Food banks in Texas have entered disaster mode as operations to deal with rising hunger increase after unprecedented freezing conditions have affected almost every part of the food supply chain. state.
Grocery stores are empty, school meal programs suspended and deliveries disrupted by untreated treacherous roads that have left millions of jeans trapped in precarious living conditions with a declining food supply.
Even those who stored before Arctic conditions swept away have lost refrigerated groceries due to long power outages and can’t cook what foods they have without electricity or gas.
In the hardest hit areas, food banks and pantries were forced to close for several days this week as staff and vehicles were unable to reach the distribution sites. The aid was limited to disaster boxes sent to people seeking refuge in warming shelters.
On Thursday, the disruption of energy and safe water supply caused food banks to rush to purchase large quantities of bottled water and prepared meals and snacks that did not require cooking.
“It simply came to our notice then. We are doing quick needs assessments so we can get proper food for these people quickly. When everything thaws, we prepare for a massive increase in demand, “said Valerie Hawthorne, director of government relations at Dallas-based North Texas Food Bank.” This has been the longest week of our lives. “.
Prior to the major freeze, this food bank operated two food distribution sites each day that served between 300 and 1,500 families in each emerging location. All of them were canceled this week, although a Saturday is scheduled, leaving thousands of families without enough food or dependent on family, neighbors and mutual aid groups.
In addition to the usual, advocates expect an increase in low-paid service industry workers, who are often on only one or two starvation wages and will not be paid this week as many restaurants and bars were seen forced to close.
Hunger was a serious problem in Texas even before the pandemic and the latest weather disaster, with some 4.3 million Texans fighting hunger in 2019, including one in five children.
Covid triggered an economic crisis that caused food aid demand to double in many parts of Texas amid record levels of unemployment and underemployment.
The extraordinary freeze has once again exposed the deep existing inequalities that will make it difficult for low-income households to recover, according to Brian Greene, CEO of Houston Food Bank. “The consequences of each disaster are much harder for low-income families, who will have more problems even after power and water come back into operation,” he said.
According to a Federal Reserve survey, nearly two-fifths of Americans do not have enough money or savings to cope with an unexpected $ 400 expense, such as bursting pipes or a collapsed roof.
In rural Brazoria County, south of Houston, the pantry reopened Thursday and served 140 families in just two hours, compared to the 170 families typically seen over the course of an ordinary week. About 75% were the first to despair of food and water and were given enough for three days as this was all the pantry available.
“It’s crazy. People have no choice. They’ve gone into survival mode to get what they can,” said Terri Willis, executive director of the Brazoria County Dream Center, which operates the pantry. “We’re all in disaster mode.”
Long queues stretch out of grocery stores with empty shelves and the water supply has been disrupted by warnings of boiling and bursting pipes; electricity is needed for those in rural areas with private wells.
Willis is especially concerned about vulnerable children in the district, as her organization usually provides a backpack for weekend meals to 620 children who would otherwise be hungry. Schools are closed, so those kids will be left without. “It simply came to our notice then. I’ve been one of those kids who goes hungry on the weekends. I’m praying for her parents to come here, “said Willis.
In Dallas, young people are also a huge concern: across the city, 87% of schoolchildren live in low-income households. Thousands depend on free school meals, and some receive four meals a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner), but many schools have been unable to offer any this week due to power outages, burst pipes, tips of water and scarcity.
Advocates are also concerned about the city’s senior residents who rely on food aid to eat enough and may have been cut off from all services for several days. “It’s the older people who have kept most of us up to date this week. They are really the most vulnerable population and we just don’t know how many people have not been able to ask for help, “said Hawthorne.
At the other end of the food chain, fruit and vegetable crops in the Rio Grande Valley have been ruined by the extreme cold, while dairy farmers across the state pour millions of dollars of milk down the drain because they can’t get there. in dairies. Falling production could have short- and medium-term consequences for availability and prices.
Scientists have long warned that global warming makes extreme weather events increasingly frequent and intense, and can attack in unfamiliar and ill-equipped places to cope with extreme heat or frost temperatures.
The disruption of food supplies in Texas shows how unprepared the U.S. is to deal with the climate crisis, according to Molly Anderson, director of the food studies program at Middlebury College in Vermont.
“What we see in Texas demonstrates a lack of planning for resilience and a failure to recognize that the climate strategy is here and is already affecting the food chain,” he said.