Hunger Report 2020

For 40 years, the Capital Area Food Bank has been addressing hunger in the Washington metropolitan area. This is an unprecedented moment in our history as COVID-19 reshapes the future of our region and the world.

Before the current pandemic, the food bank was providing 30 million meals annually, both directly and through a network of more than 450 nonprofit organizations, to nearly 415,000 people in our region experiencing food insecurity. As a client-centered and data-driven organization, we are continuously in search of information and studies to help us better respond to the needs of the people we serve. We had conceived of this report as a way to pull together the numerous but disparate data about food insecurity in the metropolitan Washington area. 

We had observed that while there are a significant amount of data available about food insecurity and other related issues at the state and national levels, a single, holistic look at hunger in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and northern Virginia was not readily available for use by our broader community of service providers, policymakers, and other interested members of the public. Such a snapshot, we felt, would help to inform and accelerate work being done to advance food security and increase equity in the greater Washington area.

We had planned to issue this report in early April 2020. By the beginning of March, however, it was fast becoming clear that the context in which we had created it was shifting rapidly. We paused its completion and release.

Now, some months later, the world has changed. Daily life is altered. Conversations about whether and when to reopen schools and workplaces that have been operating remotely for months are ongoing. Many businesses have been shuttered, first temporarily and some now permanently. Unemployment has skyrocketed. And the demand for emergency food in our community has soared and shows no signs of declining any time soon.

As we assessed this new landscape, we realized that while our external environment has changed dramatically, the need for cohesive information about food security across our region is more important than ever. 

In the near term, data must inform regional actors across sectors as they respond to the immediate economic crisis brought about by the pandemic. In the longer term, new strategies, partnerships, and policies will be required to address the significant rise in economic hardship and food insecurity in the wake of COVID-19. They will also be needed to address, as part of a broader rebuilding process, many of the entrenched inequities in our region and across the U.S. In recent months, these inequities have been laid bare as never before by both the impacts of the coronavirus and by a broad movement highlighting the systemic forces that perpetuate poverty and food insecurity in our country.

This report seeks to inform those important conversations so that we emerge as a stronger, more resilient region with a more inclusive local economy. 

We know that there will inevitably be gaps and areas in which the data in this first report can be improved upon. Our intent is to create a starting point and to invite further collaboration that will strengthen future reporting.

Even as the world has shifted, our aim remains the same: to increase food security in our region; to inspire action that helps solve hunger here and across the country; and to harness food’s significant power to enable brighter futures for all people. 

• Food desert — While there are many ways to define this term, as well as other preferred terminologies, this report uses the definition of “ food desert ” jointly developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Treasury, and U.S. Health and Human Services, which categorizes food deserts as low-income Census tracts with a substantial number or share of residents with low levels of access to retail outlets selling healthy and affordable foods.

• Food insecurity —  Food insecurity , as defined by USDA, is “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food security is measured through the  Current Population Survey  administered by the U.S. Census Bureau and has multiple levels of severity: high, marginal, low and very low.

• Hunger — Hunger is a physical symptom of a lack of adequate food. It is not a quantifiable term, but rather a description of the result that reducing one’s food intake can have. Hunger and food insecurity are not synonymous, though they are closely related. 

• Inequity — For the purposes of this report, inequity refers to an uneven distribution of resources or opportunity relative to status or need. Unlike “inequality,” which assumes all people should receive equal shares of support from the systems around them, the term “inequity” assumes that systems should work in favor of those starting with lower resources and opportunity, not against them.

• Living wage —  Living wage  is a measure of the local wage rate that allows residents to meet minimum standards of living. As defined by its creator, Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier, “The living wage model is a market-based approach that draws upon geographically specific expenditure data related to a family’s likely minimum food, child care, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items, etc.) costs.” For a detailed description of the methodology used in the calculation, see the technical documentation  here . 

• Washington Metropolitan Area (or Greater Washington Area) — The Washington, DC metropolitan area, as used in this report, refers to the District of Columbia; Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William Counties in Virginia; and Alexandria City, Virginia. (Within Fairfax County are included Fairfax City and Falls Church City. Within Prince William County are included Manassas City and Manassas Park City.

Food insecurity is a highly complex issue for which there can be many causes. Unlike hunger, which is a physical experience, food insecurity could best be described as the effect of several other forms of  material insecurity . People who do not have the resources they need to secure enough food are often confronting multiple, sometimes  intersecting issues  such as low wages, lack of affordable housing, low access to transportation, social isolation, mental health issues, chronic or acute health problems, or high medical bills.

