(CHICAGO) — Delisa Tucker was just steps away from her son’s memorial in Chicago early Wednesday morning when she was fatally shot.
She had lost 14-year-old Kevin Tinker to gun violence the Sunday before, and friends said she was tending to his memorial when she was gunned down.
“While she was lighting candles for her son, her life was taken,” wrote Michelle Tharpe, a family friend, on the GoFundMe page set up to help pay the family’s funeral expenses. “This world is so cold.”
Police responded to a ShotSpotter alert at around 12:15 a.m. and found Tucker, 31, lying on a sidewalk in the 200 block of West 110th Place. She was transported to Roseland Hospital and pronounced dead, according to officials.
They reported finding no one on the block who saw the shooting, and no one’s been taken into custody for that attack or the one on her son.
On Sunday, her son was shot several times at the exact same location and pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
“He was a quiet boy,” Tharpe wrote in the GoFundMe page. “Rest well Lil Kevin.”
CPD said investigations for both shooting are ongoing. Chicago police declined to comment on whether the shootings are connected, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Tucker leaves behind five other children, according to Tharpe.
Shootings have spiked in Chicago this year, according to CPD crime data. As of Nov. 8, there had been 3,105 incidents in 2021, an increase of 10% over 2020 and a 66% increase compared with 2019.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 26, 4:04 am
EU to propose travel ban on southern Africa over new variant
The European Union’s executive branch said Friday that it wants to suspend air travel to the bloc from southern Africa due to concerns over a newly identified variant of the novel coronavirus.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement via Twitter, saying a proposal “to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern Africa region” will be made “in close coordination” with EU member states.
The variant, called B.1.1.529, was first detected in South Africa earlier this week and has quickly spread. At least 22 cases have been confirmed in the country so far, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. South African scientist Tulio de Oliveira told reporters Thursday that the new variant carries “a very high number of mutations,” but it’s unclear whether it will limit the effectiveness of vaccines.
Several cases of B.1.1.529 have since been confirmed in neighboring Botswana as well as in Hong Kong and Israel. The cases detected in Hong Kong and Israel were linked to travelers who had arrived from southern Africa.
The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to assess B.1.1.529 and determine whether it should be designated a variant “of interest” or “of concern.”
Nov 25, 8:01 pm
UK issues travel restrictions due to concerns over new variant
The United Kingdom announced Thursday new travel restrictions for six countries over concerns about a new variant of the novel coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.
The variant, known as B.1.1.529, has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from southern Africa. It has not yet been detected in the U.K., officials said.
“The early indications we have of this variant is that it may be more transmissible than the delta variant, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said during a briefing Thursday.
Starting midday on Friday, all flights from six southern African countries — South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana — will be temporarily suspended, and travelers entering the U.K. from those countries after 4 a.m. on Sunday must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.
Currently, B.1.1.529 is not designated by the World Health Organization as a variant “of concern” or “of interest.” So far, 22 cases have been confirmed in South Africa, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
The WHO’s technical working group is scheduled to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether to give it a name from the Greek alphabet, based on its naming system for variants of concern and variants of interest.
The virus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.
Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV reported.
The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
(NEW YORK) — Honduras teeters on the edge of democracy.
In one of the most consequential elections in the Western Hemisphere, in one of Central America’s poorest countries, Hondurans head to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, new lawmakers, new mayors and new city council members.
“The elections this Sunday, November 28th, definitely present our golden opportunity, the only one, to rescue democracy in this country,” Clara López, a voter in the country’s capital Tegucigalpa, told ABC News. “It’s now or never.”
Honduras’ recent history of election-related violence has many on edge. Among them, President Joe Biden’s administration will be watching for a peaceful election outcome, a possible new partner to work with, and any effect on migration issues to the southern U.S. border.
The State Department also deployed a top U.S. diplomat to Honduras this week, who told ABC News the U.S. is prepared to act if there are any irregularities in the election.
