More families relying on charity to help put food on the table, NC State study finds
On the corner of New Bern Avenue and East Street, the Helping Hand Mission keeps a small “blessings box” filled with sack lunches and canned corn or chick peas — free food for the needy.
Since the pandemic struck Raleigh in March, the mission has watched demand for emergency meals shoot up about 35%, said director Sylvia Wiggins. So Helping Hand added the sidewalk pantry a few months back, knowing it would help people too shy to seek charity — many of them still employed.
Now, in the pandemic’s ninth month, the mission stocks it five times a day.
“This thing hit everybody,” Wiggins said. “We see them across the aisles: working people, different populations. There’s a lot of people who are very prideful.”
The mission’s story reflects a growing reality statewide, according to a recent N.C. State University study. More people report their food is not lasting long enough to feed their families during the pandemic, and they lack money to get more.
The study, published in the October Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development, surveyed 383 people in May and June through various North Carolina cooperative extensions and public health departments.
Of those people responding:
▪ 42% said they expected less household income due to COVID-19.
▪ 7% said their household groceries did not last long enough during the pandemic months, rising from 1.8% before COVID-19 set in.
▪ 7.6% said they often worried about having too little to eat, a figure that more than doubled during the pandemic months.
▪ 6.1% said they couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals, more than tripling in the pandemic months.
“What’s more concerning to me is that based on all six food security questions, we are trending in the wrong direction for every single question,” said Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at N.C. State, and one of the study’s authors.
“Pre-pandemic, our state already had 1 in 5 children and 1 in 7 adults struggling to put food on the table,” she said. “We don’t have the luxury to trend in the wrong direction now.”
Friends and family supplementing government aid
The study highlights how much relief has come from friends, family and charity.
Once the pandemic hit, it took time for any government response to trickle down, Haynes-Maslow said. Federal resources like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, grew more flexible, allowing online food shopping and providing emergency supplements.
The study showed that 51% of people reported receiving federal assistance, yet about one-third of that group said they got extra food gifts from relatives and friends. Another 11% sought help from food pantries.
“Our state has a lot of pride and we are driven by a need to help people,” Haynes-Maslow said in an email. “When the pandemic hit our country, it took time for the state and federal government to create policies, passing these policies, implementing policies, and then ensuring North Carolinians knew about the policies that were there to help them.”
Meanwhile, the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina said need has increased by 38% across its 34-county service area, affecting roughly 750,000 people. In four months since March, the agency spent $2.3 million buying food — more than twice its normal budget.
Both the Food Bank and Helping Hand are hungry for donations. At Helping Hand, Wiggins said, generous gifts came in the early months of COVID-19, but they have since slowed as the new normal sunk in.
Still, a few days ago, she found an encouraging note when she went to refill the blessings box. Someone had left a note inside.
“Thank you for helping me,” it read. “I’ve got a couple of kids, and I don’t like to beg.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 3:30 PM with the headline "More families relying on charity to help put food on the table, NC State study finds."