Transitioning from Emergency Meals to Nutrition Provision

When the COVID crisis hit, community groups and schools rallied to provide emergency food to families in need; however, as the pandemic stretches on for months, these emergency meals are not nutritious enough for long-term sustenance. 

One uniting theme across the families we’ve been speaking with is that the food provided by schools, churches, food pantries, and community groups has been deeply appreciated. As paychecks dried up and family finances were stretched thin, these meals and groceries have meant the difference between skipping meals and putting food on the table. Schools in particular have been providing much-needed meals for kids, who prior to the pandemic were eating at least two meals a day at school. 

However, while some schools have been providing fully-cooked, diverse meals that our families describe as “real food,” other schools have not moved past providing packaged shelf-stable, highly processed foods that our respondents describe as “snacks”. We’ve been asking families to send us pictures of the school meals they’re receiving, and the variety of offerings are stark. 

While respondents are understanding that schools are doing the best they can in the circumstances, like all parents they want the best for their kids. Our respondents tell us that receiving a meal that feels like “real food” makes a big difference (and can be a health necessity).  In contrast, while the shelf stable food is a good bridge, it’s not a sustainable way to feed kids long term. 

Here are a few examples: 

Fully-cooked meal with fruit & vegetables from a Boston charter school.

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Shelf-stable processed food delivered from Boston Public Schools .

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A week’s worth of prepared food delivered by the YMCA to a family under quarantine.

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*Names and some details changed to protect privacy.

Missing Out On the Increase in SNAP Benefits

In March Congress authorized an emergency increase in SNAP benefits. Despite this, most of the families we've been speaking with have not received any increase in their monthly SNAP benefits because of how the USDA interpreted the law. 

Here's what happened: the USDA interpreted the Family First Act to mean that all households receiving SNAP could receive the maximum amount allowed for their household size, but no more. This means that the poorest 40% of SNAP recipients who were already receiving the maximum benefit pre-COVID did not receive any additional money from the Emergency Allotments. Most of our respondents fall into this category -- despite the increased financial pressures of the pandemic, their SNAP benefits have remained unchanged. 

Compare this with what happened in the 2009 Recovery Act: Congress and the President increased the maximum SNAP benefit by approximately 14 percent. A similar step today would raise monthly benefits by approximately $25 per person per month and make a significant difference to the families in our sample.

*Names and some details changes to protect confidentiality.

Not Having Enough Food

Months of economic hardship have left some families in increasingly desperate situations. Many respondents who were able to support themselves prior to the pandemic now find themselves without enough food to feed their families. 

Phoebe has been living in the United States for the past 25 years and has had multiple low-wage jobs. She is currently out of work, but receives a small amount of income from the state in exchange for providing personal care services to her 95-year-old mother. Last month was a particularly difficult time for Phoebe. She ran out of food and resorted to eating cornmeal and water for several days, until her mother’s SNAP benefits were replenished.

Mary lives with her husband and two children.  As their reserve funds have slowly run out with her partner out of work, Mary and her family have had to rely increasingly on whatever she can get from her son’s school and food pantries -- which means eating cereal for multiple meals per day.  Mary shared:

“Yesterday, we actually had sandwiches and cereal. Today, we only had cereal and for dinner it will only be spaghetti (from the food pantry), which will have to last to Friday [3 days]”

Granny D lives with her school-age grandson. Without the two meals a day he used to eat at school, she struggles to keep them both fed.

I had some milk [pause to think] some milk, and  half of a banana, but I didn't have no cereal, like oatmeal, or Cheerios or nothing so I had to split the banana with my grand-kid. I got half and he got half and then I had to wait until a friend of mine came and made me Tostitos [for dinner], I don't know what you call them, you take ground beef and stuff  and put Tostitos on top of it and put it in the oven with some cheese and melt the cheese. I've never seen nothing like that… But that's all we ate.  We didn't have any vegetables and the only fruit that we had were those bananas. So it stresses me out cause I don't know where the next meal is coming from, you hear what I'm saying?”

*Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

The Impact of COVID on Child Learning

Online learning has proved challenging for students and families, particularly for students with disabilities and families with limited English.

As families and students of all ages adapted to online learning this Spring, many of our respondents expressed frustration with their experiences, citing tech issues, language barriers, and concerns about their kids’ learning. 