While  food insecurity  is often a symptom of economic hardship, it also creates a profound gap in economic opportunity across our area by undercutting the ability of our neighbors to learn, work, and stay healthy. When people lack the good food they need,  everything becomes harder . Children and teens can’t concentrate in school, and academic performance often suffers. Adults struggle to focus and finding or retaining work becomes more challenging. Seniors are at increased risk for health problems that impact quality and length of life. Fundamentally, hunger robs human potential, which undermines the strength of our economy and our society.

By most high-level indicators, this has long been considered a highly affluent region with a thriving economy. In 2019, the  five counties  with the highest median household income in the U.S. were all in the Washington Metropolitan area.

 These trends  are exacerbated by the high cost of living in our region. In the Washington metropolitan area, the  living wage  is nearly three times the  federal poverty level . Hundreds of thousands of individuals in Greater Washington live above the poverty line but still make less than the living wage and can find themselves struggling with food insecurity as their resources are stretched thin.

In light of all these facts, it is not surprising that even before the pandemic, nearly 415,000 people in the Washington, DC metropolitan area didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from.

As the pandemic’s immediate economic impacts began to take hold in early 2020, it became clear in only a matter of weeks how fragile the financial security of thousands of households in the region was. When the service, restaurant, hospitality, and entertainment industries, among others, quickly closed down, the jobs, paychecks, and economic stability of people across the area suddenly evaporated.

According to a 2019 national  report  by the Urban Institute, even before the economic impacts of the coronavirus, 44% of hourly and self-employed workers experienced difficulty paying for basic needs such as housing, utilities, food, or medical care (more than double the rate of salaried workers).

Among low-wage workers in particular, of which there are  950,000  in the Washington metro area,  75%  spent more than 30% of their income on rent and had thin financial reserves to prepare them for a sudden loss of income. Across the U.S. in 2019, 40% of households reported they would not be able to pay an unexpected expense of $400, according to a  survey  by the Federal Reserve Board.

Data are still emerging about the economic impacts of COVID-19 on specific population segments, but early indications suggest that if they are not addressed, the opportunity gaps that currently undermine our region’s economy will only widen further.

Economists who have studied the Great Recession of 2007-2009 concluded that its overall economic effect was to further  widen the country’s wealth gap , or the spread between the highest and lowest earners. By many indications, the current crisis is set to follow the same pattern. This is due in part to the  disproportionate share  of jobs impacted by the pandemic that were held by people of color, immigrants, women, and young people.

In the Washington metropolitan area, multiple studies have found high rates of occupational segregation, meaning people of color are overrepresented in particular industries. The economic impacts of the pandemic only highlight this disproportion: Workers in sectors affected by the crisis are more likely to be people of color than workers in other sectors. One  study  by the Urban Institute found that workers of color are more likely to hold service sector jobs highly impacted by the crisis.

Additionally, a  study  by the Brookings Institution found that these workers are less likely to have financial savings or own homes (and therefore resources to draw on to weather an economic crisis); less likely to have health insurance; and less likely to have access to education or training that would enable them to quickly acquire new skills or redeploy their existing skills in a new position.

When these individuals lose the income that allows them to reliably afford enough food, causing them to slip into a food insecure status on top of their many other challenges, the physical and economic effects compound, increasing the level of hardship experienced by hundreds of thousands of individuals across the Washington metropolitan area.

There has been no shortage of reporting on the economic effects of the pandemic on our region. From March 1 to July 4, 2020, more than 539,000 new unemployment insurance claims were filed in the Capital Area Food Bank’s service area — that’s nearly 14% of the working-age population (compiled from state employment offices in  DC ,  MD , and  VA ). Individuals working for low pay were hit hardest. According to an  analysis  by the Urban Institute, almost 160,000 of the jobs lost in the Washington metropolitan area as of July 2, 2020 were low-wage jobs, primarily in the hospitality and food services sectors.

Many of the people impacted by this sudden plummet in employment are receiving assistance from  pandemic response policies  and  programs  that increase public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps); allow deferrals of credit card, mortgage, or rent payments; and offer increased unemployment benefits. However, many of these programs are soon set to expire, and even while they have been in place, financial hardship across the region has remained significant. Not all eligible individuals are benefitting from available programs, and for many who are, the effects are  limited , or only  push off mounting debts  to a future due date. 

