Trump’s Big Cuts Are Going to Overwhelm Food Banks With Hungry People
“The food shelves should have the capacity to accommodate the volume of meals through their doors, their shelves, and their refrigerators and coolers, and it is therefore a logistical challenge, and which, frankly, we are not designed,” said Moberg. “We do not have the infrastructure to follow the degree of billions of meals lost by Snap.”
In times of economic difficulties, families in difficulty often turn to charitable organizations to complete the federal advantages they can also receive. The number of American households who said they had visited a food pantry more than doubled between 2001 and 2014, largely due to the increase in food insecurity associated with the great recession. In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, food banks declared a 55% increase in the assistance request, according to an America feeding report. As food insecurity has remained high, the same is true for help, with Feeding America, reporting that 50 million people received charity food assistance in 2023. The end of the pandemic era programs to increase benefits – such as emergency attributions in instantaneous – also hung greater pressure on food and covers.
Similar to previous times of control, food banks are now preparing to make the cuts took place to lead to increased dependence on charity. These concerns are exacerbated by cuts already implemented by the Trump administration, including the Department of Agriculture freeing $ 1 billion in funding for food banks and schools to buy food and the suspension of a program that helps community hunger rescue organizations to buy from local producers. Without additional funding, hunger organizations will find it difficult to meet the need, said Greene.
“People say:” Oh, well, there will be more people you serve. Well, there are, but they will each get less, “he said. “This is what we have been given; this is what we can do. And it is heartbreaking when we just see the suffering unfold, but that does not allow us to do more.”