Angela, a Boston Public Schools elementary school student, has a speech impediment but her mom was proud to see how much she progressed when she started school last year. Surrounded by kids her age, Angela was able to socialize and speak more and looked forward to school every day. Now, as her first year is winding down, Angela refuses to join afternoon Zoom classes. She isn’t able to socialize with her new friends, and she doesn’t look forward to classes at all anymore. Her mom is having a hard time having to teach her so much. Online classes are predominantly reviewing material, while parents are expected to guide students through homework. Angela’s mom is not a native English speaker and has a hard time understanding what material has been assigned. She can teach her daughter in Spanish but when the teacher calls on Angela, she has to respond in English. As a result, she’s clammed up a lot and is no longer engaging. Now her mom worries that there will be a growing disparity between her and other classmates, especially if school remains online in the fall. Angela was offered the opportunity to do summer classes online, but with her mom returning to work in an effort to bring in income, her daughter cannot take the classes alone, especially with her speech impediment. 

“Having classes online in the fall] would be very frustrating for the kids. Zoom… [my daughter]  gets frustrated and it’s very, very, very hard that way. Because on Zoom the teacher is just reviewing what they’ve done so [we] have to do all of the homework with them. It costs me a lot [of effort].” 

[“Sería muy frustrante para los niños. El Zoom…ella se frustre y es muy, muy, muy difícil así. Porque ellos en Zoom solo la maestra está revisando lo que han hecho entonces es uno que tiene que hacer todo las tareas con ellos. Y para mí es muy muy difícil porque todo es en inglés. Cuesta mucho.”]

Pamela is a single mom of three elementary school aged children, the eldest of whom has an IEP. Pamela has started going to work later in the day so she can get her kids ready in the morning and have them seated at 9am sharp when online classes begin. The rigid timing frustrates Pamela: she says that the inflexible schedule has meant that her kids are sleeping less and spending more time on screens every day. While Pamela is glad the kids get to see their friends online, she says that they aren’t learning as much as they otherwise would be if they were in regular classrooms. 

“[My kids] go to sleep late every day. They are on the computers, the cellphones, the games. It’s a bit of an inconvenience because the teacher…they put [the kids] on a schedule as if they were in school and that doesn’t make sense. They want the kids to be sitting down at 9 am on the dot…they spend more hours awake. They want to go to the park, they want to go outside and I try to explain [why not].”

[“Se acuestan tarde todos los días. Están en las computadoras, en los celulares, en los juegos. Un poco bien incomodo porque el maestro…les ponen un horario como si estuvieran en la escuela que no tiene sentido. Quieren que los niños estén a las 9 en punto sentados….pasan más horas despiertos. Quieren ir al parque quieren salir y uno trata de explicar.” ]

Lalila is a recent 2020 high school graduate, completing the last few months of her senior year online. She says that it was really hard to keep motivated. For Lalila, the transition to online learning altered her routine, and she started having a weird sleep schedule because she didn’t have to get up early anymore. She would go to sleep at three or four AM and get up late, around noon. The school had to make attendance mandatory for their Monday meetings because so many students weren’t showing up. Another challenge Lalila faced was slow communication with teachers who would not respond promptly to emails. Because not everyone is suited for online learning, she thinks it would have been helpful to have more personalized and guided videos for her classes in order to make her more successful. 

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Food Quality and Dignity

At the beginning of the crisis, food pantries and other relief efforts were focused on providing shelf-stable calories so that people did not go hungry.  But with food insecurity persisting, the food relief system needs to transition to providing nutritious meals and a dignified customer experience.

One senior, Nicole, is unable to leave her home due to her health. She relies on different pantries and community organizations to bring her food. While Nicole is grateful for the food she receives, she said that more thought could go into its preparation. She said:

“I’ve never seen somewhere where they give and distribute food without condiments. They serve you a hot dog with no ketchup, a salad with no dressing, french fries with no ketchup...There is an inconsideration in making it.”

