Panic Buying Strains the World’s Food Banks

(Bloomberg) -- The line stretched for over a mile. More than 800 cars idled for several hours, bumper to bumper, on a damp gray Monday in Duquesne, Pa. They were lining up to get food from an emergency distribution organized by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Eventually, each car drove away with two 25-pound boxes of groceries. The food bank estimates it served 1,700 local families in that one giveaway.

Whether the scene is rows of cars or long lines of people stretching down and around city blocks, similar ones are playing out around the world as the novel coronavirus pandemic strains food supplies and the services of food banks. Brian Greene runs America’s biggest food bank, in Houston, where he’s lived through his share of hurricanes and other disasters. None of those compare to the need he’s seeing from the current crisis.

“Every distribution we do, the lines are immediately immense,” Greene said of the surge of people seeking food. “We can’t come close to meeting the need.”

The number of deaths from Covid-19 has surpassed 44,000, as of April 1. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 26 was 3.28 million. Panic buying at the supermarket has swept shelves bare of food supplies, reducing food banks’ critical stock of long-lasting pantry items. “If people weren’t hoarding, there’d be no problem,” Greene said. Add to that a rapidly shrinking volunteer force, school closures, and pinched donors, and the institutions that feed more than 62 million people worldwide each year face an unprecedented challenge.

“People who have not needed relief before are turning to food banks for the first time,” said Lisa Moon, president of the Global Foodbanking Network, a Chicago-based nonprofit that advises food banks in more than 40 countries. In the U.S., which has more than 200 food banks, many first-time assistance seekers are families that relied on free meals provided by now-closed schools.

The problem is global. In the U.K., customer numbers have jumped from 61,000 to more than 1.5 million in the past decade, according to the Trussell Trust, a food bank network. Around the world, 90% of food bank meals come from donations of surplus products from retailers and food manufacturers, according to Moon. That’s led to an almost immediate disappearance or drastic reduction in donations as food businesses, including restaurants and specialty stores, have been forced to close.

Joanne Berry, director of A Place to Turn, outside Boston, got a call in mid-March from the catering company that services TJ Maxx’s parent, TJX Companies Inc. The retailer was closing down its food-service kitchen so the caterer offered Berry’s food pantry excess supplies. “We got tons of food,” she said. “But it’s all going to dry up.”

Food banks, whose essential role is to warehouse donated food, often act as intermediaries between suppliers of food and agencies who distribute it, whether schools or local charities. As many of these agencies close because of virus transmission concerns, they’re being forced to be versatile. In Hong Kong and South Africa, charities that would normally provide hot meals are closed because of the virus, so food banks are delivering directly to those in need.

The Food Bank Singapore typically has 200 to 300 pallets of stock in its warehouse at this time of the year, according to co-founder Nichol Ng. Now it’s down to three—and cash donations have dried up as the country braces for a recession 

“Even if you’re high-net-worth, the stock market has crashed and you have a lot less liquidity,” Ng said. “The giving needs to continue —the government has not put any money behind feeding the charities or the underprivileged yet.” The city-state normally hands out supermarket vouchers to those in need, but Ng said the practice must shift to help food banks buy directly from wholesalers and food outlets as grocery prices rise.

To address the surging demand, many U.S. food banks will seek federal help. The government’s $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill provides billions of dollars in food aid. State agricultural departments are applying for special funds from the USDA which are normally used for boosting food supplies after natural disasters such as floods. But the bigger test will come in a few months if the lockdowns persist.

“We’re looking at the economic consequences of this many people being unemployed this rapidly,” said Greene, in Texas. “This is just not sustainable.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.