AP’s smart data analysis, in-depth personal reporting and imaginative use of visuals reveal the rising numbers of people going hungry in the U.S. and the explosion in the use of food banks across the country.
Long lines of people and queues of traffic seemed to indicate that the use of food banks was on the rise in the U.S. as the COVID-19 pandemic hit home. But a team of AP journalists was determined to get to the facts behind the assumptions and tell the stories of those relying on handouts — many for the first time.
Working with exclusive data from anti-hunger association Feeding America, the AP team delivered an accurate, powerful picture of food insecurity and economic distress in the U.S.
Phoenix reporter Anita Snow made first contact with Feeding America, which describes itself as the largest U.S. hunger-relief organization — they coordinate with 200 food banks across the country to hand out billions of pounds of food. After meeting with Snow, AP data editor Meghan Hoyer and other AP editors, the organization agreed to collect and share distribution data from most of its partners, giving hard numbers on the amount of food flowing to American families.
The data showed Feeding America has never handed out so much food so fast — 4.2 billion meals from March through October. The organization has seen a 60 percent average increase in food bank users during the pandemic — about 4 in 10 are first-timers. AP’s analysis of Feeding America data from 181 food banks in its network found the group has distributed nearly 57 percent more food in the third quarter of the year, compared with the same period in 2019.
Phyllis Marder poses with her cat, Nellie, and with food she recently obtained from a local food bank, in the dining room of her home in Evanston, Ill., Nov. 5, 2020. At first, Marder, 66, didn’t tell anyone about going to food pantries. Then she had a change of heart. “Keeping a secret makes things get worse,” she says, “… and makes me feel worse about myself, and so I decided that it was more important to talk about it.”
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Phyllis Marder prepares to head out in the cold weather for her weekly trip to the Hillside Food Pantry in Evanston, Ill., Nov. 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Phyllis Marder walks to her garage in cold weather for her weekly trip to the Hillside Food Pantry in Evanston, Ill., Nov. 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Fruit and vegetables sit on a counter in Phyllis Marder’s kitchen in Evanston, Ill., Nov. 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Johnna Nieves, left, opens her van as Idalia Nunez, of the Second Harvest Food Bank, loads the vehicle with a week’s supply of food in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. While food banks have become critical during the pandemic, they’re just one path for combating hunger. For every meal from a food bank, a federal program called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or food stamps — provides nine.
AP Photo / John Raoux
Cars wait in line during a Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank drive-up food distribution in Duquesne, Pa., Nov. 23, 2020.
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
Volunteers distribute food to people who waited in line in their cars overnight, at a food distribution point in Metairie, La., Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
Norman Butler, a first-time food bank user, talks with his girlfriend, Cheryl Butler, as they sit in their car overnight waiting in line at a food distribution point in Metairie, La., Nov. 19, 2020. Before the pandemic, Norman, 53, flourished in the tourism-dominated city, working as an airport shuttle and limousine driver, a valet and hotel doorman. Since March, when the normally bustling streets turned silent, the only work he’s had has been as an Uber driver.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
In his New Orleans apartment, Norman Butler unboxes food that he received at a food distribution point after waiting in line overnight, Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
Jayden Messick, 9, helps his parents, Brian and Airis Messick, prepare lunch at their apartment in Anchorage, Alaska, Nov. 11, 2020. The Messicks have had to turn to food banks after both parents lost their jobs in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
AP Photo / Mark Thiessen
Airis Messick, left, and Brian Messick, right, eat lunch with this 9-year-old son Jayden at their apartment in Anchorage, Alaska, Nov. 11, 2020. The Messicks have had to turn to food banks after both parents lost their jobs in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Airris, who just turned 30, found work in August, ironically, at the state unemployment office. “I hear people’s stories all day,” she says. “I listen to moms cry about not having money to take care of their kids. My heart aches for the people who get denied.”
AP Photo / Mark Thiessen
Airis Messick, left, and Brian Messick, right, eat lunch at their apartment in Anchorage, Alaska, Nov. 11, 2020. The couple had to turn to food banks after both lost their jobs in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
AP Photo / Mark Thiessen
Aaron Crawford, his wife Sheyla and their sons, Sornic, left, and Gabriel, stand for a photograph outside their Apple Valley, Minn., home, Nov. 21, 2020. The couple turned to a Minnesota nonprofit, 360 Communities, part of Feeding America’s food bank network, when the pandemic’s economic fallout put them in peril. The couple and their two young sons are among the millions who’ve flocked to food banks since the virus took hold in America. The family is now getting aid from federal food stamps.
