The stock market is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but working Americans are not.
The coronavirus pandemic led to business shutdowns that in turn translated into the biggest employment numbers the country has ever seen. The slumping economy shocked even the most food secure states in the U.S., with one in ten Americans reporting they didn't have enough food during a given week amid the pandemic, Bloomberg reports.
While the U.S. is no stranger to hunger, it usually is at its worst in the rural south, while midwestern states ranked among the most food secure in the country. And when the whole country has gone hungry in the past, it usually stemmed from food shortages, like during the Dust Bowl or World War II rationing, Bloomberg notes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, meanwhile, farmers had to dump millions of gallons of milk and other food they couldn't sell or donate.
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Even Americans "surrounded by food" haven't been able to afford to eat during this pandemic, Bloomberg writes. That included people in the farm-rich state of Minnesota, where nearly 70 percent of those accessing emergency food pantries were doing so for the first time. Across the country, a third of hungry Americans used emergency food distributors for the first time as well, according to Feeding America. And with millions of Americans still out of work, many people are still without sufficient food supplies.
President Trump on Tuesday didn't mention the rampant hunger still lingering throughout the U.S. as he praised August's "very impressive" stock market rebound. Read more at Bloomberg.
