The pandemic has served as a metaphorical earthquake that has stress tested the United States’ social safety net, especially federal anti-hunger programs.
Some of the most startling and grim images from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic were the miles-long lines outside of food banks as the economic toll of the crisis began to spread across the country. As schools closed down and businesses were shuttered, unemployment rates spiked to levels even higher than those during the Great Recession—and many families who had never struggled to put food on the table found themselves in desperate need of help.