A couple months ago I wrote about volunteering at a food pantry on Friday or Saturday morning. In this connection, the Greater Chicago Food Depository distributes food supplies to more than 700 pantries and soup kitchens. Even though I live in the richest nation on the planet, food pantries exist to partially fill a gap in the nation’s safety net to those who are food insecure. There are a staggering number of households… maybe through some missed paychecks or a reduction in work hours… who struggle with putting food on the table. Estimates say as many as 20% of Chicagoans are food insecure.
This summer the government provided much-needed assistance via a “Farmers to Families” food program that delivered, from a company in Indianapolis, IN, pre-packaged boxes of dairy, frozen meat and fresh vegetables and fruit to food pantries, including the little pantry where I volunteered:
https://www.gracechurchchicago.org/food-pantry
Visitors enthusiastically accepted the fresh food, but some told me they did not have enough space in their freezer to take the large boxes of meat. I continued to volunteer into the fall, and on one Saturday in September I noticed a flyer in a box.
The undated one-pager, which was signed by Donald J. Trump, explained in Spanish and English that “safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest priorities.” A majority of the letter focused on COVID-19. The President wrote that for the nation to recover, we should:
- Practice good hygiene and wash your hands;
- People who feel sick should stay at home;
- Protect the most vulnerable individuals, including those 80+ years of age and those with pre-existing condition. (sic)
- Practice social distancing and consider wearing a face covering in public (sic)
In October, the government announced the food program would continue through 2020. https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2020/10/23/usda-announces-fourth-round-farmers-families-food-box-program
However, in November the delivery of food boxes ended, contrary to the recent press release. I recently read this blurb from The Washington Post.
Farmers To Families Food Box Program Running Out Of Money. The Washington Post (12/8, A1, Reiley, Jaffe, 14.2M) reports that the Farmers to Families Food Box program, “a $4.5 billion food program that has kept millions of Americans fed through the pandemic, is running out of money.” The program “was launched by the Trump administration in May to support struggling farmers and feed jobless Americans battered by the pandemic.” However, due to “soaring demand and a shortage of federal money, it is ending a month early in many regions of the country, leaving tens of thousands of families without a critical supply of food.”
The cynical side of me concluded the “Farmers to Families” program was an election ploy to encourage people to vote for the incumbent while generating a fat contract to a company based in the Vice President’s home state.
We are a wealthy nation where far too many go hungry. That true statement was true long before the pandemic.
- Mark Erickson
