Post by Admin on Apr 5, 2020 10:01:57 GMT -4
COVID-19 Causes Record High Need Among Hungry Families
The unprecedented social changes that have spread across the United States alongside the COVID-19 have brought with them hunger to many needy families at skyrocketing rates.
“I have never had an awareness of anything so jarring, so replete with challenges as what the charitable food system is facing right now and that’s because of what it means for people who are facing hunger,” Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot told Fox News.
Feeding America is on the front line of defense for those families who have limited resources and even less time to find nutritional support.
Feeding America is the nation’s largest hunger relief organization and was one of the two charities that benefited from the FOX and iHeart Media’s “Living Room Concert for America” which raised more than $10 million, and counting.
Feeding America, however, wanted it to be known that that while they are incredibly grateful for the donations thus far, more is still needed to keep needy families supplied.
“What FOX has done is more than the money, and the money is substantial,” Babineaux-Fontenot said.
“The money, in and of itself, is huge …” Babineaux-Fontenot said adding that the awareness that was raised by the concert has driven people not only to donate but to reach out to local food banks and find other ways to be part of the needed relief.
“…in addition to that, the number of people who viewed that concert who had no idea their neighbors were having a food crisis. That is one of the biggest single events in our history,” she said.
According to Fox News, their corporation as well as Facebook made joint donations to Feeding America’s COVID-19 response fund. Additionally, Jeff Bezos has promised to donate $100 million to the relief effort, however the charity says that their need is still expected to exceed their recent gains.
“The people who are showing up, so many of them, are people who have never needed us before. There are roughly 40 million people who rely on us for help every year, in one way or another, and we’re seeing those numbers grow, in some places more than 50 percent,” Babineaux-Fontenot said.
“People who never dreamt they would need the charitable food system to feed themselves and their family are showing up,” the CEO said during their interview. She went on to say that she hopes Americans know how much can be done, even with a small donation.
“If somebody provides us with $1, that’s 10 meals. That’s huge. If all that they can muster is $1, and they find a dollar in a crisis to share with a neighbor, I applaud that dollar. I applaud every penny that people provide to this work and I want to honor every single donation,” Babineaux-Fontenot said.
“We serve every county and parish where hunger lives,” Babineaux-Fontenot. “We serve in the gap for people who just cannot makes ends meet no matter how they try and they find themselves not able to provide food for themselves and their family.”
