Federal funding cuts leading to crisis in local food pantries
Channel 9's Gina Esposito found that even in Union County, smaller food pantries are facing big problems.
Common Heart in Union County said their back wall is normally filled with food, but some of the shelves were bare on Friday, and a normally-stocked fridge was diminished.
But while the supplies are fewer, the bustling of carts was non-stop at the food pantry in Waxhaw. Box after box went into about 200 cars that were lined up.
'My husband and I are seniors, and the grocery store prices have risen. We come out to get a supplement,' said Doris Mills.
Behind the scenes, Ryan Kolbe with Common Heart says he wasn't sure if they'd even have meat to give out.
'It's really difficult with all the uncertainty and I'm glad this pantry turned out well. Second Harvest was able to get this together, but going through the weeks leading up to it, not knowing if there was going to be enough,' Kolbe said.
On April 13, the nonprofit sent Common Heart a letter saying cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, by 50%. As a result, Second Harvest is distributing less produce, dairy and frozen meat to its partner agencies, like Common Heart. For this quarter, there wouldn't be any milk, eggs, or cheese.
The following week, Common Heart got a notice that it wouldn't get its TEFAP food allocation for the rest of the month.
'On May 2, looking at our freezer, we had four boxes of ground beef left that was enough to serve one or two pantries, then we would have nothing,' Kolbe said.
He says they were able to pick up some TEFAP food last week, but he worries it may not be enough to feed all of the people who really need it.
Common Heart says because of the uncertainty with their meat supply, they need people to donate canned meat like tuna fish. They're also asking for people to donate to cover the costs cut by the federal government.
You can help by taking part in Channel 9's Food Drive at this link.
(VIDEO: Community helps rebuild food truck swept away in Hurricane Helene)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
a day ago
- Axios
One key signal Florida homeowners are seeing some insurance relief
Florida home insurers collected more premiums than claims and expenses paid in 2024 — a rare occurrence, and even more so after three hurricanes struck the state that year. That's according to new data from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. Why it matters: Florida homeowners still face among the highest premiums in the nation, at an average of $3,815 per year. Catch up quick: The Sunshine State's vulnerability to storms has resulted in losses for insurers, which, in turn, are passed on to consumers. The result? A dismal insurance market, which for decades saw premiums skyrocket, companies go bankrupt, and an over-reliance on the state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The Legislature tried to flip that outlook in 2022, with reforms that aimed to create a more hospitable market for companies. But that didn't mean much for consumers then, who got no such relief. The latest: There are now signs of improvement, however modest. S&P Global found that Florida had the smallest increase (about 1%) in insurance premiums across the nation in 2024 and ranked it ninth overall for average home insurance cost that year. Dozens of new insurers have entered the market. All the while, the bloated state-run insurer offloaded tens of thousands of policies to the private sector, with some consumers now paying less. And last year, for the first time since 2015, home insurers raked in more than they paid out. What they're saying: "This is great news for consumers," says Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute. "Florida's always going to be above the national average because it's a high-risk state," he tells Axios. "But the market is improving." Yes, but: There's a lot to couch here. For one, S&P Global didn't account for Citizens — the state's largest insurer — when it evaluated Florida's rate increases, and a 6% statewide increase went into effect this summer. Plus, most home insurance policies cover wind, not flood damage. That means a considerable amount of devastation that hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton caused in Florida wasn't covered. What's next: Florida Peninsula Insurance, among the state's largest home insurers, requested a statewide decrease of 8.4% in its homeowners' premiums last week, per WFLA.
