This report gives a dramatic glimpse of people lined up to get help from a local food bank in San Antonio:
From The San Antonio Express-News:
In perhaps the most sobering reminder yet of the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the San Antonio Food Bank aided about 10,000 households Thursday in a record-setting giveaway at a South Side flea market.
“It was a rough one today,” said Food Bank president and CEO Eric Cooper after the largest single-day distribution in the nonprofit’s 40-year history. “We have never executed on as large of a demand as we are now.”
Thursday’s drive-thru at Traders Village was the fourth such event for the Food Bank since March 31.
Over that desperation-filled 10-day span, the agency has fed about 15,500 households, with each distribution drawing more than the first. Cooper said the Food Bank is planning two more giveaways for next week, possibly on Tuesday and Friday, but he’s not sure it can get them done without help from “the National Guard or somebody.”
“Our staff and our volunteers, I don’t know if we can keep up the pace that the demand is requiring,” he said. “We’ve got to debrief and figure things out, but we just can’t feed this many people at one time without probably the Guard or somebody helping us.”
About 6,000 households preregistered for Thursday’s distribution on the Food Bank’s website, Cooper said. But thousands more showed up, hoping to put something on their tables.
With so many unregistered families coming in beyond what was anticipated, the event didn’t end until nearly 6 p.m., some four hours after its scheduled closing time on a muggy day when temperatures soared into the 90s.
Read more. I fear we’re going to see more of this in the days and weeks to come.