For the Capital Area Food Bank and other hunger relief organizations, an issue of primary concern is to what degree the pandemic is causing an increase in food insecurity, and the potential duration of that increase. National reporting on this topic has been mixed, with some analyses finding  drastic increases  in food insecurity, while others report  relatively unchanged levels . Our own local information tells us that our network of nonprofit partners has been seeing between 30% to 400% increases in the numbers of people coming through their doors.

The disparity across these data points speaks to the many challenges around economic analysis in this extremely fluid environment. How to account for the effects of federal economic support to families; what to assume about who is and is not taking advantage of those programs; and when these benefits will expire are just a few of the questions that the food bank and others are considering as we seek to estimate the growth of food insecurity over the next year.

Since 2011,  Feeding America , the nation’s network organization of over 200 food banks, has been using public data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to assess levels of food insecurity across the nation. Its calculations, which are based on the statistical relationships between food insecurity and its determinants (poverty, unemployment, median income, demographic and household characteristics, food prices, etc.), are released in an annual report called  Map the Meal Gap .

In May 2020, Feeding America released  county-level projections  of food insecurity over the course of the coming year based on three possible scenarios of increasingly dire changes to unemployment and poverty rates as a result of the pandemic. Of these scenarios, the most likely based on  recent data  from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically, a 7.6 percentage point increase in unemployment and a 1.5 to 4.8 percentage point increase in poverty — would result in an additional 200,000 to 250,000 food insecure individuals being added to the existing 413,000. This translates to a 48% to 60% increase in food insecurity for the region.

For the map below, click and drag the slider to see the effects of COVID-19 on food insecurity in Greater Washington. The map on the left shows the food insecure population before COVID-19, and the map on the right shows predictions for food insecurity over the coming year. Click on the icon in the lower left of the map for the legend.

It is important to note that a variety of factors will influence the real increase in food insecurity, including the trajectory of the pandemic, the pace of recovery for the most vulnerable populations, and the nature and duration of federal economic support to families. On this last issue, as more information emerges on the extent to which policies such as the CARES Act are shielding households from experiencing food insecurity, that data can be incorporated into these projections. While the Capital Area Food Bank continues to monitor these analyses, we will also continue to rely heavily on the information we receive directly from the food assistance nonprofits in our network that are meeting the ongoing need for emergency food. 

Prior to the pandemic, the Capital Area Food Bank conducted significant research into the different segments of the food insecure population in Greater Washington. This was done to better understand the great diversity among them and to design programs and services accordingly. Publicly available data and our direct engagement with clients through focus groups and surveys suggest together that individuals and communities are experiencing the challenges of food insecurity in different ways and for different reasons. These differences, we felt, merited examination in greater detail. The following section is a result of that analysis. 

As we explore the many groups experiencing food insecurity by age, family makeup, and the other variables below, we must first acknowledge the plain fact that food insecurity, while it can and does impact people of all races in our region, disproportionately affects communities of color. Based on the most recent comprehensive  data  available from Feeding America, the clients served by the food bank are 46.1% Black; 37.8% Latinx; and 6.5% White, with 9.6% identifying as some other race. Of the 100 census tracts with the highest rates of food insecurity in Greater Washington, 99 have populations that are majority Black. 

The overrepresentation of people of color, and in particular of Black people, among the food insecure population is an extension of the many inequities detailed earlier in this report that result from numerous longstanding, systemic injustices. While this report does not aim to enumerate or explore them all, it does reflect one of their profound cumulative effects: the perpetuation of hunger and food insecurity among communities of color.

It is worth noting that early  research  suggests many individuals made newly food insecure as a result of the pandemic’s economic impacts will fall into these same segments, further deepening the fault lines of economic insecurity in our communities. While local-level data were not available at the time of this report,  national level data  indicate that about four in ten Black adults (45%) and Latinx (39%) say they have skipped meals or relied on charity or government food programs since the onset of COVID-19, including three in ten Black adults and about a quarter (26%) of Latinx who say their experiences were directly related to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

With that demographic overlay, the following examines some of the specific segments of the population experiencing food insecurity and the ways in which the impacts of the coronavirus have affected each of those populations.  

Food insecurity disproportionately affects women more than men. Nationwide,  28%  of single parent households headed by a woman are food insecure, compared to 16% of households headed by single men. Women tend to face more economic hurdles, such as pay inequality and working lower-paying jobs. Many also spend less time in the workforce due to family caregiving responsibilities, resulting in fewer opportunities for promotion and lower lifetime earnings. Additionally, food insecure women report  skipping meals  to stretch their budgets and allow children to eat. This burden is often greater on single women with children, who lead 78% of the single-parent households accessing CAFB’s services in the Washington metro area, according to the survey administered by the CAFB in 2019. 