There are 11 candidates in total for the presidency, but the race has really come down to two: Tegucigalpa’s mayor Nasry Asfura, who would extend the right-wing party’s hold on power, but faces allegations of corruption; and Xiomara Castro, a popular former first lady who has united a left-wing coalition and could become Honduras’s first female leader and Latin America’s only current female head of state.
But tensions have risen across Honduras, with a recent spate of election-related violence, including assassinations of candidates. Looming large over the elections, too, are last year’s back-to-back hurricanes and history’s shadow — a 2009 coup that forced Castro’s husband from power and the 2017 elections, riddled with irregularities, according to the Organization of American States, the region’s bloc.
Despite the OAS’ call for a new vote in 2017, presidential incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández was declared the winner, sparking protests that led to days of violent, deadly clashes.
Amid apparent concerns over the potential for more violence, the U.S. deployed the top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, to Honduras for a three-day trip. But after his meetings, including with both Castro and Asfura, Nichols expressed optimism that the country can hold free and fair elections.
“We will call things as we see them. We believe this is going to be a free and fair process that reflects the will of the Honduran people. If we see something that deviates from that — well, then we’ll take the appropriate steps, but I’m confident that this is going to be a peaceful, free, fair election,” Nichols told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
To many Hondurans, however, recent years have chased away any confidence. Just 30% of Hondurans believe democracy is preferable to all other forms of government, according to Latinobarometro’s 2021 report — the lowest in all of Latin America — while four-fifths of Hondurans believe the country is on the wrong path.
.@MaggieRulli has an in-depth report on Honduras and “a presidential election that some say is the country’s last chance to prove democracy is still alive in one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere.” https://t.co/vAkidmdYRJpic.twitter.com/gebU3rYVFy
“The people are in a critical state,” Salvador Nasralla, Castro’s running mate and Hernández’s opponent in 2017, told ABC News. “I do not dismiss the possibility of a civil war in the country.”
In the 2017 elections, Nasralla was ahead in the polls and largely expected to win, making the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s declaration that Hernández won after a delayed count that much more suspicious to many Hondurans. But the Trump administration backed Hernández’s claim to victory, dismissing concerns from the OAS and other international election observers about irregularities.
This time around, Nasralla, a popular former sportscaster, said he felt compelled to join Castro’s ticket to try to ensure a left-wing victory.
“It wouldn’t be winning if I subtracted votes from the opposition, and that would’ve made me a bad Honduran,” he told ABC News in his only interview with an English-language outlet.
Castro herself has become a force in Honduran politics, leading the movement against the 2009 coup where the military deposed her husband Manuel Zelaya after he pushed a referendum to change the constitution and abolish its one-term limit.
Backed by her new liberal party, she has been ahead in the polls in recent weeks, especially after Nasralla’s surprising endorsement.
But Asfura remains a potent opponent, boosted by his own party’s hold on government and promises “to create jobs and opportunities so that people can bring food to their homes, health, and education,” as he said in a recent rally.
Asfura’s popularity comes despite allegations against him in the recent Pandora Papers which revealed he used offshore tax loopholes, and local officials accused him of embezzling funds from the capital city’s municipal government.
They’re not the first charges against the ruling National Party’s leaders. Hernández was named by a U.S. federal court as a co-conspirator in a huge narcotics trafficking case that saw his brother, former congressman Tony Hernández, sentenced to life in prison. The president has denied wrongdoing and has not faced criminal charges.
Despite those allegations, the Biden administration has tried to work with Hernández and other Central American governments to stem migration from the region, which has surged during his presidency. Nearly 1.7 million migrants reached the southern U.S. border in fiscal year 2021, which covers October 2020 through September 2021, and one-fifth of them — 308,931 in total — were Honduran.
“Honduras doesn’t guarantee its citizens a dignified life within its territory, and it forces them to flee,” said López, the Tegucigalpa voter who is backing Castro’s campaign.
During his own 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, Biden pledged to invest $4 billion in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — sometimes called the Northern Triangle countries — to improve the quality of life, including the rule of law and countering corruption, and give their citizens reasons to stay in their communities.
