Desperate Americans are packing out food bank lines in California like never before, a disturbing sign the coronavirus lockdowns have given way to food insecurity.

CBS San Francisco reports over a million pounds of food is being distributed to address the growing problem, which started when people began losing their jobs and businesses were destroyed over coronavirus shutdown orders:

Three times a week, hundreds of cars line up as thousands of pounds of food are all given away at the Alameda County Food Bank.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in 35 years in business. Each one of these distribution is serving well over a thousand cars!” said the food bank’s Director Community Engagement Mike Altfest.

It is one of four locations across Alameda County where folks are receiving much needed basic food for free. They are people who may have lost their jobs when their businesses were forced to shut down due to pandemic concerns.

Altfest says people arrive as early as seven in the morning and lines don’t stop for six hours.

He adds the need for food isn’t just limited to the poor, as he sees motorists driving Toyotas, BMWs and Mercedes all queued up.

“Since the start of this pandemic, our food distribution has increased between 50 and 70 percent,” he says. “So, while we were distributing 600 pounds of food a week before this, we’re now well over a million pounds a week.”

The situation in California is just a microcosm of a wider issue playing states across the country, and indeed across the world as the United Nations has estimated over 138 million will be pushed to the brink of starvation due to global lockdown orders, a disaster some are referring to as an “engineered famine.”

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