Pandemic causes higher food prices and longer lines at Bucks pantries
Erika Vasquez dragged a Radio Flyer toy wagon through the parking lot outside Cornwells United Methodist Church in Bensalem.
Twice a week, she brings the red wagon to a church-sponsored food pantry. She fills the wagon with fruits, vegetables, bread and juice boxes.
She then takes it home, unloads the groceries, and returns the toy wagon to her two young boys.
Hunger in Bucks County is not new. For nearly a decade, the United Way of Bucks County has organized annual campaigns to raise money for local food assistance.
Yet hunger here and elsewhere has grown a pace as the pandemic impacts not only local jobs but also global food distribution and rising food prices.
To that end, the United Way of Bucks County aims to raise $100,000 for food assistance and to collect 30,000 pounds of food for those who need help. This year’s Bucks Knocks Out Hunger campaign hopes to provide healthy food as opposed to cheaper alternatives that can cause or worsen existing health conditions among the poor.
Help provide healthy food:How you can help BKO Hunger provide Bucks County food pantries with healthier options
Healthy things that grow on trees often cost more than high-calorie prepared meals. At the supermarket, you could pay $2 for an organic apple. At a local fast food joint, a double cheeseburger is $1.69.
Coronavirus restrictions could soon further increase food prices in the United States, warned Maximo Torero, chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
American farms “rely heavily on seasonal farmworkers who are unable to travel because of virus restrictions, including the suspension of routine visa services by some embassies,” warned Torero in an April 23 article published in the science journal Nature.
U.S. food prices are already high, according the USDA. Last year, the price of foods consumed at home increased by 3.5%, according to the agency.
The largest price increases were for meat. Beef and veal prices increased by 9.6%, pork prices by 6.3%, and poultry prices by 5.6%, according to government estimates.
Hardest hit were moms with kids under age 12, research shows.
The Brookings Institution conducted a 2020 survey of 2,190 adults nationwide. Among moms with children young children, 17% said the “children in my household were not eating enough because we just could not afford enough food.”
The United Way of Bucks County estimates as many as 30,000 additional county residents became food insecure during the coronavirus pandemic.
Feeding America, a national network of more than 200 food pantries, estimates that 7% of Bucks County residents, or 44,320 people, do not have enough food to eat.
Of those persons, 55% make too much money to quality for SNAP food benefits.
“We have many people who have been impacted for the very first time,” said Timothy Philpot, impact director for financial stability and health at the United Way.
“The current situation really means that our hunger relief sites have become even more vital,” Philpot continued. “We’re glad that they are able to get help, but it is also stressing the system.”
The United Way of Bucks County says it welcomes donations of all kinds, though healthy perishable items are in high demand. “Bucks Knocks Out Hunger will support our ability to get foods in that are not usually donated such as eggs, cheese, and milk,” Philpot said.
Knock out hunger:The pandemic left 30,000 Bucks County residents without enough food. Help the United Way Knock Out Hunger
How you can help Knock Out Hunger
There are multiple ways you can help the United Way restock the food pantries before summer hits.
Organize a food drive for your neighborhood, community or work group.
Sign up at uwbucks.org to volunteer to receive and process donated food at one of five scheduled events.
Sign-up to promote the Bucks Knocks Out Hunger campaign on social media.
Drop off food at one of five scheduled events:
- 9 a.m. to noon, Friday, June 18, Central Bucks High School West parking lot, 375 West Court St., Doylestown
- 9 a.m. to noon, Friday, June 18, St Luke’s University Hospital parking lot, 300 St Luke’s Drive at John Fries Highway, Quakertown
- 9 a.m. to noon, Friday, June 18, Neshaminy Mall parking lot, next to the Barnes & Noble
- 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 19, Bucks County Community College main campus, 275 Swamp Rd, Newtown
- 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, June 19, the HELP Center, 197 Commerce Circle, Bristol
For more information on the Bucks Knocks Out Hunger Campaign, visit https://www.uwbucks.org
Contact reporter James McGinnis at [email protected]