PHOTO: The president of the National Electoral Council of Honduras, Kevin Izaguirre (R), and the Chief of the Armed Forces of that country, Tito Livio Moreno, carry a box with electoral material for the elections in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Nov. 23, 2021.
Gustavo Amador/EPA via ShutterstockGustavo Amador/EPA via Shutterstock
The president of the National Electoral Council of Honduras, Kevin Izaguirre (R), and the…
While that money has started to flow, corrupt and increasingly power-grabbing political leaders in all three countries have made it difficult for the U.S. to find partners to work with.
Free and fair elections, a peaceful transfer of power and a new leadership partner in Honduras are important to Biden’s agenda, particularly because if the situation deteriorates, even more Hondurans could flee in search of a better life to the north.
“Everything is at stake here. For the first time, you have a very clearly differentiated path that is being put forward by the proposals of both parties,” said Sergio Bahr, a Honduran sociologist. “This election will define the direction in which the country goes in the next 10 to 20 years.”
That’s why the State Department deployed its top diplomat for the region to Honduras. Nichols, the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, met with Honduras’ national electoral council, its chief of defense, and its attorney general, among others, saying he was assured they’re taking “all measures necessary” to secure the election and prevent violence like 2017.
“We certainly will be looking to Honduran electoral authorities to carry out their responsibilities professionally and transparently, and they’ve assured their own people as well as the international community of the same,” he told ABC News.
For voters like Ela Rubio, that’s all that they want, she said.
“We want democracy. We want transparent elections,” said Rubio, an Asfura supporter.” We don’t want to regress. We want to move forward. We want to keep going, and to show the world that not everything in Honduras is bad.”
(FLORIDA) — The death of a 14-year-old Florida boy whose body was found last week has been ruled a homicide by local police.
Ryan Rogers of Palm Beach Gardens was found dead Nov. 16 around 9 a.m. local time near an Interstate 95 overpass by a passerby who spotted the boy’s bike lying in the grass.
“We now know that Ryan Rogers’ death was not an accident, but a deliberate act,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.
ABC West Palm Beach affiliate WPBF reported that an autopsy on Saturday revealed Rogers’ death was not from a bicycle accident.
Statement regarding the investigation into Ryan Rogers’ death. Please call 561-799-4445 with any tips. pic.twitter.com/I9KGjfgudo
Palm Beach Gardens PD, Fire Rescue Foundation and Crime Stoppers are seeking evidence and witnesses, and offering a reward of $8,000 for any information on the case.
Police are urging potential witnesses, or anyone who has a dashcam in their car and was traveling near the Central Boulevard and Interstate 95 area from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 15, to contact them.
“No amount of information is too small,” police added.
(Nantucket, MA) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent the first part of their holiday hosting a virtual meeting with service members from around the world to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service.
From Coast Guard Station Brant Point in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the Bidens addressed members representing all six military branches — the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.
After that, the president met outside with roughly two dozen members of the Coast Guard, shaking their hands and presenting them with challenge coins, which are historically collectible pieces.
The president said the “blessings of Thanksgiving are especially meaningful” this year after so many families and friends couldn’t gather last year because of surging COVID-19 cases.
“We also keep in our hearts those who we’ve lost,” the president said. “And those who have an empty seat at their kitchen table or their dining room table this year because of this virus, or another cruel twist of fate or accident, we pray for them.”
Thanksgiving in Nantucket is a decades-long tradition for the Biden family. The first lady also confirmed that they would be taking part once again in the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday afternoon.
“We’re all going to be there,” she said. “We’re all going together.”
(NEW YORK) — Two New York City Police officers were shot but are expected to make a full recovery after a “gun battle” broke out in the Bronx on Wednesday evening.
Police say the perpetrator, who was not immediately identified, was also shot and had undergone surgery but is expected to survive.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said during a news conference Wednesday from St. Barnabas Hospital that the entire incident was captured on body camera footage. The two officers were responding to a call from a community member who was concerned about a man with a gun in the neighborhood.
