Pandemic causes surge in food insecurity
Let’s consider some facts about food insecurity in Chicago.
Right now, as the coronavirus pandemic worsens and our already gut-punched economy continues to wobble, nearly 10% of Chicagoans “sometimes or often” don’t have enough to eat.
Seven million people, about 1 out of every 5 households in Chicago, are food insecure. If you look only at households with kids in them, it’s one out of every four.
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an economist and director of Northwestern University’ s Institute for Policy Research, shared those numbers with me. They come from weekly household surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and reflect the staggering problems families here and across the country are having putting food on the table.
“Even with the modest social safety net we have,” Schanzenbach said, “it’s not going to be enough to weather this storm.”
That’s why you’ve seen photos and videos of cars stretched out for miles to pick up food from pantries. That’s why mothers and fathers and children stand in the cold each week outside churches and community centers that operate as food distribution points for people in need.
“The distributions are happening in cold, wetweather, and the fact that people are lined up for blocks and blocks tells you how great the need is,” said Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which supplies food to more than 700 pantries, shelters and soup kitchens. “We had people who were struggling before the pandemic, and one of the really tragic truths we’ve seen is that this crisis has been born disproportionately on the shoulders of people who are already dealing with poverty and health disparities and the impacts of racism. This has fallen disproportionately on the shoulders of a group of people who were already struggling. It feels a little bit like we’ re watching a crisis that just keeps unfolding.”
We’re in the midst of the ThirdAnnual Insult-A-Columnist Holiday Food Drive, which aims to direct our divisions toward something good: donations to the Food Depository in the name of Rex Stinks or Rex Rocks. (At present, the Rex Rocks team has donated far more, despite my best efforts to be loathsome.)
Iwould argue, based on the numbers above and the overall crisis we’re living through, that your donations mean more this year than ever. Food pantries like the ones the Food Depository supports can be a lifeline for people, particularly as lawmakers in Washington, D.C., plod along on a new pandemic relief bill, seemingly unconcerned about how desperate many Americans have become.
Remember, being food insecure doesn’t mean you’re living in poverty. Amissed paycheck or two, or even a reduction inwork hours, can leave many unable to make ends meet. Food pantries help fill the gap, allowing people facing temporary financial woes to pay rent and keep food on the table.
“Dowe need people to come out and support this drive and every other drive? Absolutely,” Maehr toldme. “I hope there are lovers and haters of you who are so passionate that they come out in droves to show support. But I also need them to hold our leaders in Washington accountable and encourage them to do something.”
While it’s unclear exactly what the next federal relief package will contain, there’s one tool in the government’s toolbox that should be leveraged hard: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
“Usually SNAP is the backbone of anti-hunger policy,” said Schanzenbach, who serves on the Food Depository’s board of directors. “In the beginning of the pandemic, they took steps to increase it so everybody gets maximum SNAP benefits. It’s good economic policy. People spend it in the local economy. The $100 a person gets is invested in that community right away. The economic multiplier is very high.”
But even at the maximum rate, SNAP isn’t giving people enough.
“The purchasing power of SNAP isn’t adequate anymore, even if we went back to good economic times,” Schanzenbach said. “Usually people with higher incomes get lower levels of SNAP benefits, but even the maximum benefit is just too little.”
On average, SNAP provides a littlemore than $4.50 per person per day. That’s why economists liked Schanzenbach and groups focused on food insecurity are pushing a substantial increase they believe would improve the health of struggling families.
The relief packages being considered now might include something like a temporary 15% increase in SNAP benefits.
“Becausewe have so much need right now, it’s shocking to me that we’re spending so little,” Schanzenbach said.“We could really make a large dent in this with an increase that’s something like 30% instead of 15%, but people would consider that heresy. It would just be a nonstarter in Washington right now.”
Maehr said: “We’re in a pandemic andwe have this tool that is so perfect for responding to the moment we’re in. The food stamp program is targeted and efficient and able to get direct to people who need assistance. And those dollars get spent in grocery stores in communities reeling fromthe economic impact of this pandemic. That we would choose not to use this tool is unconscionable.”
We’re a wealthy nation that lets many of its own people go hungry.
That’s a tough statement, but it’s true, and itwas true long before the coronavirus pandemic made things worse.
We have the power tomake a difference, by helping groups like the Greater Chicago Food Depository and pushing lawmakers to do the right, and smart, thing. I hope you’ll do both.
To donate to the Insult-AColumnist Holiday Food Drive go to: http://myfooddrive.org/ #InsultRex. You can choose Team Rex Stinks or TeamRexRocks. Please give until I hurt.