Midterms in the United States: in Pennsylvania, American Democrats are trying to win back the hearts of blue-collar workers

When Sherril Wilhide broke her wrist two months ago, her employer, owner of a bar in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the northeast of the United States, immediately showed her the door. He did not provide long explanations – such is the job market across the Atlantic. The waitress, a small woman with a wrinkled face, has since kept the habit of tying the belt where she put customers’ change and her notebook, as if she could not get over the idea of ​​having changed her life. “I am 71 years old, and heartbroken”she laments.

This July 16, Sherril Wilhide walks the shelves of a rather unusual Bethlehem grocery store. Everything is free at the New Bethany Pantry, a food bank set up like a supermarket, with its sections of fresh produce, green salads and breads of all kinds. She didn’t go to these kinds of places before, but her retirement pension alone isn’t enough to fill her shopping bag.

For several months, those in charge of the place have seen many new faces like Sherril pass through, between five and ten per week. There are homeless people and unemployed people, but also workers, “who sometimes have two or even three jobs, and still don’t have enough to feed themselves despite that”explains Jared Blumberg, volunteer within the association.

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