PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — About one out of every four households in Rhode Island is struggling to put food on the table during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Monday.

Despite federal assistance, 25% of households in the state were worried about having adequate food, up from 9.1% last year and the highest level of food insecurity in Rhode Island in 20 years, according to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s annual Status Report on Hunger.

“That’s shocking,” CEO Andrew Schiff said.

The food insecurity caused by the pandemic has hit families of color particularly hard.

“The current health emergency is also deepening longstanding racial and ethnic disparities,” according to the report.

It went on: “Where 21% of white households lack adequate food, 36% of Black households and 40% of Latinx households are food insecure.”

The United Way of Rhode Island received nearly 60,000 calls for food assistance between March and August, a 77% increase over the same period in 2019.

The figures are based on a random sample of 2,100 households surveyed in July and August as part of the RI Life Index, an initiative of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health.

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