The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘A different way to live’: A former baker depends on family, church to eat
All his life, Richard Walker never had to worry about where he would get his next meal.
That changed early last year, when COVID-19 hit.
Amid cutbacks, Walker, a 56-year-old New Haven resident, said, he lost his job at a local bakery.
Since then, he has been relying on support from his church and family to stay fed.
He’s not alone: with the onset of the pandemic, some 148,000 more individuals in Connecticut are projected to have suffered from food insecurity in 2020 than in 2018, according to a report from the state Office of Legislative Research, which
cites a research paper coauthored by several Feeding America researchers for its data.
“Connecticut food insecurity is estimated to have increased by 28 percent due to the pandemic,” said Paul Shipman, spokesman for the Connecticut Food Bank.
He said the organization distributed 15.8 million pounds of food over the last six months of 2020, compared to 13.8 million over the last six months of 2019.
‘More or less standby’
Staff at New Haven’s Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, which serves Walker, have seen the rising demand for food firsthand.
According to Sylvia Cooper, who works at Varick, it’s not just unemployment that causes problems.
With everyone at home all day, people need more meals, and their gas and electricity bills go up, she said.
Hunger “affects families mentally, it affects families physically, it affects families emotionally,” said Tawanna Newton, event coordinator for the Bridgeport Rescue Mission’s Great Thanksgiving Project.
For Walker, becoming unemployed “was just a dramatic change,” he said, adding that his asthma makes him hesitant to take a job that could put him at risk. “It’s a different way to live now.”
“You try to be encouraged, but at the same time your attitude is much different,” Walker said. “... I try to keep my composure.”
To cope, he exercises regularly, reads his Bible and tries “to stay grounded in prayer.”
But he’s living “month to month,” he said.
“I haven’t been out to a takeout restaurant in over a year now,” Walker said. “I’m not living like I used to live. … Everything is on more or less standby.”
He does not let food go to waste. If fruit is going rotten, for example, he uses what’s salvageable for a smoothie.
“When you’re used to going to the refrigerator and just getting what you want, it’s a blessing,” he said.
Walker is appreciative of the help he gets from the church.
‘The next person in line’
The OLR report indicates 16.2 percent of New Haven County residents were projected to have faced food insecurity in 2020, up from 12.1 percent in 2018. Those projections are between 13 percent and 14 percent in Fairfield, Middlesex and Litchfield counties, about 4 percent greater than in 2018.
The change disproportionately affected children, per the report, which says 53,000 additional children were projected to have faced food insecurity in 2020 than in 2018. The rate of the increase in food insecurity for children in Connecticut rose by 37 percent in Windham County to 52 percent in Fairfield County, according to Shipman.
Thanks to her church, Medria Givens, another New Haven resident served by the Varick food pantry, does not have to ration food, she said.
But she knows people who do.
“I really think the COVID has taken over, really has taken over people’s ability to, like, function,” Givens said. “Some people are really affected by this because they really don’t know where their next meal’s gonna come from.”
With kids home all day, she said, “how do you tell your child … it’s 8:30, you can’t eat again?”
“You have to ration things, you have to share, you have to distribute,” she said.
“Because the resources are so bad right now, food pantries and soup kitchens can only give you a minimum amount because they have to make sure that the next person in line” gets something, she said.
Finding healthful food is another challenge.
If you need to feed two, three, four or five children, Givens said, you can’t afford to buy fruit at $2.99 per pound.
Givens is a single mother with two sons. Her youngest, 14, still lives at home.
She lost her job before the pandemic, she said, and a broken knee has kept her from going back to work.
Givens was grateful for the help she has received from her church, family and friends, but she does not feel she can count on the government for support.
Referring to the federal government’s most recent stimulus payment, she said “$600? I don’t know what they were thinking . ... What do they think $600 is gonna do?”
The $600 payments followed a first round of checks in April, $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.
Givens worries worse times are ahead.
“I see sadness, I see grief, I see pain,” she said. “I see more coming.”
Feeding America estimates 545,000 Connecticut residents, including 164,000 children, are struggling with food insecurity, according to Shipman.
A spokesperson for Feeding America said while the organization has made projections, it will not have final data until September, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases its annual report on food insecurity.