“They’re walking up there, discussing tactically how they will approach, and they immediately encounter this individual who’s sitting on the front stoop of the building,” Shea said of the officers. “Within seconds, they are in a gun battle.”
A female police officer was struck twice in the right arm and a male police officer was shot in the right armpit area, according to Shea. The suspect, who Shea said had a record of previous arrests, was struck three times.
The firearm was reported stolen in Georgia last year, according to Shea. The body cam footage was not immediately released, but Shea said it indicates that the first shot was fired by the suspect and hit the female officer in the arm.
“What strikes you as you watch that video is the speed in which it happens,” Shea said. “And the no regard for human life.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the public can expect to learn more about the two officers in the days ahead. But he is thankful they are alive.
“I want to give thanks that these two, Thank God, are OK, and it looks like they’ll make a full recovery,” de Blasio told reporters.
“We also got to recognize there are too many guns out there, so another example of a gun from out of state comes into our city hurts a New Yorker,” the mayor added. “This is something we’ve got to deal with in a whole different way.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
-Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
-Daily case average up 46% since October
-Deaths, hospitalizations predicted to increase in weeks to come
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV-TV reported.
The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
Nov 25, 8:40 am
Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
Germany has become the latest country to surpass 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to official figures released Thursday.
The Western European country recorded 351 fatalities from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 100,119, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency.
In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to reach that grim milestone, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is among several countries on the continent that are grappling with a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Last week, the German government imposed tougher restrictions to curb the new wave of infections, as hospital beds quickly fill up.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned citizens that their survival could hinge on their vaccination status.
“Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “That’s the reality.”
Nov 25, 8:22 am
Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
Just 27% of health workers in Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization.
The WHO said an analysis of data reported from 25 African nations found that, since March, only 1.3 million health workers are fully vaccinated. Just six of those countries have fully vaccinated 90% of their health workers, while nine countries have less than 40%. Meanwhile, a recent WHO global study of 22 mostly high-income nations found that over 80% of their health workers are fully vaccinated.
“The majority of Africa’s health workers are still missing out on vaccines and remain dangerously exposed to severe COVID-19 infection,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement Thursday. “Unless our doctors, nurses and other frontline workers get full protection we risk a blowback in the efforts to curb this disease. We must ensure our health facilities are safe working environments.”
Nov 24, 7:11 pm
New Hampshire to establish ‘surge centers’
Amid a record-setting COVID-19 surge, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order allowing hospitals to establish temporary acute care centers, or internal “surge centers,” in an effort to increase bed capacity.
“We are seeing record levels of cases; we’re seeing record levels of hospitalizations. This winter surge that we predicted is unfortunately now rearing its ugly head. We are definitely in the throes of it,” Sununu said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The state is also working to identify whether the National Guard can play a role in supporting hospitals.
“I think the next few weeks are going to be very telling. I think it’s going to be a fairly bumpy road. We just want everyone to be vaccinated. Be safe because the system right now is at an emergency point,” Sununu added.
The governor made clear that this executive order is not a state of emergency.
(NEW YORK) — Ahmaud Arbery’s mother said she is feeling especially thankful this Thanksgiving, after three men were found guilty of his murder.
“Today is Thanksgiving and I’m really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday,” Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News’ Whit Johnson in an interview Thursday on Good Morning America.
“We finally got justice for Ahmaud,” she added.
It’s been nearly two years since the 25-year-old Black man was gunned down while jogging in a mostly white southern Georgia neighborhood.
“We know that Ahmaud was targeted because he was a Black runner in a community that thought that his presence there was inappropriate,” Cooper-Jones’ attorney, Lee Merritt, said during the interview on GMA.
Merritt noted how prosecutors made a decision not to center their case on race but rather on the “criminal nature.”
“What I appreciated about the prosecution’s strategy was that they said Ahmaud Arbery was a citizen in the United States running on a free road, and that alone entitled him to life.” he said. “Not by virtue of any, you know, protected class that he belongs to. But we all enjoy these rights as citizens of the United States of America.”
