When everything thaws, we’re preparing for a massive spike in demand,†said Valerie Hawthorne, director of government relations at the North Texas Food Bank, based in Dallas.
Before the big freeze, this food bank ran two drive-through food distribution sites every day, serving between 300 and 1,500 families at each pop-up location.The extraordinary freeze has once again exposed existing deep inequalities that will make it much harder for low-income households to recover, according to Brian Greene, CEO of the Houston Food Bank.Long lines extend outside grocery stores with empty shelves, and water supplies have been disrupted by boil advisories and burst pipes; electricity is needed for those in rural areas with private wells.The disruption to food supplies in Texas shows how poorly prepared the US is to deal with the climate crisis, according to Molly Anderson, director of the food studies program at Middlebury College in Vermont