As the Dow Jones reaches record highs, climbing past the 30,000 points and carrying the pockets of the richest in the country, Greg Meyer of Soldotna, Alaska, tries to figure out how to feed his community.
Meyer, executive director of Kenai Peninsula Food Bank in south-central Alaska, makes sure people have enough food on the table in one of the most difficult regions of the country. Alaska residents, who were already in a budget crisis, were hit hard by Covid-19: oil prices were tanking, the Canadian border was closing, tourism was declining, seasonal fishing was hampered by travel restrictions, and cruise ships were no longer on the shores of the state – not to mention the rising case numbers. The demand for food aid on the Kenai Peninsula has become impossible to provide.
Help came in the form of the Farmers to Families Food Box program of the Agriculture Division.
As part of the $ 19 billion Coronavirus Food Aid Program, the Department of Agriculture announced in April that it would set up partnerships between food banks and food distributors, whose workforce was “significantly affected by the closure of many restaurants, hotels and other food services.” entities. “Through the partnerships, the Department of Agriculture has delivered packaged boxes of fresh produce, dairy products and meat to food banks such as Meyer, ready to meet the rising demand.
The boxes were a success, giving people on the Kenai Peninsula and elsewhere access to food of a previously unattainable quality and quantity. From April to December, the Department of Agriculture hosted four rounds of the program, delivering more than 110 million boxes nationwide.
Despite logistical challenges, the boxes filled with high-quality food cut off the middleman, make delivery easier and keep the products fresh, while providing the necessary relief to food banks, whose demand has risen rapidly when Covid-19 in each corner of the country. Distributors and charities said the program was effective. The people who received the boxes were satisfied with the product. However, the final round of the program ends with 2020, and it is unclear whether it will continue in 2021.
“It was a very emotional week for our community,” Meyer said. “We let everyone know this is the last time we have the boxes, and people do not know what to do.”
In October 2019, the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank distributed 80,670 pounds of food. In October 2020, the number tripled to 242,479 pounds – 112,500 of the pounds come from Boers to family boxes.
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said that “with the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 becoming law, the Department of Agriculture is evaluating all funding options for food purchases.” The spokesman did not specifically comment on the future of the program.
In Kenai, the boxes not only provided a significant amount of food, but also a quality that most people had not seen before. Transportation, Meyer believes, often stands in the way of getting fresh food to needy families in Alaska, where the growing season is incredibly short. The Seward Highway, which winds through the peninsula, is more aptly described as a two-lane road. A winter storm could bury the road in 3 feet of snow in a matter of hours, and cuts in the plow schedule mean residents could be isolated from Anchorage, where most food is distributed. In addition, the pruning of the ferry resulted in fewer boats arriving, and if a boat has a mechanical problem or is temporarily out of order due to exposure to Covid-19, it may not occur. Winter is already making expensive air travel even more difficult.
A liter of milk can cost $ 12 on the Kenai Peninsula. In winter, residents are happy to get even products with longer shelf life, such as potatoes or cabbage.
Recently, a fall from an avalanche hit the truck used by the Kenai Food Bank to deliver groceries when it was on its way to residents in remote villages. The windshield is broken, the truck full of food boxes from the Department of Agriculture needed repairs and the Alaskans Meyer ministries were hungry. People in Meyer’s work have plenty of challenges; the possible disappearance of the program adds another.
In Nebraska, Brian Bank, CEO of Food Bank for the Heartland, hopes the program will continue.
“I really hope that our leaders in Washington will look at this program and the benefit it brings and consider promoting it,” he said.
Its food bank, which serves most of Nebraska and parts of western Iowa, would spend about $ 80,000 a month on food before the pandemic. For January to June 2021, it was budgeted to spend $ 1.5 million per month. The need is through the roof and it does not slow down.
“Food security usually lags behind an economic recovery,” Barks said. “We’re going to see a greater demand for a significant amount of time.”
Food Bank for the Heartland was preparing for the end of the program and, through community support and the state, obtained enough funding to recreate the Farmers to Families program on a small scale. But the quality of the product offered by the Department of Agriculture program is difficult to match, Barks said.
Food banks usually assure what Barks said you could call ‘seconds’ – foods that are good to eat but not an A-level product. ‘These boxes, directly from producers, were according to A-level.
“People who are in a position that needs food help, especially those who are navigating for the first time, need to be shown that they matter and that they deserve to get high quality food like everyone else,” he said.
Ginette Bott, president and CEO of Utah Food Bank, hopes the program will continue, but says the organization is preparing to do without it.
“It would be great if it did happen, but we do not count on it,” she said. “Families around us affected by the pandemic will not return on New Year’s Day.”
The Utah Food Bank, Bott said, is looking at long-term sustainability plans as it expects it to remain at record levels.
On the Kenai Peninsula, the possible end of the program adds another layer of darkness to Alaska’s harsh winters.
“Our community is generous, but we can not duplicate any program,” Meyer said.
People who got the boxes thanked him a lot, rejoicing at seeing fresh vegetables and milk with a long shelf life that they do not have to freeze.
“Earlier in the year, we got lettuce,” Meyer said. “It’s a great treat here.”