On Wednesday, Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery in February 2020, was convicted by a Glynn County jury on all nine charges, including malice murder and four counts of felony murder.
His father, Gregory McMichael, was found not guilty of malice murder but was convicted on all other charges, including four counts of felony murder.
Their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the incident on a cellphone, was found guilty on six charges, including three of the felony murder counts.
All three men face up to life in prison.
The 12-member jury, comprised of 11 white people and one Black person, announced the verdict after more than 11 hours of deliberations, spanning two days. Cooper-Jones, sitting in the courtroom, wept in relief.
“There’s just really no words to really explain all the emotions that I was going through at that time,” she said.
Although relieved, Cooper-Jones said she wasn’t that surprised by the verdict.
“I sat there every day, I heard the state present their evidence. I was very, very confident that they did a very good job of presenting their evidence,” she explained, “and I knew that if the jurors took that evidence, went back and deliberated over the evidence that was presented, that we would get justice for Ahmaud — and we did.”
When asked whether she had a message for the three defendants, Cooper-Jones replied: “I would simply tell them that their bad decisions have impacted two families — my family and again their family.”
“Not only did the McMichaels lose a son, they lost a grandfather and they will be impacted by his grandchild,” she said. “I lost a son, but they lost three generations there.”
ABC News’ Kelly McCarthy contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
-Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
-Daily case average up 46% since October
-Deaths, hospitalizations predicted to increase in weeks to come
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 25, 8:40 am
Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
Germany has become the latest country to surpass 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to official figures released Thursday.
The Western European country recorded 351 fatalities from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 100,119, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency.
In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to reach that grim milestone, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is among several countries on the continent that are grappling with a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Last week, the German government imposed tougher restrictions to curb the new wave of infections, as hospital beds quickly fill up.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned citizens that their survival could hinge on their vaccination status.
“Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “That’s the reality.”
Nov 25, 8:22 am
Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
Just 27% of health workers in Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization.
The WHO said an analysis of data reported from 25 African nations found that, since March, only 1.3 million health workers are fully vaccinated. Just six of those countries have fully vaccinated 90% of their health workers, while nine countries have less than 40%. Meanwhile, a recent WHO global study of 22 mostly high-income nations found that over 80% of their health workers are fully vaccinated.
“The majority of Africa’s health workers are still missing out on vaccines and remain dangerously exposed to severe COVID-19 infection,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement Thursday. “Unless our doctors, nurses and other frontline workers get full protection we risk a blowback in the efforts to curb this disease. We must ensure our health facilities are safe working environments.”
Nov 24, 7:11 pm
New Hampshire to establish ‘surge centers’
Amid a record-setting COVID-19 surge, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order allowing hospitals to establish temporary acute care centers, or internal “surge centers,” in an effort to increase bed capacity.
“We are seeing record levels of cases; we’re seeing record levels of hospitalizations. This winter surge that we predicted is unfortunately now rearing its ugly head. We are definitely in the throes of it,” Sununu said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The state is also working to identify whether the National Guard can play a role in supporting hospitals.
“I think the next few weeks are going to be very telling. I think it’s going to be a fairly bumpy road. We just want everyone to be vaccinated. Be safe because the system right now is at an emergency point,” Sununu added.
The governor made clear that this executive order is not a state of emergency.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 24, 12:13 pm
Daily case average up 46% since October
Hospital admissions in the U.S. are up by 15% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
These states and Washington, D.C, have seen at least a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
The U.S. daily case average has jumped by more than 46% since late October, according to federal data.
The Northeast and Midwest are seeing the greatest increase in cases and hospitalizations.
In Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, case averages are up 30%.
(NEW YORK) — As families gather across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving and give thanks, many are struggling to fill their kitchens with fresh food and groceries.
The U.S. has made virtually no progress toward solving this issue of food insecurity in the last two years, according to United States Department of Agriculture data. More than 10% of U.S. households (13.8 million) were food insecure at some time during 2020, unchanged from 2019, the government said.
