‘Feeling Of Helplessness’: Losses For Florida Produce Growers Top $500M As Vegetables Rot In Fields
With restaurants, canning companies and theme parks closed, many Florida growers are having to plow under their crops after letting hunger relief organizations handpick what they need. News about food scarcity is also on millions of SNAP recipients who can't use Instacart and distributing PB&Js to hungry New Yorkers.
The Washington Post:
As Produce Rots In The Field, One Florida Farmer And An Army Of Volunteers Combat ‘A Feeling Of Helplessness’ — One Cucumber At A Time
Hank Scott believes the bright green rows of ripening cucumbers are the best yield on his land since his father started the farm in 1963. During any other spring, he'd oversee an army of workers harvesting cucumbers and shipping truckloads to pickling companies along the East Coast. But the coronavirus pandemic has closed or crippled the businesses where his produce would end up. So instead, Scott, 64, invited volunteer pickers with the Society of St. Andrew, a Christian hunger relief organization, to glean as much produce as they could and donate it to nearby food banks. (Wootson, 4/30)
The New York Times:
For Most Food Stamp Users, Online Shopping Isn’t An Option
Whether they need more yeast for stress baking or the comfort of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Americans sequestered by social distancing are shopping for groceries online. But for many low-income households using food stamps, that can happen only in person. About 38 million people receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but how they can use them is often limited by technology or government policy. That means they must walk the aisles, increasing the possibility of coronavirus exposure for a group of Americans that includes the poor, older people and those with disabilities. (Bernard, 5/1)
The New York Times:
How A Food Bank Manager Spends His Sundays
As a food programs manager at New York Common Pantry, a poverty reduction nonprofit, Jorge Negron works the Sunday shift in East Harlem, making sure that hungry New Yorkers can pick up a brown bag meal on a day when most pantries and soup kitchens are closed. Until the coronavirus outbreak pushed millions of people into unemployment, Mr. Negron said that food insecurity seemed largely under the radar for most New Yorkers. But that’s not the case anymore. (Laterman, 5/1)
