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But over the course of those few minutes, Status slowly pushed her food cart, battling the cold and the wind that took her breath away. In many ways he represents his life over the past few months.
Status is one of 50 million Americans who will not have enough to eat this year, in part because of the pandemic. According to Feeding America, the largest anti-hunger group in the United States, the number of hungry Americans in the United States is trending toward recession, as 56 million Americans were food insecure.
“I didn’t have a turkey,” Status said. “I didn’t even know where it was going to come from. But you know, I have to take it one day at a time.”
Status says she was not eligible for unemployment and lives off what she calls her “survival fund” – the money she received after her daughters’ father passed away. ‘cancer years ago. It was supposed to be for their college fund, but now he’s paying the bills.
In the summer, she relied on multiple pantries to make ends meet, but earlier this fall her car was totaled. Now she has no way of running her pantry early in the morning and getting by once a week from Agatha House.
“It’s just a relief that I don’t have to buy all of this,” she said of Agatha House’s Thanksgiving basket. “It’s a relief that someone is actually thinking of me.”
This week, Agatha House is making Thanksgiving baskets for families who would otherwise go without meals. They’re meticulously selected with fresh fruit, a signature Thanksgiving turkey, and even a small gift – candles and photo frames are tucked away inside.
“I think we have to look and try to imagine ourselves in their position, what we would like for ourselves, not just to give them a cardboard box,” said Jeanette Joseph-Greenaway, founder of the Agatha House Foundation.
Joseph-Greenaway says the pantry has seen a 100% increase in needs since the pandemic, with many new faces.
“A lot of them come here to make ends meet – the middlemen just to get over the hump. Between their rents and the rest of the bills that haven’t stopped, they have to come to the pantry,” Joseph said. Greenaway.
Pantry deliveries are ‘essential’
The Bronx has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and the unemployment rate of New York’s five boroughs. The Bronx’s 15th Congressional District has the highest rate of food insecurity among children in the country, according to Feeding America. And now that the city’s public schools are reserved for remote areas, it places a greater burden on families to provide meals.
“There are 22 million children who, even before this pandemic, relied on a free and discounted lunch,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. “When you hear that schools are closed, it not only means that there are challenges for the children in school, but it also means that meals are wasted.
At home with her two high school students, Status now has to find money for three meals a day.
“I have to constantly buy food because now I have to provide food for breakfast. Now I have to provide food for lunch, ”she said.
Once a week pantry deliveries are essential.
“I get eggs, I get milk. So all I have to do now is just provide the cereal because they like their cereal in the morning,” Status said.
Latino and black households make up the majority of the Bronx population. Before the pandemic, black Americans were almost two and a half times more likely to live in food insecure households than white Americans, while Latin Americans were twice as likely, according to Feeding America. In their revised food insecurity projections for 2020, 18 of the 25 counties expected to have the highest food insecurity rates in 2020 are majority black.
“Communities of color are twice as likely to suffer, not only from the underlying illnesses that make the disease more deadly, but also from the food and safety itself,” Babineaux-Fontenot said.
‘The need continues’
In April, the USDA allocated $ 850 million for administrative costs and food purchases from food banks through the CARES Act. The Agriculture Ministry says it has an additional $ 873.3 million to purchase agricultural products for food banks. But Feeding America says the need for more federal help will increase in the coming months.
“Unfortunately, the need persists. We estimate that over the next 12 months the gap between what we have and what our neighbors will need is around 8 billion meals,” Babineaux-Fontenot said.
Biden’s incoming administration will inherit a hunger crisis, but Babineaux-Fontenot said the administration could take action to provide food to those in need.
“There are regulations that require you to have certain job requirements to receive food, at a time when people were closed and couldn’t even try to find work,” Babineaux-Fontenot said. “So there are absolutely regulatory barriers that make it even more difficult for vulnerable communities.”
This Thanksgiving will be different for millions of Americans. Yet despite Status’s struggle to get food on the table, she shares the food she has for Thanksgiving with her elderly neighbor, who is also in need.
“Even if we didn’t get the (food from) Agatha House or just had a regular chicken every day, just to say you were alive to eat it, that’s a blessing in itself,” he said. she declared.
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