American Children Are Going Hungry in the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Rates of food insecurity among kids have reached “an extent unprecedented in modern times.”

This is really troubling...especially since farmers have had to euthanize some of their food supply because they can’t sell them.

Something should be done to use this apparent “surplus” to feed these folks.

In NYC, we have “grab and go” in many public schools and other locales available for any hungry person. I haven’t heard of supply problems there.

How come that in a country with 40% obesity rate, children are going hungry?
Distribution of food must be like...

I feel, in this Pandemic, that a little “socialism” and less reliance on market forces and Social Darwinism would go a long way.

We must ensure, though, that this “socialism” doesn’t go too far once the Pandemic is done.

I live in a state where the route was opposite, from socialism to market economy but with many elements of socialism remaining.
Now I think, this option really has its advantages. The society is not that brutally stratified by income. My financial situation fluctuated wildly, my position in the society remained the same.

Don't you have subsided meals at schools? I had them, they were the same meals everyone had, some kids just discreetly payed less or even nothing.

Most cities do. Much of the problem could be in rural areas where people have transportation issues. They can’t get to the food supplies because they need a car to get to them—and they either have no car, or can’t afford gas to fill their tanks.

NYC has “grab-and-go”—where anybody could just walk in (at least in theory) and take as much food as they desire. These locations are usually in closed schools.

I’m not sure if there are long lines, or supply problems. I haven’t heard of them.

The problem could be that some people can’t go out, for various reasons, and go to those schools.

Many meat plants have closed down because of Covid. We’re starting to have meat shortages.

Many farms are having trouble selling their food—whether meat or vegetable.

This was also a problem right before the Great Depression of the 1930s. Farmers can’t sell their products, and they go to waste.

By and large, the supermarkets are well-stocked with most things (so far). But if we don’t get a handle on the situation in the farms and the meat-processing places, there could be real problems.

It’s partially because we are “socialist-phobic.” We are slaves to “market forces.”

Both then and now.

We have to find a way to not let this surplus food go to waste. And if it involves a “little socialism,” so be it. People have to eat, and the food is out there.

We have to guard against the authoritarian tendencies of unrestrained socialism, though.

But market forces work their best on a bazaar!

Right. True.

But here in the US, if prices aren’t high enough, farmers go bankrupt.

We have to get around the market forces in order to distribute the food.

We have to get the food to the people through whatever means.

In communistic places during the 20th century, like you said, the authoritarian state hoarded the food. The best quantity was reserved for the elite. The ultimate “anti-socialism.”

Oh, yes - debt bondage. Farmers have to pay off whatever they have, right?
I think it's a mechanism that actually inhibits the market forces from working the way they are supposed to work - all that basic demand-supply self-regulation gets disturbed by "that much or nothing" mechanism of loans.

Yep. Farms are usually bought via a mortgage. Debt-bondage. Even agribusiness entities.

If only the farms can be granted a special exemption during these special times.

In my opinion, generally, temporary freezing of loans would help dealing with any crisis with less social disruption.