As joblessness soars, food banks struggle to fill the hunger gap

IN A MATTER OF MONTHS, 47-YEAR-OLD AQUANNA QUARLES saw her personal finances implode. First she totaled her car. Then the car she replaced the totaled one with was stolen. Then, in early March, her kitchen flooded. Quarles remembers thinking, “Oh my God, like what else could go wrong?”

In Ohio, where Quarles lives, the pandemic hit in mid-March. State government began issuing stay-at-home orders, closing schools and shuttering businesses to prevent the spread of COVID-19. By the end of the month, the rest of the country had followed suit, effectively stalling the U.S. economy and pushing millions out of work. Quarles, who works for a home health care company, saw her hours, and her weekly earnings, cut by about half.

In April, she came to the realization that for the first time in her life, she needed