Alarming reports from Reuters indicate food bank networks are quickly running out of staple goods as 26 million people in five weeks are out of work, broke and hungry, as an economic depression could result in social decay.
There’s nothing complicated about our analysis, but rather common sense, as a crashed economy and high unemployment could unleash a “social bomb.” Earlier this week, the “Pennsylvania Militia” rolled up to the state capitol building in Harrisburg in a military truck, packed with men wearing bulletproof vests and wielding rifles and shotguns, demanded the state government reopen the economy after it has led to widespread unemployment.
In the last four weeks, we have reported food banks across Pennsylvania have experienced unprecedented demand as hungry families wait in mile-long traffic jams outside of these facilities for care packages. And as we’ve explained, food banks are becoming stressed across the country.
Reuters reports that the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, located in El Paso, Texas, has started to ration certain staple goods as product shortages develop.
“We really have no dry goods,” said Bonnie Escobar, chief development officer of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger.
The same story is being shared in New York City as more than a third of the city’s food banks have shuttered operations because of the lack of goods. San Diego, Chicago, and Houston are other cities that have reported dwindling supplies at food banks.
Feeding America told Reuters that 1 in 7 Americans relied on food banks before the pandemic. Now demand has surged to “doubled or tripled at many organizations.”