AP Photo/ Jim Mone
From left, St. Vincent de Paul volunteers Mary Ann Kneip and her husband, Pete Kneip, pray with Zeret Leocadio, 10; sister Areli, 9; brother Eliel, 12; mother Abigail; and sister Samai, 15, after the Kneips made a delivery from the Emmaus House food pantry in Phoenix, Nov. 14, 2020. When Abigail’s husband, a restaurant cook, was laid off earlier in the pandemic, her income — barely more than the $11 state minimum wage — wasn’t enough to cover their expenses.
AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin
Larry Holt, left, thanks Diana Everett after she delivered a box of food to his apartment in Las Vegas, Nov. 19, 2020. Holt lost his casino job during the coronavirus pandemic and receives assistance from a food bank.
AP Photo / John Locher
Nehemiah Powell, 14, carries a mattress for his brother's new bed to a storage space outside his family's apartment in Skokie, Ill., Nov. 21, 2020, as his family prepares to move to Georgia where living costs are lower.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Briana Dominguez, left, continues to work remotely at a her job, which will be eliminated at the end of December, as her sons Nehemiah Powell, 14, standing, and Noah Scott watch TV in their Skokie, Ill., apartment, Nov. 20, 2020. The family is moving to Georgia where living costs are lower.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Briana Dominguez listens as her son, Noah Scott, pouts over not being able to eat his sandwich on the living room floor instead of at the table, in the kitchen of their Skokie, Ill., apartment, Nov. 21, 2020.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Noah Scott, 4, sits on the shoulders of his brother, Nehemiah Powell, 14, as Powell labels a packed moving box in their Skokie, Ill., apartment, Nov. 21, 2020. After their mother’s employer eliminated her job, the family is moving to Georgia where living costs are lower.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Nehemiah Powell, 14, sips on a drink as a volunteer at the Hillside Food Pantry uses social distancing while loading a bag of groceries into the family car in Evanston, Ill., Nov. 21, 2020.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Tyson Foods employee Silvia De Leon drives home in Noel, Mo., after a trip to the food pantry at the Community Baptist Church of Noel, Nov. 21, 2020. De Leon contracted COVID-19 at the end of June and was out of work for several weeks. She has used the pantry every Saturday for the past five months as she and her retired husband pay off coronavirus-related medical bills. “If it weren't for this, I don't know what I'd do,” said De Leon.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Bags of food from a local church pantry sit on the kitchen table of Silvia De Leon in Noel, Mo., Nov. 21, 2020. After losing her sense of taste, the Tyson Foods employee realized she had contracted the coronavirus and was out of work for several weeks.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Silvia De Leon pours a homemade salsa into a pot of chicken after returning home from a local church food pantry in Noel, Mo., Nov. 21, 2020.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
As people wait at a bus stop, Marcus Carter, left, who turns 50 on Christmas Day, panhandles for food money on Chicago’s upscale shopping corridor, the Magnificent Mile, near a public service poster about hunger, Nov. 18, 2020. Now, in the pandemic of 2020, with illness, job loss and business closures, millions more Americans are worried about empty refrigerators and barren cupboards. Food banks are doling out meals at a rapid pace and an AP data analysis found a sharp rise in the amount of food distributed compared with last year. Meanwhile, some folks are skipping meals so their children can eat and others are depending on cheap food that lacks nutrition.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
As well as the hard numbers, AP journalists across the U.S. spent hours in food lines, talking to people who were extremely reticent to open up about an experience many of them found very painful — getting free food because they couldn’t afford to feed their families. Chicago’s Sharon Cohen wrote the story with contributions from Snow, Rebecca Santana, Mark Thiessen and Martha Irvine.
Irvine shot and edited video, with feeds from Jessie Wadarski, Thiessen and Charles Rex Arbogast. Images from photographers across the U.S., including Arbogast, Gerald Herbert, Ross Franklin, John Raoux, Jim Mone, John Locher, Gene Puskar and Thiessen, showed the faces of those receiving food, sensitively capturing them both at food centers and and home. Photo editor Patrick Sison and designer Dario Lopez brought the all-formats package together with striking edits and presentation, and Phil Holm designed visualizations of the data.
As people wait at a bus stop, Marcus Carter, left, who turns 50 on Christmas Day, panhandles for food money on Chicago’s upscale shopping corridor, the Magnificent Mile, near a public service poster about hunger, Nov. 18, 2020. Now, in the pandemic of 2020, with illness, job loss and business closures, millions more Americans are worried about empty refrigerators and barren cupboards. Food banks are doling out meals at a rapid pace and an AP data analysis found a sharp rise in the amount of food distributed compared with last year. Meanwhile, some folks are skipping meals so their children can eat and others are depending on cheap food that lacks nutrition.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
For telling data analysis and on-the-ground coverage that harnessed AP’s national footprint to reveal the consequences of the pandemic economy, this AP team earns Best of the Week honors.
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