waited hours to pick up holiday groceries. >> it's not easy, i lost my job. four months with no income. >> reporter: food insecurity disproportionately affects black and latino americans, especially those with kids. and some volunteers are noticing another trend. >> many of the cars coming through here, this pandemic is first time they've ever called for help. >> reporter: projects more than 50 million americans will have experienced food insecurity this year, up from around 35 million before the pandemic. >> what the pandemic did was push people from poverty to hunger deeper, and push people at edge into hunger and poverty. >> reporter: ceo of hunger free america. >> this is the worst hunger crisis in modern american times. unless the federal government does something big and quick, we're going to see starvation

like the country hasn't since the great depression. >> reporter: i'm errol barnett. hospitals in at least 25 states face a critical shortage of doctors, nurses and other staffment not all hospitals are affected equally. dr. tara narula reports on two different facilities and how they're coping. >> reporter: plains of nebraska, just 25 hospital beds and four doctors to battle the county's covid positivity rate of 28%. 1,500 miles away in new york, northwell health runs 23 hospitals, nearly 6,000 beds, 4,500 doctors. when covid first attacked the country, new york was the epicenter, and northwell were on the front lines. >> 84,000 covid patients since

the crisis began. >> reporter: ceo michael dowling says the size and experience in disasters with 9/11 had advantages. >> did load balancing, able to use transport to move patients from queens to westchester, to eastern long island. if we'd not been able to, hospitals in queens would have been overwhelmed. >> reporter: small hospitals like lexington regional have fewer resources. with explosion of cases across the midwest, larger hospitals who usually take their transfer patients are turning them away. >> covid has locked us in a bits of a situation. >> reporter: hospital ceo leslie marsh has a staffing gap. employees have tested positive for the virus and four nurses resigned. and traveling nurses normally fill in. >> we don't have the staff to care for five ventilated patients.

>> reporter: what are the health care professionals at your hospital telling you about concerns about coming months? >> nurses are getting burned out and leaving. want a job that's not so stressful. >> reporter: ppe like gloves, lexington regional only has a two-week supply. during the spring surge, marsh used a lifeline, getting shipments from nonprofit angel flight central, serves rural hospitals in ten states. >> it was literally a life savor and probably have to reach out again soon. >> masks. >> n-95s? >> >> reporter: in new york. >> 35 deliveries a day come in here from across the globe. >> reporter: warehouse is overflowing with ppe, didn't need to rely on the federal government's dwindling stockpile but uses automated system to respond to each hospital's

needs. this must have been massively reassuring to your staff. >> we were able to tell them, we have enough supplies, we can assure that. that was enormous. >> reporter: are some of the staff telling you i can't do this again? >> i haven't had much of that at all. haven't had anybody come and talk to me, say i wouldn't do this again. they recognized they saved so many lives. >> we go into health care primarily because we want to make a difference. so it is an honor and an obligation and duty and privilege to be able to be in this building. >> dr. tara narula reporting. you're w up at 2:00am again?

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sent out tony dokoupil. >> reporter: how are you feeling about the state of the country? >> devastated. >> i think our country is more divided than ever. >> it's terrible, terrible. >> reporter: after 244 years togethers together as a nation, seem to be growing apart. are you concerned about the division and polarization in the country? >> absolutely. >> of course. >> don't feel there's compassion for us as human beings anymore. >> reporter: and most agree that state of the union is on the rocks. >> yes, yes, definitely yes. >> definitely the feeling where the husband goes home, does his hobbies, doesn't talk to the wife until goes to bed. >> marriage counseling who thinks that america is a bit like a marriage, not going too well. >> we need therapy. >> reporter: we do, he does therapy as it happens. he is bill doherty, cofounder of

braver angels. workshops nationwide. dedicated to repairing the bond between liberals and conservatives, using the same techniques that dougherty has used to help husbands and wives. >> we're an american family, sit at same table. imagine one big thanksgiving table. if we expel people from the table because of their political views, we will lose our ability to function as a country. >> reporter: dougherty says americans first need to decide our democracy is worth saving. not everybody thinks so. as one man told us -- >> we need a divorce. >> big threat growing right now, people saying they are morally compromised by having a conversation with somebody who differs from them. morally compromised because they're condoning evil. this is a serious threat to a

democracy. >> reporter: addressing it requires each side to take responsible for their role in the quarrel. but as we discovered talking to voters across the spectrum, talking about the other side is a hard habit to break. certainly true for biden supporters. >> current president denies science, is in denial about a deadly pandemic. >> reporter: marriage counselor would tell me to forget about the other side, talk about the democrats, heal this divide? >> meeting halfway. >> they're so self-involved. >> reporter: pardon me for interrupting but marriage counselor would tell me to tell you, forget about what the republicans are doing. >> i just find the hypocrisy of what the republicans are spewing -- okay, marriage counseling, all right. >> reporter: also suffer from

