Americans Feel The Crunch as Food Lines Grow
By James Fitzgerald
Food lines on a scale not seen since the Great Depression are springing up across America, and official unemployment rolls suggest 22 million people are out of work, as pandemic restrictions hit small businesses and workforces of all kinds.
The much mooted “Dark Winter” of Covid-19 is here, if media reports are to be believed. Medical pundits predicted in this second wave as early as February, suggesting that it was going to be a multi-year pandemic. Their bravado and cynicism seemed premeditated when other factors are taken into consideration: the “viral strain” has yet to be identified specifically and the PCR-led statistics are inherently flawed, given the very high false/positive rates of the test. The lockdowns, protests, mask mandates and variable and contradictory messages from health bodies, including the World Health Organization, have only added to public confusion and distress. Food lines are now a visible manifestation of the malaise and shuttered response to an “illness” that could have been mitigated by early intervention protocols, such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) zinc and azithromycin.
By Thanksgiving, millions of Americans were relying on food banks as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic reached wallets. In typical dramatic and dystopian style, CNN claimed last week that 50 million Americans would go hungry this year and that it would take eight billion meals to feed them.
Many people spent their small stimulus check on a mortgage or utility payments long ago, with 6.6 percent of mortgages now in delinquency. Critics of the Trump administration say he has not allowed Congress to distribute more financial aid, while Democrats continue to push stay-at-home orders and other mitigation measures.
The congressional bailout that has been bolstering mortgages and extending unemployment runs out at the end of December, putting pressure on lawmakers to pass another relief package.
One of President Trump’s election campaign strategies was to assert that Joe Biden wanted to shut down the economy — something that would disproportionately harm low-income workers. In response, Biden has routinely declared that he would be against such a move.
“I am not going to shut down the economy, period,” Biden told reporters last week. “I’m going to shut down the virus.”
Poor Americans have been disproportionately harmed by the “virus”, and the country is experiencing a K-shaped recovery in which wealthy people are prospering while jobless claims increase. Indeed, investors signaled their optimism last week, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 400 points to surpass 30,000 for the first time in history.
Greg McBride, an analyst at financial advisor Bankrate, expressed surprise at the lift, after months of the economic turmoil caused by Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns.
“What completely is a surprise is the fact that we’ve had this massive pandemic that’s thrown tens of millions of Americans out of work, that saw a 34 percent decline in the market from mid-February to late March, and despite all that, the market has rebounded,” he told CBN News.
In several states, cars can be seen waiting by the hundreds in free food lines. Experts were reported as saying that there was more hunger in the US now than at any point since 1998, when the Census Bureau started collecting comparable data.
In some cases, the handouts have been ill-conceived: a huge food giveaway in Houston that involved free turkeys was met by incredulity because many people lacked the facilities to cook them. Mayor Sylvester Turner told CNN: “That was the most disheartening aspect” of the Thanksgiving distribution program.
According to one estimate by researchers at Northwestern University, food insecurity more than doubled as a result of the economic crisis brought on by actions over the pandemic, hitting as many as 23 percent of households this year.
One in nine people in the US used food stamps in 2019, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits vary depending on individual needs, but the average SNAP benefit for each member of a household was $129 per month in fiscal year 2019.
Due to Covid-19, demand for the SNAP program has been growing. In March, when the Families First Act passed as part of the government’s emergency response to the pandemic, the maximum benefit for SNAP recipients was temporarily expanded 40 percent. According to the New York Times, SNAP grew by 17 percent from February 2020 to May 2020, three times faster than in any previous three-month period.
“About 40 percent of the people who are turning to us for help have never before relied upon the charitable food system,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. “Unfortunately, the food crisis persists.”
States such as California, New York, Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and South Carolina, have reported long lines at their food banks, with people waiting hours to pick up items. In Los Angeles, volunteers said that about 1,000 people lined up outside a food bank on a recent Saturday. Austin, Texas, witnessed about 1,400 cars lined up outside one food bank during the last big handout prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.
The North American meat industry has been forced to implement new protocols and procedures to protect its workforce from the alleged threats posed by the pandemic. “The meat and poultry industry remains vigilant and companies continue to invest, more than $1 billion so far, in significant changes and improvements regarding Covid-19 prevention and control practices to protect the men and women who work in their facilities,” Sarah Little of the North American Meat Institute told Corey’s Digs.
“Using data collected by the FERN and NY Times, positive cases associated with meat packing have gone down even when cases across the country have gone up,” she said.
These hardships of course stretch beyond the US. According to the United Nations World Food Program, the global pandemic could double the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity, from 135 million in 2019 to 265 million in 2020.
“Covid-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread,” said Arif Husain, the program’s chief economist. “It is a hammer blow for millions more who can only eat if they earn a wage. Lockdowns and global economic recession have already decimated their nest eggs. It only takes one more shock — like Covid-19 — to push them over the edge. We must collectively act now to mitigate the impact of this global catastrophe.”
Due to unwarranted lockdowns, resulting in thousands of permanent business closures and loss of employment, families are struggling everywhere. Time for Americans to start thinking outside the box – and to reclaim their sovereignty on new terms.
James Ftizgerald
James Fitzgerald is a senior editor and cutting edge journalist who has worked on national newspapers for 16 years.
14 Comments
David Robertson
“I am not going to shut down the economy, period,” Biden told reporters last week. “I’m going to shut down the virus.”
