The San Antonio Food Bank distributed one million pounds of food to roughly 6,000 families in a single day as millions across the country turn to charity organizations to avoid going hungry amid coronavirus lockdowns.
Stunning aerial photos show thousands of cars lined up at Trader’s Plaza in San Antonio, Texas, during the massive food distribution event on Thursday.
Families in need waited hours to get their hands on fresh fruit, vegetables and other non-perishable goods that have become hard to find in traditional stores as panic-buying leaves shelves empty.
The sight of long rows of cars waiting outside food banks has become more frequent since the pandemic has made its impact on the United States, with similar scenes seen in Florida and Pennsylvania in the last two weeks.
‘The need is that great,’ San Antonio Food Bank President and CEO Eric Cooper said of the huge turnout.
‘We are moving through food so fast, this is our second big distribution this week, but there are hundreds of distributions that are going on all the time.’
Six thousand families lined up in their cars for hours at Traders Plaza in San Antonio for a food distribution event on Thursday
The San Antonio Food Bank said it distributed one million pounds of food over the course of the day
People are seen standing by their cars as they waited in line for hours to get their hands on food and other essentials
Helpers Alisa Alonzo (left) and Jennifer Byrnes (right) gather bags of split peas to load into cars at Traders Village
The San Antonio event dubbed ‘Mega Giveaway’ will be held twice a week for as long as stay-at-home orders are in place in the city, available to people who pre-register online.
Thursday marked the fourth time they held the event – and the largest turnout yet.
Michael Guerra, the food bank’s chief resources officer, said 5,000 families signed up for the latest event, but even more showed up.
Guerra said he expected each family to leave with enough food to last for the rest of the month – around two grocery carts full.
Stunning aerial photos show rows of thousands of cars waiting in the line at Trader’s Plaza in San Antonio
Food bank staff wore masks and gloves as they distributed boxes into waiting cars
Each family left with enough food to fill two grocery carts, intended to last them the rest of the month
Food bank volunteer Heather Martinez says goodbye to a family after filling their car with pantry items
Pete Delgado was among the thousands of people waiting in line on Thursday.
He told FOX San Antonio he and his wife are both disabled and that he arrived at Trader’s Plaza in the middle of the night to ensure that his family wouldn’t go hungry.
‘I’ve been hour here for an easy 12 hours,’ Delgado said.
‘And it’s important for me and my wife because we have nothing to eat at home. I brought crackers and peanut butter as a snack to get me through the night.
‘We didn’t have any bread or lunch meat or anything to make some kind of lunch, a picnic for me to stay overnight, so I’ve just been munching on peanut butter and jelly and crackers.’
Cars began lining up in the parking lot as early as Wednesday night after about 5,000 families pre-registered for the event
The line of cars extended outside the parking lot and into the street in San Antonio
The San Antonio scenes mirrored similar queues at food banks around the country in the last two weeks.
Dramatic images from South Florida on Monday showed a long line of cars backed up bumper to bumper on a roadway while motorists waited hours to get food from a food bank.
A drone captured aerial shots of vehicles waiting in line in Sunrise, just northwest of Fort Lauderdale.
The motorists were waiting to receive food from Feeding South Florida, a food bank that relies on donations to feed the poor. Feeding South Florida has seen a 600 per cent increase in the number of people asking for food
According to the Miami Herald, food banks like Feeding South Florida and others have a glut of fresh produce to give away.
An aerial view from a drone shows vehicles lineup to receive food provided by the food bank Feeding South Florida in Sunrise, Florida, on April 6
Feeding South Florida has seen a 600 per cent increase in the those asking for food aid as people, some of whom have lost jobs, need to make ends meet during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured are queues in Sunrise, FL, on April 6
With the coronavirus outbreak has forcing governments to shut down the hospitality industry, which includes restaurants, hotels, airlines, cruise ships, school cafeterias, farmers who rely on these businesses to buy their crops have an excess of perishable food and nothing to do with it.
Last week, hundreds of motorists waited hours to collect food from a food bank in Orlando, a city that has seen a surge in unemployment after the town’s famous theme parks were forced to close its doors to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hundreds of families flocked to the parking lot of Mount Olive Seventh-day Adventist Church in Orlando on April 2 to collect food during the coronavirus pandemic
DailyMail.com witnessed a 50-vehicle line stretching a half mile waiting to collect food from the church in Orlando on April 2
Motorists were forced to wait on a mile-long line (pictured) for a drive-up emergency food distribution set up in Pittsburgh to meet social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus outbreak. Queues are pictured on March 30.
And motorists were forced to wait on a mile-long line for a drive-up emergency food distribution set up in Pittsburgh.
The Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, had only 1500 food boxes as local police set up portable toilets every 3/10ths of a mile to handle the large crowds who showed up.
The food bank, which is about 10 miles outside Pittsburgh and serves 11 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, is considered an essential facility during containment efforts underway to slow the spread of the deadly flu-like virus, also known as COVID-19.
Millions of families across the country have been turning to charity organizations to avoid going hungry amid coronavirus lockdowns. As of Thursday, more than 469,000 COVID-19 cases and 16,715 deaths have been confirmed in the US
The coronavirus outbreak has thrown at least 16.8 million Americans out of work in just three weeks as the coronavirus outbreak continues to tear through the country, bringing the economy to a near standstill.
A record 6.6 million new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, according to the latest Labor Department figures released on Thursday.
The staggering number of first-time claims was on top of the more than 10 million applications filed in the last two weeks of March.
It means that more than one in 10 American workers have now lost their jobs as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak abruptly grounds the country to a halt.
The real number is likely to be even higher because many states are still clearing out backlogs of unemployment claims after people reported lengthy delays trying to lodge applications online or via the phone.
More cuts are still expected with economists predicting that more than 20 million Americans may lose jobs this month. The unemployment rate could hit 15 percent when the April employment report is released in early May.
The Labor Department’s latest report on Thursday showed first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending April 4 totaled 6.6 million, down slightly from an upwardly revised 6.87 million the week before
The new jobless claims figures collectively constitute the largest and fastest string of job losses in records dating to 1948.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 261,000 to a seasonally adjusted 6.606 million for the week ending April 4, according to the report. Data for the prior week, ending March 28, was revised to show 219,000 more applications were received than previously reported, taking the tally for that period to 6.867 million.
The states with the largest increases in new claims last week were California (up 871,992), New York (up 286,596), Michigan (up 176,329), Florida (up 154,171), Georgia (up 121,680), Texas (up 120,759) and New Jersey (up 90,438).
The viral outbreak is believed to have erased nearly one-third of the economy’s output in the current quarter.
About 95 percent, or 48 states, are now under some form of lockdown with non-essential businesses shutting down. Restaurants, hotels, department stores and small businesses have laid off millions as they struggle to pay bills at a time when their revenue has vanished.