At No Kid Hungry, we hear a lot of opinions about low-income parents.
- “Don't have kids if you can't afford to feed them.”
- “Parents who don’t feed their kids should have their kids taken away from them.”
- “Why should schools and the government pay for kids to eat. That's the parents' job!”
Are these legitimate concerns? Should organizations like No Kid Hungry spend less time worrying about how to feed kids and more time worrying about their parents?
Absolutely not. No child should go without food, no matter what the circumstances.
But these complaints are wrong in another way. Most parents that need help in America are working parents.
In our most recent Hunger in Our Schools report, we found that 92% of families who rely on food programs are working families – at least one adult in the house works full-time, part-time or multiple jobs.
“I’ve spent nights sometimes where I can’t sleep, because I’m trying to figure out if I have enough to pay bills and get groceries to feed my kids,” said Candice Field, a low-income mother of two who relies on free school meals to help her feed her children. We hear constantly from educators, community leaders and parents how difficult it is to make ends meet, especially for people working low-wage jobs with no benefits.
Even when the economy was good, many parents relied on food assistance programs when they were out of work.
"The difference was starve or not starve," said Jessica Davis, a single mom who spent months looking for work after being laid off. "If we didn't have food stamps, there's no way I would have been able to feed my daughter on my own."
In the wake of the coronavirus, those needs have skyrocketed, with unemployment reaching heights not seen in the United States in 100 years. Free school meals and programs like SNAP are critical lifelines for children, especially now when estimates show that 1 in 4 children could face hunger this year because of the coronavirus.
Try to imagine the despair and anxiety you would feel if you weren’t sure you could get enough food for your children. It’s hard to imagine anything worse, yet this is the reality for far too many families in the United States.
Thanks to so many of you, No Kid Hungry is able to feed children - and help their parents. Please join us.