Newsweek
5 days ago
- Newsweek
Florida Insurers Celebrate Record Profits as Premiums Surge For Residents
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Florida home insurers are celebrating their best year in a decade as in 2024 they collected more premiums than paid out claims for the first time since 2015, according to the latest data by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR). Regulators' most recent Property Insurance Stability Report shows that Florida's home insurance sector has finally bounced back from a yearslong crisis, even as the state was hit by three devastating hurricanes—Debby, Helene, and Milton—last year. From Losses To Gains The Sunshine State is still in the process of recovering from a tumultuous time for its home insurance sector, as premiums skyrocketed over the past five years while carriers went bankrupt or cut coverage across the state to avoid rising costs. The crisis that unfolded in the state, which saw both insurers and policyholders struggling, was due as much to the growing threat posed by more frequent and more severe natural disasters as to excessive litigation and widespread fraud in Florida's insurance market. In an aerial view, homes along the Gulf of Mexico are seen after they were destroyed when Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 12, 2024, in Manasota Key, Florida. In an aerial view, homes along the Gulf of Mexico are seen after they were destroyed when Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 12, 2024, in Manasota Key, Florida.A particularly low point was reached in 2020, when the Florida home insurance industry collectively reported a loss of $1.2 billion. Between 2021 and 2023 alone, nine insurers went insolvent, including three of the ten largest ones operating in Florida. Faced with shrinking availability, homeowners in the state found themselves having to pay higher premiums or otherwise rely on Florida's insurer of last resort, Citizens, for continuous coverage. Citizens ballooned in size between 2020 and 2023, adding hundreds of thousands of policies to its count and raising concerns among experts and lawmakers of what could have happened should the state-backed insurer be unable to pay all their claims. While extreme weather events, like hurricanes, are likely to continue hitting Florida more often and more violently in the coming years due to the impact of climate change, state lawmakers have intervened to stop the other factors contributing to the market's crisis. Between 2022 and 2023, Florida lawmakers reformed the state's tort law so that it would be less profitable and less appealing for attorneys to take disputed insurance settlement cases. They also made contesting an insurer's offer for settling a claim harder to dispute for policyholders in the first place. "Legislative actions addressed the crisis, resulting in a 40 percent year-over-year decline in new property claim lawsuits in 2024," Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), previously told Newsweek. "This has led to market stabilization and lower rates. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that average home premiums declined by 0.7 percent statewide in the fourth quarter of 2024, the first drop in nearly a decade." Out Of The Crisis—But Not Out Of Trouble Not only tort reform—Florida has also welcomed new, smaller insurers into its property insurance market in recent months, diversifying and increasing the options available for homeowners. This has happened at the same time as Citizens had dropped tens of thousands of policies to get back to a size that can be considered sustainable. As for the latest count, dating June 30, Citizens had less than 800,000 policies in force. And yet, despite the progress made over the past couple of years to fix Florida's broken home insurance market, homeowners in the state might struggle to draw a sigh of relief, as they are still paying some of the highest premiums in the country. According to Bankrate, the average annual premium for $300,000 dwelling coverage is $5,728 in Florida. That is still much higher than the national average of $2,397. Many homeowners may also see insurers' profits as a personal slight. Out of 10,900 closed claims for residential properties damaged by Hurricane Debby closed, 7,397 were closed without payment, according to data by FLOIR. Out of 67,266 closed claims related to Hurricane Helene, 37,951 were closed without payment. And out of a total of 254,574 closed claims linked to damage caused by Hurricane Milton, 111,150 were closed without payment. There are several reasons a claim can be closed without payment, ranging from the policy not covering the damage claimed, duplicate claims, or the policyholder's decision to withdraw the claim. FLOIR data does not offer details about why these claims were closed without payment.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Experts raise red flags on troubling trend impacting US homeowners: 'It's a pain that people are feeling everywhere'
Experts raise red flags on troubling trend impacting US homeowners: 'It's a pain that people are feeling everywhere' LendingTree's 2025 state of home insurance report has revealed a troubling trend: Home insurance rates have cumulatively skyrocketed by 40.4% across the United States over the last six years, with premiums increasing at a more rapid pace from 2022 to 2024. What's happening? LendingTree analyzed home insurance data from Quadrant Information Services and discovered that no state experienced a home insurance rate increase lower than 12% from 2019 to 2024. Nearly half of all states pay more for insurance than the national average. "It's a pain that people are feeling everywhere in the country, including Georgia," LendingTree insurance expert Rob Bhatt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On average, a homeowner in the Peach State pays $2,869 for insurance annually, or 2.4% above the national average. Oklahoma homeowners pay the most each year at a whopping $6,133. This total is 118.9% higher than the national average. Why is this important? In his conversation with the AJC, Bhatt spotlighted two key factors responsible for a growing insurance crisis that has left many without coverage or burdened by sky-high premiums: inflation and an increase in climate-related disasters, such as last year's Hurricane Helene that devastated parts of southern Georgia as it left its trail of destruction across the Southeast. A changing climate is directly tied to the latter issue, with warmer ocean temperatures and additional heat in the atmosphere able to supercharge wind speeds in tropical storms, as the U.S. Geological Survey explains. Melting ice sheets and thermal expansion have also caused sea levels to rise, and that has left new areas vulnerable to storm surges and erosion. "Insurance companies have to pay to rebuild more houses, and the cost of repairing or rebuilding each house is significantly higher than it's been in the past," Bhatt said. What's being done about this? Georgia Insurance Commissioner John F. King said in a statement to the AJC that his team is working with lawmakers and industry leaders to find ways to lower insurance costs. (Policymakers in other U.S. states are doing the same.) Bhatt added that he is "cautiously optimistic" that rates could stabilize if insurers are now earning enough to pay their expenses. Yet he acknowledged another climate-related natural disaster could just as soon disrupt that newfound balance. Georgia Watch Executive Director Liz Coyle also pointed out another issue to the AJC: Namely, that the rise in insurance premiums coincides with an uptick in investment-based profits for insurers. And it isn't uncommon for insurance companies to invest in dirty fuels, which account for about three-quarters of the heat-trapping pollution entering our atmosphere. Using your purchasing power to support companies focused on sustainability is one way to help hold notoriously polluting industries accountable, moving the needle toward a cooler future. Do you worry about having toxic forever chemicals in your home? Majorly Sometimes Not really I don't know enough about them Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the the daily Crossword
