Karla, 30, never thought she and her husband would have to rely on a food bank to feed their family.
Before the pandemic, the couple, who live in Loudoun, Virginia, were getting by with their combined salaries, Karla caring for the elderly and her husband working in construction.
But last June, Karla lost her job. "That's when everything changed," she says. The sudden loss of income and an unexpected and necessary $3,000 dental procedure that Karla had to undergo put the family, which includes four children - an 11-year old, a nine-year-old, and four-year-old twins - under serious financial strain.
They have recently been so "high in debt", Karla says, that they have depended on Loudoun Hunger Relief, a food pantry in Leesburg, Virginia, to put food on the table.
This family is not alone in their unforeseen struggles.