The effects of food insecurity among women have broad impacts. A  study  of more than 5,200 women from across the U.S. found that women living in food insufficient households had higher rates of being overweight than those in food secure households, thus putting them at higher risk for associated adverse health outcomes. Food insecurity among women can impact the entire family. Food insecure mothers are more likely to  experience birth complications  and  give birth to low-weight babies .

Between rising unemployment and school cancellations, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to worsen the causes and effects of food insecurity on women, especially single mothers who now face a tougher job market and need for extended childcare. In 2019, women held  over half of the jobs  in restaurants and bars (52%), hotels (59%), clothing retail (73%), and beauty salons (90%) — all of which have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.

In 2017, seniors represented  15%  of the food insecure population in the Washington metro area. Seniors are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity for several reasons:

• Seniors are often on fixed incomes with little margin for increases in cost of living.
• Seniors with disabilities face higher barriers to preparing their own foods.
• Increasing financial burdens related to health care and transportation put added stressors on seniors’ budgets.

As a result of these and other dynamics, seniors have been enrolling in SNAP at  higher rates  in recent years than ever before.

What’s more, the toll of food insecurity on seniors is high. The effects of malnutrition are amplified when other illnesses are present, as food insecurity puts seniors at higher risk for  other health problems : Food insecure seniors are 53% more likely to report a heart attack, 52% more likely to have asthma, and 40% more likely to experience congestive heart failure compared to food secure seniors.

For older adults, the pandemic is now unfolding amidst these many pre-existing risks. Since the emergence of COVID-19, reports and studies have found that individuals over 65 are at  higher risk of mortality  from COVID-19. (The  average age  of COVID-related deaths in D.C. is 73.) Accordingly, official guidelines have urged high-risk individuals to self-quarantine to protect their health.

For seniors experiencing or at risk of food insecurity, COVID-19 has created an extremely dangerous dilemma. Observing social distancing has cut off many seniors’ access to food, health, and personal services, forcing tens of thousands of older adults to make an impossible choice between staying home with limited access to food or health care and risking exposure to obtain basic needs. The result has been to  push more seniors into food insecurity  while they attempt to protect their health.

Children already made up a disproportionately high percentage of the individuals experiencing food insecurity before the pandemic. Now, with access to free meals through schools disrupted and hundreds of thousands of parents out of work, children are among the most vulnerable groups affected by inadequate access to food.  One study  has found that food security has deteriorated more among households with children ages 12 and under than in any other kind of household.

Assuming that regional ratios of child to adult food insecurity from 2018 (the latest year of available data) hold true in the coming months, this will mean the number of children in the Washington metropolitan region who lack consistent access to healthy food could rise from 132,000 to 211,000 over the course of 2020.

When children lack the food that their growing bodies need to develop properly, the impacts are wide-ranging. Food insecurity and insufficiency among children are associated with  poor health and developmental outcomes , including higher likelihood of experiencing stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, and fatigue. Food insecure children are sick more often, recover more slowly, and are more likely to be hospitalized. And food insecurity in children under age 3 can  change the fundamental architecture of the brain  and central nervous system. 

The effects of insufficient nutrition in children can also cause  challenges later in life . In addition to poor health, food insecurity in children is linked with diminished academic performance, grade repetition, absenteeism, tardiness, visits to a psychologist, and anxiety. These poor health and behavioral outcomes cause ripple effects that extend into adulthood. Accordingly, a dramatic uptick of food insecurity among children across Greater Washington is not just a distressing problem today; it also presents significant risks to a future generation of adults, and it could have severe economic and social impacts on our region in the years to come. 

An increasing number of grandparents in our region are raising grandchildren without the help of the children’s parents. In the District of Columbia, 11% of children under 18 are  living with their grandparents , and an additional 4% are living with other relatives. Among CAFB’s clients, the food bank’s 2019 survey found that 18% are living in multigenerational households where grandparents are taking at least partial responsibility for the care of their grandchildren.

These multigenerational families, sometimes called “grandfamilies,” have unique economic challenges. From 2001 to 2011, the cost of raising a child in the U.S. has  increased by 40% . For single caregivers and older adults on limited or fixed incomes, the extremely high cost burden of caring for children can jeopardize the ability to consistently put healthy food on the table. What’s more, grandfamilies seeking food assistance often find programs that are nutritionally tailored either to seniors or to children, and virtually none that offer senior-friendly foods (low sodium, low sugar, easy to prepare) and kid-friendly foods (snacks, fruits, cans with easy-to-open pop-tops) in the same place. 

