Giving Compass' Take:

• As the pandemic continues in the United States, it disproportionally exacerbates food inequalities and insecurities among people of color. 

• How are donors responding to food insecurity and racial disparities within this issue area? 

• Read more about addressing food insecurity brought on by COVID-19. 

Access to food has been unequal in America long before the onset of the coronavirus. But the pandemic has deepened the problem, with images of snaking lines at food banks bringing the harsh reality to light.

Even in the U.S., one of the most food-secure nations in the world, millions face difficulty in accessing nutritious meals. Food inequality disproportionately impacts Americans of color, who’ve already been among the hardest hit by Covid-19 and its economic fallout.

Roughly 17 million more people will become food insecure in 2020, bringing the total to 54 million, including 18 million children, according to projections from Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger-relief nonprofit organization.

Disparities along racial lines could worsen. Already, Black Americans are two-and-a half times as likely as White Americans to have low or very low access to enough food for an active and healthy life. For Latino Americans, the rate is double that of White people. The figures highlight some of the underlying systemic inequalities that exist over racial lines as nationwide demonstrations draw hundreds of thousands to protest police brutality and the killing of George Floyd.“It’s not new, even though with Covid-19 we’ve seen an increase in food insecurity overall, and it seems like people of color again are disproportionately impacted,” said Angela Odoms-Young, associate professor in the department of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For those living at the “fringe,” just above the poverty line, changing conditions can easily push them below the threshold and “into food insecurity,” she said.

“It’s not new, even though with Covid-19 we’ve seen an increase in food insecurity overall, and it seems like people of color again are disproportionately impacted,” said Angela Odoms-Young, associate professor in the department of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For those living at the “fringe,” just above the poverty line, changing conditions can easily push them below the threshold and “into food insecurity,” she said.

Read the full article about food inequality by Catarina Saraiva and Dave Merrill at Bloomberg.