Nicole receives lunch and dinner delivered by a community organization. Sometimes deliveries are delayed and do not occur until 8 pm, so she eats her first meal of the day at 8 pm.  Once the meals finally arrive, she is so hungry that she eats both the lunch and dinner at the same time. At other times, food runs out before she gets her delivery, and she goes hungry for the entire day. She said that community organizations were “not looking at the whole picture” because they were not prioritizing seniors and people with disability. She said: 

“I am 62 years old. If you come to bring me lunch and dinner at 8 pm at night, we [seniors] are people with underlying conditions - diabetes, high blood pressure. You can’t just feed us whenever you are ready to. Maybe you should consider whether I’m a diabetic...Would you feed your grandmother at 8 pm?”

Both Lily and April have found it difficult to make complete meals from food pantries. Lily is unable to eat certain ingredients, such as onion and tomatoes. At one food pantry, she was unable to make a complete meal so she needed to find another food pantry.  Similarly, April can’t make a meal that is appropriate for her son from the food banks because of his allergies. She keeps telling the school that they are delivering food to her son that he can’t eat, but they keep providing the same food. 

Some people also need to do multiple pickups from food pantries to make a complete meal. At the food pantry that April volunteers at, they are handing out different supplies on certain days, giving out pre-made sandwiches and vegetables on Tuesdays and meats on Wednesday. While this allows them to give more people food, it means that families cannot make a complete meal unless they come on multiple days. 

Four of our respondents raised the issue of receiving expired food from food pantries.  One example is when Mayte went to the food pantry at the church. She liked that she could choose the items that she wanted, but she noticed after she went home that the bread and canned goods were expired. She hasn’t been back since that happened. Another respondent had a similar experience at a different community organization. She said:

“The bread was so hard I could knock someone out with it.”

Another participant, Golden, has a daughter at a public school. She visits a lot of different meal sites, and noticed that not everyone has access to the same quality of food. At a charter school meal site, she noticed that the fruit selection for children was much better: healthier selection of fruit, cut into pieces, and thoughtfully wrapped. They were also more likely to have hot meals which she prefers. Her impression has been that charter schools care more about their students than public schools, and she was grateful her daughter had the opportunity to “eat like she would if she was in a charter school.”

Another Boston parent, Eric, is frustrated that donated foods often lack enough protein for kids to eat:

“Meats - red meat, chicken, fish - that isn’t included in the donations and it’s what the kids eat most. There are things that don’t come in the donations that are used a lot like milk, for example. Eggs...we go through the eggs very quickly and there aren’t always eggs in the donations but sometimes there are.” 

[“Lo que son carnes -  carne roja, pollo, pescado - estos no vienen incluidos en la donación y es lo que más comen los niños. Hay cosas que no vienen en las donaciones como que se usan mucho por ejemplo la leche. Los huevos...los huevos se acaban muy rápido y no siempre vienen en las donaciones pero a veces vienen.” ]

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Going Back to Work

The adults in our sample work in construction, retail, food service, child-care, cleaning and other industries where remote work is not an option. When the pandemic began, many lost their jobs.  Others were deemed “essential workers” and experienced the health risks associated with continuing to work.  Now as Massachusetts begins to reopen, they are eager to get back to work because they desperately need the income, but some are finding they no longer have a job to return to, others have been offered significantly reduced hours, and still others can’t return to work because their childcare has not reopened.

The Risk of Being an Essential Worker

For “essential workers,” working through the worst of the pandemic meant putting their health on the line as they performed their duties often with increased workload and without adequate safety equipment. 

Alfredo never stopped working at his transportation sector cleaning job.  When the pandemic started, someone in the night shift got COVID and infected many of the workers. As a result of this and the reduced demand for travel, Alfredo’s cleaning crew went from 60 workers to 5. The employer did not provide any protective equipment for the remaining workers; each worker was responsible for procuring his or her own mask. But even a mask was not enough protection for the time when he was emptying a clogged septic tank, and all the tank’s contents got on him from head to toe. He had to throw all his clothes away. 

