Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1328227
Pandemic Brings Food Security to the Forefront in Montana BY ALEXIS BONOGOFSKY 27 farm406 When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States, many Montanans, like most Americans, flooded grocery stores and cleared the shelves of nonperishable food and household items like toilet paper. It was hard to find products like flour and the meat coolers were empty. Stores began limiting what consumers could buy. At the same time consumers were seeing depleted grocery store shelves, they were also seeing images in the news of farmers destroying crops and dumping milk while food pantry lines filled with people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. e juxtaposition was jarring. "We will admit just like any other grocery store that we had a lot of blank space on our shelves," said manager Graham Kerwin from 2j's Market in Great Falls. "It took longer for us to get the usual things and we still haven't goen some of them." Food insecurity became visible in a way that the country hadn't seen in generations. e term food insecurity refers to the inability to access food in a consistent manner, resulting in reduced quality or variety of diet and oentimes, hunger. e pandemic illuminated fragilities in our food system that contribute to food insecurity. In particular, it demonstrated how rigid the U.S. food supply system is, although the country is extremely efficient in producing food, it lacks the flexibility to adapt to major shocks. e speed at which basic food essentials were depleted highlighted that although there was enough food in the country to feed everyone, the supply chain wasn't nimble enough to adapt. Because of the disruption farmers had too much of their production le on the farm at the same time consumers were dealing with rationing. According to the Montana Food Bank Network, before the pandemic hit, approximately one in ten Montanans struggled with hunger and 37,000 children lived in food insecure households. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, rates are dramatically increasing. According to one estimate by Pandemic Brings Food Security to the Forefront in Montana