Aside from potential loss of income, one of the main effects of the pandemic on grandfamilies has been a further decrease in open food assistance programs that meet their families’ specific needs. Many programs serving seniors have suspended operations to reduce exposure between volunteers and clients, and while most counties have enacted a robust response to the need for school meals, many seniors can’t take advantage of those services or don’t wish to risk exposure at those distributions. 

The immigrant population in the Washington metro area has increased over ten times since 1970, from 130,000 to  1.4 million  people, with most of the growth taking place in the suburbs. In some counties of Northern Virginia, almost  50% of households  speak a language other than English at home.

While foreign-born individuals make up almost a quarter of the population in the Washington metropolitan area, they possess a disproportionately low — and shrinking — share of our region’s wealth. Over the last nine years in our country, U.S.-born workers have seen their income grow by 15% while their foreign-born counterparts have seen their income  decrease by 10% .

In the Washington metro area, as in many others, foreign-born individuals hold a large share of the jobs that have been impacted by COVID-19.  39%  of the tourism, hospitality, and recreation jobs in our region — most of which disappeared seemingly overnight — are held by immigrants. Construction workers in the District, Maryland, and Virginia,  50% of whom are immigrants , were also  heavily impacted  by COVID-related project cancellations, and shortages of equipment and materials. Those who still have opportunities to work are faced with the question of whether to risk exposure for a paycheck.

These economic impacts only add to other food access challenges that many immigrants were facing before the pandemic. Lack of transportation, language barriers, and inexperience with or fear of navigating the social benefits system can all inhibit individuals’ access to food, including free food through local charities. To add loss of work on top of these barriers to food access will dramatically increase food insecurity rates for tens of thousands of immigrants across our region.

Across the nation, the number of university and community college students from low-income households — many of whom are older than the “traditional” college age of 18-22 — has  increased dramatically . While this is a positive trend on its own, the crisis of affordability for higher education is putting more middle- and low-income college students on  the edge of financial insolvency . As more students are pursuing higher education while juggling other demands on their schedules and wallets — working full or part-time jobs; supporting children or parents; and trying to keep up with the rapidly increasing cost of living in our region — they are finding themselves at  higher risk for dropping out . This is especially true for community college students, who are  more likely  than their counterparts at four-year universities to be students of color, parents, over the age of 25, enrolled part-time, and working while in school.

The impacts of COVID-19 on college students have significantly added to the burdens many already face. The effects of campus closures in particular, especially for students who come from lower-income, food insecure households, are severe. For those attending community colleges, campus closures can mean reduced access to computer labs with high-speed internet or quiet workspaces that may not be available at home. For students who lived on campus, where food is usually highly accessible, going home to a food insecure household can mean navigating the new world of online classes while fighting through low energy levels as a result of poor nutrition. Unfortunately, the overall effect for many students is a  potentially disrupted path  to degree completion. 

While this population is highly vulnerable, they also represent incredible economic potential. Studies repeatedly show that graduating from college correlates with higher incomes. In Washington, DC, college grads earn  167% more  than their peers without degrees. The consequences when a student must drop out of school due to unmet basic needs are therefore significant and can cause lifelong economic implications.

The pandemic’s impacts are immense and ongoing. Effectively enabling our community’s food security in this environment of widespread public health risks and a faltering economy has and will continue to require a dynamic approach — both to meet the challenges of today and to build the foundations for a stronger and more equitable region in the years ahead. 

In prior sections of this report, we have aggregated and shared information about hunger and food insecurity broadly in our region and nation. In this final section, we outline the Capital Area Food Bank’s own roadmap for addressing this pandemic in the months and years ahead through a three-phased approach in which we will Respond, Recover, and Rebuild.

In the short-term response phase, we are working to safely meet the emergency food needs of as many families and individuals as possible while accounting for social distancing and a diminished distribution network. In the medium- and long-term, we must remain nimble, innovate, and think bigger. Over the next year, during the recovery phase, we will restore and adapt our food distribution infrastructure so that it can accommodate the growing demand for emergency assistance in the economic wake of the pandemic. And in the longer term, we must work in partnership with the public and private sectors to build a more equitable and resilient economy that enables greater participation from a broader cross section of residents, including those in population segments that are currently disadvantaged.