Like many other “essential workers,” Alfredo continues to go to work even through he is concerned about the health risks.  His wife says,

“all those people they took out (of work), they don’t know if they’re going to come back (to work). That’s the fear. You have to keep going because you don’t know if later you’ll end up without a job. You understand. You don’t know if they’ll call you back, so imagine it…When everything starts, out of the 60 people, they’re not going to call everyone (back to work), out of the 60 people, they’ll call 20, you know, until they recuperate. Because right now those people are practically bankrupt. Then those are the people that are likely to end up totally with nothing”

 [“esa gente que sacaron esos no saben todavía si van a volver, entonces eso es el miedo. Tu tienes que seguir porque tu no sabes despues si te vas a quedar sin trabajo. Tu entiendes. Tu no sabes si te van a llamar, entonces imagínate...Cuando comience todo, de esa 60 gente no a todos los van a llamar, de esa 60 gente llamaran a 20, tu sabes, hasta que ellos se recuperen. Porque ahora mismo esa gente está prácticamente en bancarrota. Entonces esas son gente que está propensa que se van a quedar totalmente sin nada”]

When the pandemic began, Francis was asked to work more hours at her retail cleaning job. She was also required to disinfect seats every time one customer stood up and before the next sat down. This required her to stand and push through a crowd of people in order to sanitize surfaces. A few weeks later she and her husband became gravely ill from COVID-19. Although her husband is too weak to return to work, Francis has been asked to return to her cleaning job. Many of her colleagues never stopped working, and a number of others also contracted COVID. Returning to work for Francis means being “essential” once again in a job without paid sick leave or benefits.  

“If my husband hadn’t gotten sick, I would have continued working. My [female] coworkers are still working, they never stopped working because they are essential workers. The cleaning company never closed…my boss sent me to another store that they never closed. She distributed us [to other stores]…I think that my boss will have to contract more employees because she told me that there were various employees that had gotten the virus, it was not just me.”

[“Si mi esposo no se hubiera enfermado, yo hubiera seguido trabajando. Mis compañeras de trabajo siguen trabajando, nunca dejaron de trabajar porque eran trabajadoras esenciales. La compañía de limpieza nunca cerró…la jefa me mandó a otra tienda que nunca lo cerraron. Ella nos distribuyó… Yo pienso de que va tener que contratar más empleados [mi jefa] porque ella me dijo que de los empleados habían varios que les había dado el virus porque no era solo yo.” ]

Returning to Work

As businesses and service industries reopen, many are returning to work in less than ideal conditions.

Eric worked at one restaurant In the morning and at another in the evening. His wage was  $4.75/hour, making him almost entirely dependent on tips. He never knew for certain what he’d take home in a given week. Now restaurants are reopening but Eric says he can’t go back to just relying on tips, especially with low customer volume and after months of no income and mounting debt to his landlord. He’ll return to the evening restaurant, assuming the risk of interacting with people in close proximity, but he wants to find something with a fixed weekly income for the mornings. Thus far, he has had no luck in his job hunt. 

Fernando worked 80-hour weeks before the pandemic between his morning construction job and evening restaurant work as a cook at a Mexican restaurant. When the pandemic hit, he lost both jobs.  A couple of weeks ago, he was happy to be recalled to his construction job, but just a week later the owner of the restaurant he used to work for called to tell him that the restaurant would be closing permanently. The restaurant tried to remain partially open offering take-out, but it wasn’t enough to keep it in business; at lunchtime the number of customers had gone from 50 to 5. Now everyone who worked at that restaurant has lost their job, including the 10-15 people who used to work in the kitchen with Fernando. To make enough money to support his wife and five kids, Fernando has to look for a new restaurant job . 

Childcare Barriers

When things are normal, Eric places his daughter in a summer camp and his son is in daycare. Neither the camp nor the daycare are set to open in the next few months. Both Eric and his wife were laid off from their restaurant jobs.  The restaurants are re-opening and have offered to rehire them, but without childcare they cannot both return to work when the restaurants reopen. Having to take turns working in order to watch the children will greatly reduce their income, and they currently see no prospect for being able to make enough money to start paying their rent again. 

“If there is no summer camp we  will need to take turns [working], we cannot leave the kids at home. Only summer camp and daycare [can help].”

[“Si no hay summer camp nos tenemos que tornarnos, no podemos dejar los niños en casa. Solo summer camp y daycare.” ]

Francis is facing a similar challenge.  With her husband still recuperating from being in the ICU with COVID and no summer camps or daycare for her children, she can’t go back to work.

“I could go back to work now the issue is that nobody can take care of my kids and my husband still has the virus, that’s why I can’t [go back to work].”

