Texas food banks have crashed as they step up operations to combat rising hunger after unprecedented freezing conditions have disrupted almost every part of the state’s food supply chain.
Supermarkets are empty, school lunches suspended and deliveries interrupted by treacherous untreated roads that have left millions of Texans stranded in precarious living conditions, with ever-diminishing food supplies.
Even those who stocked up before Arctic conditions arrived lost refrigerated supplies due to long power cuts and cannot cook what they have without electricity or gas.
In the most affected areas, food banks and pantries were forced to close for several days this week as it was impossible for employees and vehicles to reach distribution points. Aid was limited to disaster boxes sent to people seeking refuge in heating shelters.
On Thursday, the interruption of the supply of energy and drinking water made the food banks strive to acquire large quantities of bottled water and ready meals and snacks that do not need to be cooked.
“This is a disaster. We are doing quick needs assessments so that we can provide adequate food to these people quickly. When everything thaws, we will be preparing for a huge spike in demand,” said Valerie Hawthorne, director of government relations for North Texas Food Bank, based in Dallas, “This has been the longest week of our lives.”
Before the big freeze, this food bank operated two drive-through food distribution sites every day, serving between 300 and 1,500 families in each emerging location. This week all have been canceled, although one is planned for Saturday, leaving thousands of families without enough food or dependent on relatives, neighbors and mutual aid groups.
In addition to regulars, advocates expect an increase in the number of underpaid service workers – who are often just one or two paychecks from hunger and will not receive this week because many restaurants and bars have been forced to close.
Hunger was a serious problem in Texas even before the pandemic and the latest climate disaster, with an estimated 4.3 million Texans battling hunger in 2019, including one in five children.
Covid unleashed an economic crisis that led to a demand for food aid doubling in many parts of Texas amid record levels of unemployment and underemployment.
The extraordinary freeze once again exposed the deep inequalities that will make recovery for low-income families much more difficult, according to Brian Greene, CEO of Houston Food Bank. “The consequences of each disaster are much more difficult for low-income families, who will have more problems even after energy and water return,” he said.
Nearly two-fifths of Americans do not have enough money or savings to handle an unexpected $ 400 expense, such as broken pipes or a collapsed roof, according to Federal Reserve research,
In rural Brazoria County, south of Houston, the pantry reopened on Thursday and served 140 families in just two hours – compared to 170 families normally seen over the course of a typical week. About 75% were newbies desperate for food and water and received enough for three days, since that was all the pantry had available.
“It’s crazy. People are out of options. They went into survival mode to get what they could,” said Terri Willis, executive director of the Brazoria County Dream Center, which operates the pantry. “We are all in disaster mode.”
Long lines extend outside supermarkets with empty shelves and the water supply was interrupted by boiling warnings and burst pipes; electricity is needed for those in rural areas with private wells.
Willis is particularly concerned about vulnerable children in the district, as his organization often provides a backpack with weekend meals for 620 children who would otherwise go hungry. Schools are closed, so these children will be without. “It is heartbreaking. I’m one of those kids who go hungry on the weekend. I’m praying that your parents can get here, ”said Willis.
In Dallas, young people are also a major concern: 87% of school-age children across the city live in low-income families. Thousands depend on free school lunches, with some receiving four meals a day – breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner – but many schools were unable to offer this week due to power cuts, burst pipes, water shortages and shortages.
Defenders are also concerned about the city’s older residents, who depend on food aid to get enough to eat and may have been deprived of all services for several days. “It is the elderly who have kept most of us awake this week. They really are the most vulnerable population, and we just don’t know how many were unable to call 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 milk producers across the state are pouring millions of dollars of milk down the drain because they cannot take it to the dairy. . The fall in production can have short and medium term consequences on availability and prices.
Scientists have long warned that global warming is causing extreme weather events to become more frequent and intense – and to reach unaccustomed and ill-equipped places to deal with extreme heat or freezing temperatures.
The Texas food disruption shows how ill-prepared the United States 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 strange climate is here and that it is already impacting the food chain,” she said.