The coronavirus’ spread across the Washington region prompted a sudden and significant spike in the need for emergency assistance. Those already struggling with food insecurity sought to create food reserves per the recommendations of preparedness officials, and those who were newly unemployed sought help for the first time. Simultaneously, over half of the food bank’s 450+ nonprofit distribution partners — many of which are run by volunteers who are older and/or who have underlying health conditions — suspended service. 

To continue to meet escalating need, the food bank rapidly modified its operations and began offering food in different locations and formats: 

• Creation of Regional Hubs: To account for partner closures, a regional “hub” model was created to fill in regional service gaps. Hubs are food bank partners with significant distribution capacity. They are able to serve high volumes of people and have committed to staying open as long as they are receiving food. 

• Emergency Boxes: The food bank began creating 20- to 25 pound “to go” boxes for distribution with minimal contact in areas where traditional pantries had shuttered due to the virus. These boxes contain either a mix of shelf-stable ingredients that will feed a family of four for up to five days or a combination of produce such as apples, cabbages, carrots, onions, and potatoes.

• Pop-Up Pantries: In areas where there is no longer a partner or hub partner to help meet current need, the food bank is periodically holding pop-up distributions of emergency food boxes to assist those who would ordinarily seek help from a food pantry. These distributions are being held with the assistance of new, non-traditional partners, including local municipal governments and other nonprofit organizations. 

• Children’s Meals: To continue serving meals to children who would normally eat them on site at an after-school program, the meals were switched to “grab and go” style dinners.

• Senior Meals: The food bank has continued to deliver boxes of monthly supplemental, shelf-stable groceries to 10,000+ seniors in our service region through a contactless delivery model.

This rapid change in distribution methods happened against the backdrop of an equally rapid decline in the food bank’s retail donation stream. Barely able to keep food on their own shelves, grocery stores suddenly had no excess inventory, and retail donations declined by 75% within the space of a week in mid-March. As a result, CAFB has been purchasing large volumes of food. From April through June 2020, we purchased over 350 truckloads — almost 12 times what we would ordinarily buy in an entire year — to keep inventory level with demand through the summer months and to account for an increasingly long number of weeks between the time an order is purchased and its delivery date. In the coming year, we plan to further increase our food purchasing to approximately 580 truckloads, which is equivalent to 21 million pounds of food.

While some of the immediate and acute impacts of the pandemic are ongoing as of the release of this report, our region is also re-opening some parts of the economy and daily life. In this next phase of our response, the food bank will again adapt to new realities. While more of our nonprofit distribution network will gradually be functional again, providing sustained support in the year ahead will require strategies that address both continued supply chain complications and ongoing distribution challenges due to closures and social distancing at partner sites.

Shifting food procurement strategies

One of the most fundamental challenges for which the food bank is planning in the coming year is the continued reduction of retail food donations due to major disruptions in our national food supply chain. This reduction has occurred in large part because grocery stores, in recent years, have provided  48%  of the food that Americans consume. The remaining 52% has been consumed in the form of restaurant meals or prepared food. With the sudden closure of nearly all restaurants across the country, the demand for food from retailers has jumped, and simultaneously, food available for donation has dropped. Meanwhile, as grocers race to replenish their shelves, restaurants and other food service operations are procuring food from farmers and distributors at a fraction of their normal volume, the net effect of which is the loss of millions of tons of U.S. agricultural product.

To meet the growing demand for food in this new environment, the food bank will source food via multiple avenues. The first of these is the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Newly created by USDA, the program connects farmers with distributors and food banks. The CAFB has begun distributing produce and dairy through this program, and to date it has supplied over 3.5 million pounds of fruits, vegetables, and milk from regional suppliers. Second, we will maintain an aggressive food purchasing strategy into the coming year that, while resource-intensive, will help ensure a higher volume of inventory to meet significantly greater need. This procurement plan includes a substantial increase in the amount of produce we will purchase from local farmers during the growing season, enabling us to invest in the local economy while securing the food residents need.

Adapting and expanding distribution models

In addition to food procurement, food distribution will also require new ways of operating for the foreseeable future. As stay-at-home orders and other local restrictions ease or come to an end, we anticipate that some of our nonprofit partners and program hosts — half of which are currently closed due to the pandemic —will reopen over the coming months, enabling us to steadily increase the amount of food we distribute through our traditional network. However, we also know this network of distribution points will not be sufficient to meet the demand of a growing food insecure population over the next year, or might not be located in new areas of greatest need.

