For its daily Eye on America human-interest feature, the CBS Evening News ran a report on the use of food banks by individuals formerly considered to be “high-income”. The report’s content leaves viewers to reasonably wonder why CBS never ran such items over the prior 4 years.
Watch as correspondent Mark Strassman sits down with a Connecticut mother who frequents the food bank despite a family income considered to be “middle class”:
MARK STRASSMAN: You remember going to food banks? What was it like?
CHANDRA KELSEY: The first time I did it, I cried. To be in a position where you are doing okay and then you lose everything the next day, it's humbling. It's scary.
STRASSMAN: And yet you’d never suspect need has lived with this family.
Household income is roughly…?
KELSEY: 150. Two people working full-time. Sometimes I work two jobs.
STRASSMAN: How can you make $150,000 and be food insecure?
KELSEY: That's not what you bring home after taxes. You know, we have mortgage, insurance. We've got one kid on their way to college, one in college. Something as small as a $1,000 expense could throw things off significantly.
Anchor John Dickerson introduced the report with a frame suggesting that the food prices phenomenon is of recent vintage, when in fact it is not:
JOHN DICKERSON: You can see the impact of inflation most clearly these days at the grocery store. But you can also see it at food banks, where people who never dreamed they'd need it are turning for help. Even some with six-figure incomes are struggling to feed their families.
Are people really waking up to the impacts of immigration on food pricing “these days?” Not likely. The fact is that there is a plethora of reporting that memorializes America’s ongoing struggle with food prices over the last four years. Of course, there was a Democrat in The White House at the time. Things were (D)ifferent,
The “victim” displayed here is a resident of a high-tax state, another fact that goes completely unaddressed. But the purpose of the report isn’t just to call attention to hunger. There was another pending issue that required attention:
STRASSMAN: Chandra Kelsey is scared about her job. She works as a program director at the Yale School of Public Health and worries about continued government funding of universities such as hers.
KELSEY: We are trying to be very cognizant that it could be around the corner.
STRASSMAN: And in its own way, Connecticut Foodshare is feeling food insecure. Government DOGE cuts last month slashed nearly $2 million from its food budget. How do you replace that?
JAKUBOWSKI: We don't, that's the problem.
The real villain of this story according to the media, the real responsible for families needing to go to food banks is DOGE. Fresh off of ruining vacations and potentially killing Grandma, DOGE now threatens to send people to the food bank and get them fired from their Ivy League support jobs. Joe Biden and his administration’s disproportionate role in creating the conditions that compel people to top their weekly groceries off by visiting their local food banks is virtually absolved.
The whole thing reeks of well-executed propaganda.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the CBS Evening News on Thursday, April 17th, 2025:
JOHN DICKERSON: You can see the impact of inflation most clearly these days at the grocery store. But you can also see it at food banks, where people who never dreamed they'd need it are turning for help. Even some with six-figure incomes are struggling to feed their families. Mark Strassmann has tonight's "Eye on America" from Wallingford, Connecticut.
MARK STRASSMAN: Forget the image you may have of people who are hungry. In America, hunger is now as mobile as this food bank serving a line 60 deep in Connecticut.
CHANDRA KELSEY: Being under financial stress takes a lot of time, and a lot of planning...
STRASSMAN: Take Chandra Kelsey, grocery stopping on a tight budget for her family of five.
KELSEY: It's whatever is on sale.
STRASSMAN: Food insecurity eats at her. A lifelong trauma.
You remember going to food banks? What was it like?
KELSEY: The first time I did it, I cried. To be in a position where you are doing okay and then you lose everything the next day, it's humbling. It's scary.
STRASSMAN: And yet you’d never suspect need has lived with this family.
Household income is roughly…?
KELSEY: 150. Two people working full-time. Sometimes I work two jobs.
STRASSMAN: How can you make $150,000 and be food insecure?
KELSEY: That's not what you bring home after taxes. You know, we have mortgage, insurance. We've got one kid on their way to college, one in college. Something as small as a $1,000 expense could throw things off significantly.
This one is crazy looking…
STRASSMAN: On and off for a decade, Kelsey has relied on help from Connecticut Foodshare, the state's largest food bank. Se and two of her children now give back by volunteering here. All this food, and it's still not enough. Nationally, more than 50 million people need help getting food from charities like this one. Here in Connecticut, that's one in eight people.
JASON JAKUBOWSKI: They’re your neighbor. They're your friend. They could be your family.
STRASSMAN: Jason Jakubowski, Connecticut Foodshare CEO, told us demand for their food jumped 23% last year. He expects another double-digit increase this year. Are you seeing more people with higher incomes who need your help?
JAKUBOWSKI: 100%. Many of them come to us and say I donated to you for years, and I never in a million years thought I would have to use this service.
STRASSMAN: What has changed?
JAKUBOWSKI: A lot of economic unpredictability. They are scared about their cost-of-living is going to go up. They are scared about what the price of X is going to be.
STRASSMAN: Chandra Kelsey is scared about her job. She works as a program director at the Yale School of Public Health and worries about continued government funding of universities such as hers.
KELSEY: We are trying to be very cognizant that it could be around the corner.
STRASSMAN: And in its own way, Connecticut Foodshare is feeling food insecure. Government DOGE cuts last month slashed nearly $2 million from its food budget. How do you replace that?
JAKUBOWSKI: We don't, that's the problem.
STRASSMAN: Is there any hope here?
JAKUBOWSKI: We still live in America. People always step up to the plate. There may not be enough food, but we are going to keep doing whatever we can to try to provide it.
STRASSMAN: Provide it to more families who never suspected their new worry is their next meal. For Eye on America, I’m Mark Strassman in Wallingford, Connecticut.
