Pandemic relief needs a focus on food

Our state and local governments are working to decide how best to restart our economies, open our schools and help families regain their footing. Decisions made now will fundamentally define the generation ahead.

In my work supporting food needs in the suburbs of New Jersey, I see how important these decisions will be. At Toni’s Kitchen, the soup kitchen and food pantry I oversee, we have watched our grocery and hot meal counts rise from an average of 4,300 meals per week just two months ago to over 20,000 last week. This increase reflects previously stable residents who, overnight, lost their footing. And we know we have not yet seen this need peak. As weeks turn to months, mortgages will become harder to pay and landlords will grow more impatient. Our pantry will become busier.

Yet, because COVID-19 has impacted such a broad spectrum of previously stable residents, this moment also presents some unique opportunities. Making healthy food readily available to a broader population can be a relatively easy and cost-effective way to provide not only the obvious nutritional support but also to inject meaningful financial relief into the system without the bureaucracy and barriers of other financial relief programs. Given the opportunity for broad and significant impact, this is a potential solution we should explore implementing expansively and quickly.

Direct food support programs will be active in the coming year regardless of any actions taken by state and local governments. Food banks and local distribution networks are already seeing historic levels of demand for food. However, if state-level recovery planning reimagines food distribution as a key lever for stabilizing broader populations, including those whose finances are disrupted but who are not yet in crisis, we can activate this distribution network differently and reach families more quickly and with better outcomes. 

This work would include retooling food programs to actively welcome new participants with generous levels of food support. Qualification standards would need to be replaced by barrier-free access and branding and messaging programs to normalize participation. Families would need to be encouraged to use food support distributions early, before depleting their financial resources, not only for their own well-being but also to accelerate the economic recovery process. Families trying to tough it out and use all their financial cushion before reaching out for help will be at risk of losing their housing. Once housing is lost, the road to recovery becomes much tougher - for families and for our broader economy. In effect, robust participation is for the common good.

I saw this opportunity today when I chatted with a new visitor to Toni’s Kitchen — Wendy, an airport worker whose hours have been significantly reduced. As Wendy collected groceries for her husband (a furloughed electrician) and two children, she told me how lucky she was because she still had some income. I thought about how fortunate her family was that she had the foresight to reach out for help before they were down to their last dime. The reliably available food we provide her family frees her to focus their limited financial resources on retaining their housing.  

Effective implementation of this approach to reach those who are not thinking like Wendy will need to include trusted community partners. At Toni’s Kitchen, our more than 60 local community partners have always played essential roles in food outreach. These partners provide the relationships and appropriate messaging to reach diverse food insecure populations – seniors, families, immigrants, college students, teens aging out of foster care, home healthcare aides, and of course the homeless and near-homeless. In the face of expanded and changed food insecure populations, these are important partners to help normalize food outreach on the local level, encouraging more of our residents to reach out sooner. 

This is a moment we can take a tangible step to reduce anxiety, improve core nutrition and shorten the recovery period for our economy and communities. If we continue to view food distribution as a support for very low-income populations, we miss the opportunity to pivot and consider how to leverage this approach to its maximum collective benefit.

There is abundant opportunity to use food as a relatively low-cost, easy-to-implement boost to stabilize families, strengthen seniors and build the resilience needed to find our way back to fully functional communities and economic life. It is an opportunity worthy of thoughtful, innovative exploration.

For opportunities to help the food insecure and support Toni’s Kitchen from the comfort of your home, please click here

Anne Mernin is the Executive Director of Toni’s Kitchen at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 73 S Fullerton Ave, Montclair, NJ 07042.