We also anticipate that some of our partners may remain closed or operate at reduced capacity because they are run by volunteers who are older or may have underlying health conditions. And social distancing will continue to be a reality for everyone in the region for some time to come, affecting the operations of the food bank and its network. 

Our plans include the following as we adapt to this changed environment over the coming year:

• Supporting Recovery of Our Traditional Partner Network and Community Markets: We will play an active role in supporting the reopening of those members of our nonprofit partner network with financial resources, added volunteer capacity, and additional food—some in pallet-form and the rest in pre-packaged boxes—to facilitate effective, timely, and safe delivery. We will also work with partners that host our free community-based farmers markets to ensure sites are set up to safely begin serving clients again.

• Continuing Direct, Community-Based Food Distribution for Kids, Families, and Seniors: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the food bank has continued to send food directly to sites serving children and seniors in boxed or “grab and go” formats that allow for contactless delivery. We will continue to provide direct service to communities in the year ahead, bringing school-based direct distribution programs for families and children back into operation with modifications; adapting the size and format of our after-school meal service delivery model — which is traditionally housed in community centers and apartment building complexes — as needed; and continuing our distribution of monthly supplemental boxes of groceries to seniors in ways that ensure appropriate distance.

• Maintaining and Growing Relationships with New Auxiliary Partners: To help rapidly distribute large amounts of food into communities we know are not being served at adequate levels to meet demand during this time, we have begun broadening our base of partners to those beyond our traditional network. This initial partner expansion included local county governments, with whom we have been working to identify areas of high need and to create plans for increased distribution volume. Over the next year, we will continue to expand this network and grow permanent partnerships with entities that have shown capacity to distribute high volumes of food directly into neighborhoods. These include organizations like those we have historically partnered with, such as faith-based institutions, and new kinds of organizations, such as the Peace Corps, local PTAs, and other community-based organizations.

The global health crisis of COVID-19 has exposed deep and pre-existing fault lines in our economy and, more broadly, in our society as a whole. It has also highlighted what many in the hunger relief space have long known: that the continuous distribution of emergency food by nonprofits, no matter at what scale, will not by itself bring an end to food insecurity. 

As our nation and region create longer-term paths forward, the time is now for all sectors – public, private, and nonprofit – to play a role in rebuilding our regional economy to be more sustainable and resilient through systematic funding; inclusive planning; and sound policy. And while the pandemic has required a temporary pause on the food bank’s strategic work pairing food with other services that help address food insecurity's root causes, the current moment also underscores the importance of returning as quickly as possible to activities that not only provide food, but also enable greater opportunity and equity across our region.

Explicitly fund food security in state and county budgets

In half of the strategic plans for the counties served by the food bank, there is no mention of food security, which is largely treated as a peripheral issue until moments like the present.  Counties should include indicators of hunger and food insecurity in their strategic planning, actively fund programs that address the impacts and root causes of food insecurity, and track the return on investment for these programs. Doing so will enable policy makers to plan effectively for the sustained economic impacts of the pandemic, and to plan holistically for the community’s long-term social welfare and economic well-being.

Create greater representation in conversations about economic development

There is clear economic value to reducing the effects of food insecurity. This is true both in the public sector, which shoulders much of the health care and other significant costs associated with food insecurity, and for the private sector, which would benefit enormously from having a larger pool of healthy, skilled workers — something that the current rate of hunger in our region precludes.

It follows, then, that while it is important to have organizations like the food bank and other nonprofit actors involved in conversations about the regional economy during a crisis, that should not be the only time for such discussions. Closer collaboration among sectors can result in more innovative solutions to many of our region’s challenges, including food insecurity. Incorporating the perspectives of the nonprofit sector, for instance, can enable regional planning bodies to create projects and initiatives that take the needs of a larger percentage of our community into account. These projects can then empower and economically benefit more individuals.

The participation of organizations like the food bank in groups such as the Strategic Renewal Task Force convened by  Connected DMV  (a cross-sector initiative formed by the  Greater Washington Board of Trade ) marks an early step toward this kind of inclusive regional planning. To further accelerate progress on this front, both public and private entities whose constituents and/or consumers include low-income individuals should consider methods — from data gathering to board, staff, and advisory group representation — for bringing the perspectives of those communities into their own respective planning and decision-making processes.

Enhance support for food insecure individuals through policy

Federal policy can and should play an essential role in aiding our national and regional recovery, and it has the capacity to do so at the largest scale. While food banks play an essential role in our nation’s hunger relief infrastructure, they cannot meet the need alone. Case in point: for every one meal provided by a food bank in our country,  the SNAP program provides nine . 