what dougherty says the humility -- >> sure. both sides are. i just think the other side is just a little too crazy for me. >> reporter: channelling the marriage counselor here, would tell me to tell you, forget about the other side, how about you guys? what can you do differently? >> it's a tough one. >> reporter: still just about everyone we spoke to was with a little push willing to admit their side is not perfect. both liberals -- you think democrats share some of the blame for nastiness in politics today? >> oh, yes. wish i could say they have nothing to do with it, but they do. >> 100%. 100%. >> reporter: and conservatives. >> i think the blame probably would fall with the president. his criticism and rhetoric divided the country. >> i'm a little concerned about the president's refusal to concede.

embracing conspiracy theories never helps. >> i think we should have health care for all, wouldn't take a compromise for that. >> reporter: take that, imagine the marriage, you're on one side saying health care for all, other side is saying no way. how do you stay married? >> good point you bring up. good question. i have to say, i wish i had put more thought into this. >> both parties talk about bringing people together but none of the policies or conversations really support that. i think if you're not helping the situation, you are hurting it. >> reporter: very therapy-ish. >> am i passing? >> reporter: insight like this makes bill dougherty if not confident, hopeful that america is on the mend. >> i think people are starting to realize we can't go on this way. i have hope we're going to wake up and see divisiveness and polarization as enemy, not

people on the other political side. >> tony dokoupil taking the - [kim hussey] this is my husband alex hussey. alex was about two weeks away from coming home. - [alex] and i stepped on the bomb. lost my legs and my left hand in the explosion. - [announcer] as american's veterans face challenges, dav is there. with the right support, more veterans can reach victories, great and small. dav helps veterans and their families get the benefits they've earned. - [kim] look at that smile, you did it.

- [announcer] support more victories for veterans, go to dav.org. (drumsticks rattle, feedback hums) (door closes in distance) ♪ (overlapping voices): we are producers, engineers, singers, songwriters, musicians, tour and live production crews, and thousands more of us. (male voice): without us, the music stops. (overlapping voices): we need your help (female voice): to keep the music playing. (male voice): support those impacted today at: musicares.org. we're still hard at work, because vulnerable students o alrey struggle with poverty, hunger and trauma, need our support more than ever. at communities in schools, we do whatever it takes. delivering meals, helping kids access remote learning and just checking in. in schools, in communities and in times of crisis providing kids a community of support.

to learn more, visit communities in schools dot org. for many americans, the thanksgiving holiday is full of economic challenges and heartbreak, easy to forget the many blessings we enjoy. steve hartman went on the road to remind us. >> reporter: schools closed. democracy in limbo, a holiday about gratitude may feel a little off. what might we be thankful for in 2020? posed that question to my kids, got crickets. >> instead of saying what we're thankful for, could say what was hard for us. >> reporter: we could, but before giving you completely, i had a hunch hope for the holiday

might lie here, people's place, food pantry in kingston, new york. like most, it's seen a huge increase in need. >> i'm struggling. >> lost my job. >> rough for everybody, you know. >> reporter: yet, ask folks here if they have anything to be grateful for this thanksgiving, you'll get a surprising wealth of words. >> i'm grateful to be alive and breathing on your own is the best. >> my arms work, legs work, can walk. >> not living on the streets. have roof over my head. >> grateful we have what we have. >> grateful for being alive. >> reporter: gabriel, like the angel, wouldn't give me last name, just a revelation. pay close attention to what this guy has to say, how he's going to spend his thanksgiving. >> i'm going to have amazing thanksgiving all by myself, i will sit on park bench and think about the great thanksgivings i've had in my life and be thankful for them.

one bad thanksgiving out of 63 amazing thanksgivings? that's pretty good odds. maybe we should be a little more thankful for what we do have, than constantly be complaining about what we don't have. >> reporter: what do you think? >> yeah. >> i think he's right. >> i think he's really right. >> reporter: some people have lost so much. yet so many i spoke to kept at least an attitude of gratitude. as if thankfulness was sustenance. >> if these people found something to be thankful for, i mean it seems like there's no way not to. >> reporter: revelation. >> yeah. >> reporter: receives. steve hartman on the road in kingston, new york. >> that's the overnight news for this thursday. for some of you, news continues. others check back for "cbs this morning" and follow us