NBC News
This is a sad and alarming sign of the times — residents packed together, risking coronavirus exposure to line up for unemployment benefits.
The city of Hialeah handed out paper unemployment forms at 4 different locations Tuesday in order to help those who were unable to file through Florida’s website or hotline … and created this troubling scene.
The line was full of desperate folks — many wearing face coverings, but some not — waiting for their applications, but clearly not following social distancing guidelines of keeping 6 feet apart.
Florida currently has more than 14,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and its death total is approaching 300, so it certainly calls into question the decision to make residents wait in line for unemployment forms.
43. Look at this long line of cars waiting to pickup food from the Central Texas Food Bank
Our fellow Americans are hungry. They’ve reduced their meals so their kids can eat
Unfortunately support from our government(s) is insufficient, they need our help@CTXFoodBank pic.twitter.com/pKrENV74sS
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 6, 2020
@yashar
Meanwhile, food banks across the country — from Central Texas to Pittsburgh — have been overburdened far this week with miles-long lines of cars waiting to pick up food for their families.
Feeding South Florida has reported a 600% increase in the number of people asking for food, and it’s a similar story for food banks across the U.S.
As we reported … Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to aid the nation’s food banks, but it’s starting to look like they’re going to need way more help than that.