Despite an improving economy and slowing inflation, high food prices have led to record demand and increasing food insecurity across the United States. In major American cities, a surge of new migrants to the U.S. now joins the chronic poor and hungry in swelling food distribution queues.

Chicago

Despite the economic recovery and a decrease in inflation rates in the United States, high food prices persist, causing a significant impact on food security nationwide. The situation has resulted in unprecedented demand for food aid, with more individuals requiring assistance to meet their basic nutritional needs. Major cities across the country have observed a noticeable increase in the number of individuals seeking help, with food distribution centers experiencing longer lines than usual.

Among those most affected are new migrants to the United States, who find themselves alongside the chronically impoverished and hungry in search of sustenance. This trend suggests that the benefits of the improving economy have not reached all segments of the population equally. Economic challenges, exacerbated by the sustained high cost of food, have put additional strain on already vulnerable communities, including migrant groups.



Struggling migrants turn to food aid in U.S.

Every single day we make coffee because it's the best way to say welcome to our community. For more than 30 years, Fatima Abu-Aid has devoted her life to helping each wave of newcomers to Chicago. She immigrated to the U.S. from Palestine in the late 1970s. Now she's feeding refugees from across the globe who line up at her door. That's your coffee, sir. When they're hungry, I know how they feel. It's not easy. Hunger is our number one enemy. We need to fight our enemy together to live in peace. On a snowy day, the lines at Sennad Food Pantry stretch down the road. The things that they give us here help us a lot. It is a great help, especially when you have a large family. We work to make what we can and add to it with what we get here. From one place or another, we get enough. With 37,000 new migrants bused to Chicago alone from Texas over the past two years, pantries here and across the U.S. are straining to fill the grocery carts of the hungry with donated food. Chicago food pantries have always been busy, but as the migrant numbers have increased, so have the lines. Typically, this site would see about 50 people on a given day. Now they're seeing 200, 300, and the lines will continue until the food runs out. Some pantries here have started to reduce the number of times families can visit each month. Others ration the food they give out. The migrant surge is on the rise, with crowds sometimes tearing down border fences and breaking through the lines of U.S. agents. I came over here a long, long time ago, my people did, and it's OK, you know. We can't, this culture can't afford to support everybody. When they arrive at her door, Fatima says she doesn't ask where they come from. Whoever asks for help, help them, don't look at their color, religion, culture, just look at them as a human being. And that's how I do, because I've been through a lot. When they come to me for something, I have the feeling, I know how they feel, because I've been through it. In each new wave of immigrants, Fatima says, she sees herself. John Hendren, Al Jazeera, Chicago.

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