That’s Newspeak. I heard him say on more than one occasion that he would institute a national lockdown.
Paul Barbara
Surely you don’t expect him to remember that? It was over five minutes ago.
Cecille Chan
Yep, five minutes is too long for him to remember anything.
David Robertson
This is a planned and malevolent attack on the People by the Robber Barons, the big banks and transnational corporations who control governments worldwide. They want to reduce the population by 90% so this is just the beginning.
Paul Barbara
Exactly. And here (if it is genuine, and I find it credible) is some of whay we all may have to face:
‘Possible Leaked Roadmap for the Next Phase of the Agenda’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKCTkLJbtT4&feature=share
Don Head
DAVID ROBERTSON; Sir, there is plenty of evidence, at least in my opinion, that the world has grossly exceeded its carrying capacity over the past 160 years due to the discovery of fossil fuels. Now we find ourselves unable to continue using those fuels either because the burning of those fuels is wrecking the planet due to climate change, extinction of species due to loss of habitat, and increased cost of finding and producing fuels. As a group, we will have to find a solution to the over-population problem at some point in time or nature will do it for us by way of famine, plague, and war. Do you have a better plan?
https://imgur.com/a/pYxKa
Paul Barbara
I believe it was Ghandi who said: ‘There is enough in this world for all the world’s needs, but not for all the world’s greed’.
One of the major causes for species extinction is poisonous pesticides, herbicides and GMO’s, as well as electrosmog and toxic waste.
If I remember correctly, years ago I read that all the people that had ever lived could fit in a cube of one (perhaps two, but a very small number) square mile, and get losy in the Grand Canyon.
But with man’s lust for control, and for wars, and for obscene riches, the talents that could be utilised for utilising the space and technology for humanity is squandered on arms manufacturing and wars.
David Robertson
I don’t but God does and it isn’t killing off 90% of the people He has created. I agree with His Plan and have done for more than 40 years, especially in the past 15 years when I have participated in spiritual warfare to bring an end to this present world order that is called in scripture, Mystery Babylon. That process of disintegration began in 2007/8 with the first banking crisis. It continues.
We are now reaching the end of this Age and the present turbulence will worsen as the rulers of this present darkness seek desperately to prevent their removal from power. In due time everyone will be called to make a decision for Good or for Evil. It seems you have already chosen Evil but the grace of God may permit you to change your mind. Then the King will return and set up His Kingdom on the Earth. His Kingdom is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit and, like love, it will never end.
miles e drake
The simple fact is that the First American Republic is dead, and we have the choice between an empire as in ancient Rome, in which the commoners were given bread and circuses in return for obedience to a corrupt oligarchy, or the chance that was given to Rome of a Second Republic, purged of degeneracy, decadence, perversion and mongrelism and rededicated to Judeo-Christian traditions and Anglo-Saxon governance and jurisprudence. It is time for a revolution like those led by Franco and Pinochet, which will put the satanists, socialists and sodomites where they need to be put and then restore the productive capacities of capitalism generally and American exceptionalism particularly. People in this country are going to starve, and they are going to starve because of the illegitimate Chinese puppet regime of Biteme and Klamidya Harridan. Biden delendum est! #NotMyPresident. #StolenElection. #F-ckBiden. #Resist.
GR
Mr. Don Head, I gather you agree, at least tacitly, in the work of the cabal in reducing world population. You are suggesting it; are you not, that is your question if David Robertson had a better plan? Oh, and by the way, global warming (or its more recent expression, “climate change”) was originally conceptualized by the Club of Rome and brought into the public conscience in 1968. It’s much too easy to blame all of our problems on climate change (not to mention a huge divergence from the truth). We need to examine and research other proposed reasons for our collective problems (famine, plaques, and wars), which is just what Mr. Robertson appears to be doing in his recent post.
Dennis W Rayburn
Don Head, you need to watch “The Great Global Warming Swindle”. Climate change is a farce and this Covid thing has been out since the early 2000’s. Also, read the “Plague of Corruption” by Dr. Judy Micovitz. You’re being played and have believed the lying Lamestream media.
Chris
Now we have two classes of people, the person who works for government (every level from city to federal) and the person who does not work for the government. The private sector of our economy is hanging on by a thread with no hope in sight. Here in NM, we have lines to purchase food and to receive food from a food bank, modern day “bread lines”.
EWM
This will happen when people are duped into believing that there is someone who is good enough to rule over them.
rob connolly
WELL HERE GOES ALL RESEARCHABLE AND AFFIRMATIVE …THERE IS NO DEADLYTY COVID YET UNLESS THE HIV VACCINE LUCIFER ASE HR 6666 PATENT 060606 MRNA SELF REPLICATING VACCINE CREATES AEROSOL HIV THIS NEW VIRYUS THE NLP MK ULTRA MAINNSTREAM MMEDIA TALKING POINTS AND CROWN SAGENNTS REL;IGION MILITARY MASONIC MINIONS AND MEDIA …..PSY OP ON A L.A R G E scale .ALL SO BILL GATES FAUCI QUEENS AGENTS ARE INNOPCULATING W MARK OF THE BEAST LUCIFER ACE SO NO BUY SELL CRFYPTO NWO ANNOUNBCED BY CORPORATE CROWN TEMPLE JESUIT CATHOLIC JUDEOMASONIC UN WEF GLOBAL DAVOS RESET