The rise in Americans' food insecurity

talking turkey this thanksgiving might be a little easier for distressed families thanks to assistance from some hard-working organizations even so lee cowan tells us more needs to be done as a staff photographer for the san antonio express news william luther may have done more to help hungry americans this thanksgiving than anyone will ever really know we were hearing from politicians that they were calling each other saying have you seen the picture and and people they didn't have to describe it they already knew what did you see the picture the picture he's talking about is this drone shot taken back on april 9th high above some 10 000 people their cars parked bumper to bumper in a vast san antonio parking lot waiting for food look look at these lines that is the stark reality of this pandemic that himself and i can't get that image out of my head in san antonio do you know how many places that picture went no it's a lot though it was a lot i think it really helped put clarity on something that was really difficult for people to understand if there was any doubt that covet has deepened america's hunger crisis that picture dispelled it god bless you happy thanksgiving folks at the san antonio food bank as well as its hundreds of volunteers like paul drummond one more chicken haven't seen the lines stop yet you know when it's the kind of thing that you keep thinking it's going to be over and not only is it not over but the need just grows there have been thousands of other food distributions all across the country just this past week this massive one in dallas fort worth what all these lines have in common is that many of the people have never asked for food before what would you do without them you think well probably go start growing my own food in the backyard probably we are relying i think too much right now on the charity food system diane schusenbach is the director for the institute for policy research at northwestern university she found that in the first few months of the pandemic the number of americans who didn't have enough to eat surged from around 8 million to nearly 30 million this has revealed some big holes in our safety net but there are holes that congress can fix since the pandemic started as many as 7 million people have enrolled in the federal government's food stamp program now called snap schausenbach says americans need at least a 15 percent increase in those benefits to survive but negotiations over the next coveted relief package are stalled in a lame duck congress do they not believe that so many people are hungry have they not gone out to see what's happening at these food banks and food pantries those impacted the most are black and latino americans especially those with children we were in need of food catherine nguyen she's a mother of five she lost her job as a housekeeper in san antonio during covet you have to like decide if you're going to pay a bill or not or decide to go get groceries and maybe your water or your lights might get turned off the next month or something it's down to that now yeah it's down to that hardship is nothing new to san antonio since 2013 the overall poverty rate in the city has hovered between 18 and 20 percent that's nearly twice the national average in 1968 a cbs documentary hosted by our very own charles kuralt put the city's struggles with hunger right into everybody's living rooms cbs news has spent the last 10 months investigating hunger in america the hour-long special offered an unflinching look at hunger in the richest country in the world father ralph ruiz a catholic priest lives and works with the poorest of san antonio's mexican americans what school do you go to cameras captured this moment with a young boy named jerry do they have a uh a cafeteria there yes sir who told father ruiz that he couldn't afford the 35 cents for lunch at school what do you eat at noon then nothing we found ruiz now 85 retired from the priesthood still living in san antonio the poor needs the assistance of those who have that never changes over time that's why we have to work hard to make a change we met him at the inner city development community center it also houses a food pantry it's a program where we started after the documentary it's fed more than three million hungry san antonians since thank you okay have a good one thank you the world is full of hungry people you find four people you find hunger it's probably fair to say that ruiz never could have imagined san antonio's food bank this busy or this big the warehouse holds about two weeks worth of food eric cooper is president and ceo here how are you hardly a desk job you'll get through this he routinely walks the lines getting to know those he serves without the food bank we wouldn't make it sir in april he was in the midst of that endless line apologizing to the hungry for having to wait so long i wanted to make sure that those families knew that i was sorry and instead of being greeted with like yeah we've been here for hours i was greeted with this like god bless you you know thank you not a single family left that day empty-handed the loaves and fish kind of miracle that is being performed here and all around the country almost every day i think we in life go through seasons of struggle and covet 19's created a lot of struggle but this seasonal pass and we just have to get through it together [Music] you

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 86,173

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, covid 19, pandemic, government, federal government, food stamp, coronavirus

Id: kI6Nt8EpvSQ

Length: 6min 48sec (408 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020