San Angelo's Next Crisis

SAN ANGELO, TX — While national and state leaders wrangle with models about the spread of the coronavirus that predict ominous outcomes that aren’t coming true, a dual attack on the Concho Valley economy is silently taking place. The crash of the oil industry coupled with the economic displacement caused by the coronavirus mitigation restrictions and business shutdowns are already straining the supply chain for San Angelo’s regional food bank.

Concho Valley Food Bank Executive Director Lee Pipkin said demand is up 133 percent already and his supply chains have been disrupted by the coronavirus panic. Hoarding, especially in the initial days of the economic shutdown, reduced supply from upstream providers like the big box grocers.

“There just isn’t a lot of salvage food coming in from United Supermarkets, H-E-B, or the Walmarts,” Pipkin said, pointing to empty shelves and freezer space at the food bank’s warehouse. He attributes this to the disruptions in the food supply chain caused by panicking.

The panic has also increased the food bank’s cost.

A few years ago, the food bank agreed to provision and distribute “backpacks” full of nutrition—enough carbs and protein to last a weekend— to school-aged students identified by social workers and school counselors in the San Angelo ISD as likely to need food over weekend school breaks. Today, the demand for the backpacks has tripled, from 500 per week to 1500 per week, while the food bank’s cost has increased from $4.25 each to around $5.50 each.

Social distancing restrictions that have closed restaurants have also closed agency dining facilities like the Wesley Soup Kitchen. An “agency” is an organization identified by the food bank as eligible to receive food at no cost from the food bank to distribute to the hungry. About eight such agencies have closed and that has eliminated the ability for the food bank to supply large portion shipments, in high volume and lower cost, that is cooked in large amounts.

Rust Street Ministries’ Neighbors Cafe no longer cooks hot meals, but distributes sack lunches instead.

The food bank still supplies over 80 agencies in the region.

Pipkin said aggressive fundraising and generous partners like the San Angelo Area Foundation, H-E-B Foundation and Texas Mutual Insurance have so far helped fill the gaps in funding. The food bank is also aggressively applying for grants.

While the money is slower to come in than the demand, Pipkin said San Angelo’s food bank shops and horse trades with other food banks in Midland/Odessa, Abilene, and Wichita Falls. The food banks combine their needs together to get steep discounts on large shipments, then split the shipments up among the participating cities, sharing costs and volume discounts. The food bank is also affiliated with Feeding Texas and Feeding America that help with the supply side.

Thursday afternoon, as the shutdown of the local economy of about 120,000 people county-wide was well into its 22nd day, 28 people were being actively monitored for COVID-19, three had recovered, and the first death from the virus was announced.

Despite this, the Shannon Medical Center ER parking lot was almost empty, the ER was not busy, and the COVID-19 drive-through testing area downtown was empty. No serious discussion has been happening publicly about when the country, state, or city pivots from a healthcare crisis to tackling an economic crisis. Stimulus money to small businesses, the top employers in the area, runs out for many companies the week of June 1. Many will have access to unemployment insurance payments afterwards.

For Pipkin, he said one sign of bad economic conditions will be when you see a family in a Cadillac drive up to one of the agencies seeking food. There may be all kinds of situations and people from up and down the socio-economic ladder in need. Hunger does not discriminate, he said.

“We are facing a double-edged sword with the coronavirus and the crash in the oil field,” Pipkin said. “The surge is coming.”