Food insecurity among Black and Hispanic households across America

#Wahington, #BlackAndHispanic; #HungerRate; #CollapseOfEconomy; #Covid19Pandemic

Washington/Canadian-Media: Food insecurity experienced by Black and Hispanic households across America even before the pandemic at a significantly higher rate than the national average of 10.5 percent has been exacerbated in the United States, with one in eight households not having enough to eat because of the surge of 48 percent to 60 percent in food insecurity, media reports said.

Black and Hispanic People in America. Image credit: PBS.com

With the collapse of the economy millions lost their jobs, since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, families have turned to food banks and food organizations in record numbers with numerous volunteers working to help address food insecurity in the Washington metropolitan area. 

But the coronavirus pandemic has caused a loss 50 percent of its partner organizations of the Capital Area Food Bank, which had been providing 30 million meals a year before the pandemic, directly from and through a network of more than 450 nonprofit organizations, to nearly 415,000 people in the Washington metropolitan region, 2020 hunger report by the Capital Area Food Bank said.

“We feel very humbled to be able to serve our brothers and sisters in this community who are dealing with food insecurity at a level that we’ve never seen before,” said Matthew L. Watley, senior pastor of Kingdom Fellowship A.M.E. Church. “To see entire families on the brink and vulnerable really gave us a call to stretch out and to try to serve. We’re here until we believe we can make an impact for those who are really in need, and we’re hoping to increase our capacity even further.”

Kingdom Connection Fellowship International. Image credit: Facebook page

Andy Burness, president of the Burness communications firm, a co-founder of Business Leaders Fighting Hunger, and a volunteer at the Rainbow Community Development Center, believes all residents should show up for the community.

“Every county in every city should have businesses coming together to do whatever needs to be done for equity in that county...to solve hunger it’s not just the government, it’s not just the food banks and other nonprofits, it’s not just the businesses, it’s the three working together... public-private partnerships working together to fight hunger and everything else that’s needed to give people a chance at life.”​