower pay rate.”

Per RIFB’s Schiff, temporary government programs such as FEMA meal kits andincreased benefits under the SNAP program are going to end soon. So, despite allthat has been done, the crisis of food insecurity in the US continues. In July,Feeding America estimated a charitable food need of 17 billion pounds throughJune 2021, over three times the last annual food distribution of 5 billionpounds; it is projecting an unprecedented potential 10-billion-pound foodshortfall.

As I write this, Congress is going on vacation for Thanksgiving week; yetroughly 12 million Americans could lose jobless benefits the day afterChristmas, per a Century Foundationstudy.First time unemployment claims last week totaled 742,000. Two government reliefprograms under the CARES Act are set to expire December 26, which could pushthose Americans into poverty and hurt the country’s long-term economic recovery.The hope is that more people, companies and politicians will continue to stepup; government programs will continue, and the flexibility the supply chaingained during the pandemic will enable a nimbler switch between food channels toaccommodate future need.

“With other disasters, there is an initial emergency mode; and although recoverycan take a long time, at least it’s a straight line. With COVID, there is somuch uncertainty,” Schiff says. “You find out in an emergency about leadership.People I wouldn’t have expected, or I didn’t even know, have asked how they canhelp.”