This problem has particularly hit Black and brown communities hard.
During the pandemic, residents in Harlem, New York, leaned on local organizations like New York City’s The Brotherhood Sister Sol for resources, guidance and food. The group has taken matters of food insecurity into its own hands with a weekly grocery distribution that feeds more than 500 families in the neighborhood.
The organization says it’s on track to distribute more than 1 million meals by the end of 2021.
“Each and every week, families just express immense relief at the fact that BroSis continues to support them in these ways,” said Brittany Reyes, Sister Sol coordinator at BroSis.
The organization is handing out turkeys and holiday favorites this week but community members are dependent year-round on others for food. In New York alone, about 19% of New Yorkers live in poverty, according to the City of New York.
Khary Lazarre-White, BroSis co-founder and executive director, said, “This is a community that’s still desperately in need because of a lack of investment in communities like Harlem and the South Bronx.”
Food insecurity means that families have insufficient funds and resources to provide adequate food for their household throughout the year.
About four in 10 households with Hispanic/Latinx or Black parents reported food insecurity, according to a 2020 study from the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank. That’s almost triple what households with white parents reported.
Food insecurity is a symptom of larger systemic issues like poverty, said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at Urban Institute. Low-income families are often forced to trade off different kinds of necessities and expenses, sometimes leaving food off the table.
Not having consistent access to healthy food or stable food sources can have long-term effects on one’s health and well-being, especially for children and adolescents who rely on food for their developmental growth, health experts say.
“It’s really important to frame food insecurity as a public health issue,” Waxman said.
People who are food insecure are more likely to have chronic diet-related diseases and are likely less able to manage it, according to research by the USDA. The study also showed that food insecurity is also often associated with cognitive delays and behavioral challenges in children and adolescents.
“We’re probably the wealthiest country in the history in recorded history, yet we have food insecurity [at a level] that is just incredibly alarming,” said Luis Guardia, the president of the Food Research and Action Center, a national nonprofit research organization working to eradicate poverty.
Several tools that Guardia calls the “country’s first line of defense against hunger” have been proven to reduce hunger. The federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allows impoverished families to purchase food in authorized grocery stores. National school meal programs help feed children while they’re at school throughout the day — a system that proved to be critical during the pandemic when schools shut down.
Waxman and Guardia, however, said these programs still have their flaws and are in need of expansion. SNAP benefits are inadequate compared to local food prices in some locations and some Americans earn just above the income required to attain these benefits.
“What we need is the political will,” said Guardia. “There really shouldn’t be any excuse for anyone to go hungry in this country.” But the expansion of these programs throughout the pandemic helped keep the country on track during a period where it would have been expected it to implode, Waxman said.
“The problem is that we don’t lean into these problems long term,” Waxman said. “We have that short Band-Aid kind of approach. My concern is that while the overall unemployment rate is improving, it’s not that way for everyone and yet, we’re already pulling back all kinds of systems.”
She went on, “Will we learn lessons from the pandemic and know that we can actually make a significant difference?”
Food insecurity experts and the organizers at BroSis concede that grassroots food distribution efforts and pantries aren’t permanent solutions to the problem.
MORE: Chefs, organizations join together to fight food insecurity this Thanksgiving
“We have a tendency sometimes to assume the charitable food system will just sort of pick up all the pieces — and they’ve done a heroic job during the pandemic — but that’s supposed to be a workaround,” Waxman said. “It shouldn’t be a primary safety net for anyone.”
Added Lazarre-White: “The only entity that can respond to the level of inequality that produces food insecurity and hunger in our country is government. No private philanthropy can do that. Certainly no independent nonprofit can do that.”
For now, BroSis will continue to fill the gaps — showing up every Wednesday to feed the families who rely on them.
“So I think what we have to do is frame this work as justice work,” said Lazarre-White. “The issue of basic rights, of housing, of education and food — these are things that are human rights.”