A modest 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits would both reduce the burden on food banks and help stimulate the retail economy by enabling families to shop at local grocery stores. The recent history of the Great Recession has shown this to be an effective strategy. Additionally, federal tax reforms that help put money into the pockets of individuals struggling with food insecurity, such as the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, can provide even greater support.

Legislation that enables those in a position to support relief through philanthropic dollars, such as a temporary universal deduction for charitable donations, can also contribute significantly to regional recovery. Phase two stimulus legislation took an incremental step to encourage donations to nonprofits by allowing for a $300 deduction in instances where a filer does not itemize tax filing documents. This should be uncapped for the foreseeable future, as we will be relying on the philanthropic community even more heavily in the months to come. 

Address food insecurity’s root causes through innovative programming

Finally, in the knowledge that addressing the root causes of food insecurity will be more important than ever during the economic turmoil flowing from COVID-19, the food bank is planning to return to its strategic work of addressing issues like education and employment through food in the latter parts of the next twelve months. We have been focused on doing this over the last two years through partnerships with others, and we have not lost sight of how important cross-sector solutions are to the problem of hunger. 

• Pairing food with other services

In the spirit of rebuilding our economy even more strongly and equitably than before, we plan to return to our pilots and programs that pair food with health, education, and skill development provided by others, enabling our clients to create trajectories out of food insecurity.

At the core of this work is a model known as “ Food Plus ”, which is built upon an awareness that those experiencing food insecurity are often in need of many other services as well. Food Plus programs bundle access to nutritious food with other partner-provided social services, including health care and workforce development. Through a partnership with a local job training program, for instance, students receive groceries at each installment of a series of skill-building workshops, so that attendees leave with both information and food. And in partnership with multiple healthcare providers, the food bank is pairing food with medical services, so that those attending appointments for prenatal visits or post-stroke care are also receiving food tailored to their medical needs.

Adding food to such services saves participants time and eliminates the need to choose between attending the class and working to be able to afford groceries, or between receiving medical care or traveling to a pantry. It also helps to amplify the overall value of those services. 

• Increasing access to healthy, affordable food 

While some of our clients have income levels that simply don’t allow for the purchase of any food, many do have some income to use for groceries. And the vast majority of clients we spoke to in our 2019 survey, referenced earlier, wanted to purchase groceries as opposed to receiving them exclusively at no charge. 

In many parts of our region, however, the absence of a full-service grocery store makes physically getting to food — whether free or purchased from a grocery store — a challenge for anyone with mobility issues or a lack of efficient transportation.  

For these reasons, we’re exploring methods for reaching those who need access to healthy food by harnessing technology and exploring alternative retail formats. Through partnerships with ride-sharing programs, we’re piloting initiatives that help bring people to and from the grocery store, saving the time and effort of traveling a long distance on public transportation. Though this pilot was temporarily paused in mid-March while shared rides were suspended, we were able to restart services in April with private rides to help increase safe access to food in the midst of the pandemic.

We are also testing social business solutions to food insecurity through Curbside Groceries, a mobile grocery truck serving Ward 8 in Washington, DC (and expanding to Prince George’s County in the coming year). Curbside Groceries is addressing the issue of transit barriers to food access. Unlike CAFB’s other programs and services, it sells nutritious food for the purpose of testing the viability of an alternative-format grocery store model. Our ultimate goal is to incubate Curbside as a business and transition its operation to a local social entrepreneur with a shared passion for food justice in our community. After a pause in operations starting mid-March, Curbside Groceries is set to resume service in late summer 2020.

Well before the current moment, hunger and food insecurity’s costs to our region – including poor health, lost productivity, and diminished human potential – were incredibly steep. Now, they are mounting and poised to rise even higher.  

While our economy will eventually begin to recover, how broadly the benefits of that recovery are felt – and how able our region is to withstand something similar in the future – depends heavily on the actions taken today and in the coming months. History tells us that without a new path forward, the existing economic divides in our area will only continue to widen.

Persistently unequal access to resources and opportunities has long characterized our region. In the pandemic's harsh spotlight, the factors contributing to our area's rates of food insecurity are more pronounced than ever before. This visibility presents a unique opportunity to address them, and to include and empower our most vulnerable neighbors as we rebuild.

Through a shared commitment to the creation of a stronger, more resilient, and more equitable economy and society, this unprecedented crisis can also be a moment for unprecedented change.  

This report was made possible with the generous support of the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation and the World Bank Group.