Hunger grips rural area after Trump cuts and Gulf Coast braces for Hurricane Isaias: Morning Rundown

Food banks are struggling to keep up with demands from their communities after federal funding cuts.Hurricane Isaias barrels toward the Gulf Coast.

And Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers debate gas prices and tariffs.Here’s what to know today.Hunger grips a rural community hit by Trump’s cutsA line of cars wait to receive donated food during a weekly drive-up food pantry in Dunlow, West Virignia.Mike Belleme for NBC NewsIn Dunlow, West Virginia, Bill Likens stared down a half-mile-long line of cars and trucks that started forming before the sun came up over the Appalachian Mountains.

He had one job: figure out how to feed them all.This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day.

Sign up here to get it in your inbox.Some had driven more than 30 miles in aging vehicles.They sat silently as the temperature rose into the 80s, their engines turned off to preserve gas, waiting hours for a few boxes of food.

Likens, 51, counted cartons of eggs and sacks of potatoes to calculate how much of each waiting car could get — an algorithm of hunger he is constantly trying to solve.Increasingly, the job of feeding the nation’s hungry is falling on the shoulders of everyday Americans like Likens, who have become the last bulwark against hunger in a land of plenty.

He and others on the front lines of feeding their neighbors say they face unprecedented challenges brought on by Washington.Food distribution programs are getting less supplies from federal programs to feed the hungry after cuts by the Trump administration.

At the same time, restrictions on food stamps from the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” have driven up demand, while rising gas prices because of the Iran war have cut into the budgets of households and food banks alike.The challenges extend far beyond Appalachia, with many food banks saying more people are showing up to their doors.Read the full story here.Related coverage:For subscribers: NBC News surveyed 9...