[“Yo podría regresar ya a trabajar el detalle es que nadie me cuida a los niños ahorita, mi esposo tiene el virus todavía, por eso no puedo.” ]

*Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Losing Health Insurance during a Pandemic

Layoffs have left families without employer-provided health insurance and unable to afford COBRA or Obamacare plans, leaving them uninsured when access to medical care is most important. 

One study participant was on his wife’s health insurance plan until she was laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic. Without the insurance plan from work, he and his wife cannot afford the $1200 a month payments to continue the insurance under COBRA  - $1200 a month would be half of their monthly income. He has been on dialysis for three years and because he is not an American citizen, does not qualify for free dialysis. He says that without insurance, he will have to pay $25,000 a month to continue treatment. He must now choose between going into massive debt or dying of kidney failure. He has worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for over 20 years, but is unable to access the social safety net that could save his life. 

“I can come up with a bunch of money, I can acquire a bunch of debt, or I can die.”

Phoebe used to receive health insurance through her job as a school bus monitor. Last December, she was injured while working. For a brief time, her employer paid for her health insurance, but stopped paying after it became clear that she would not be able to return to work. Phoebe now suffers from chronic back pain from the accident. During COVID, she has not been able to see a doctor, because she does not have health insurance. She used to have ConnectorCare, but ended it a few months ago, because she could no longer afford the $700 monthly premium. Phoebe plans to apply for MassHealth, but because of a previous application denial, she fears she won’t qualify. 

Candid is a 60-year-old woman who has lived her entire life in Boston. Her son lives with her and is a student at a local community college. He does not have medical insurance and was diagnosed with COVID in April and had a series of complications while taking medication.   Eventually, he developed walking pneumonia. Candid does not know how they will pay when they receive the bills for her son’s medical treatment.

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

The Impact on Remittances

As workers lose jobs, families in the United States are not the only ones to feel the effects.

Billions of dollars in remittances are sent from the U.S.to countries across the world every year. As immigrants suffer the economic consequences of the pandemic - sometimes more acutely as a result of their inability to access public programs - remittances will likely decrease and thereby affect families around the world. These are just a few of the stories we have heard so far:

• Tomás’ father and his nine-year-old daughter live in two different South American countries but they both rely on remittances from Tomás. Every month Tomás sends $200 or more to his family members.  Work authorization allows Tomás to receive unemployment insurance (UI) after losing his housekeeping job but the drop in income means he has only been able to send about half as much money to his family.

• Eric and Alicia are ineligible for UI because of their immigration status. Worried about paying for rent and utilities, they cannot afford to send the usual monthly installments to their aging parents in South America.

• Francis is expecting a bill for her husband’s COVID treatment any day now and has no idea how she can return to work without childcare, so remittances were an expense she had to cut. She sent her Central American family regular payments until she and her husband had their hours cut at work this year. Until she can get back to work, Francis cannot help financially support them as she usually does.

• Phoebe is from the Caribbean and has been living in the U.S. for over 26 years old. She has five siblings, but none of them are in the U.S.. Phoebe has had low wage jobs. She has worked as a team member at a fast food restaurant, as well as a personal care assistant and a school bus monitor. These jobs helped her to raise her children in the U.S., and similarly empowered her to sustain her extended family in the Caribbean. She lost her job right before COVID and has been unemployed since. Phoebe is not currently receiving any insurance programs, and has not recently applied to any. She is unsure about her eligibility to these programs because of previous application denial. With her siblings significantly affected by the COVID crisis, Phoebe is experiencing emotional distress from not being able to continue supporting them. Phoebe is unsure about whether she will be able to get a job after COVID and be able to support her extended family again.

• Mariel tries to help her 68 year old father who works in agriculture in Central America, so she sends what she can, usually about $100/month. However, she hasn’t been able to send any money since January when she stopped working after the birth of her daughter. She wants to go back to work so she can send money to her father who is sick and needs money to see a doctor. She understands the risk of working as a cashier in a buffet restaurant, but she needs $200 to send to her father so that he can pay for a doctor visit and CAT scan. 

In Their Own Words

“Yo, le mando dinero a mi hija, le ayudo un poco a mi papa cuando puedo...a veces se me accumulaba todo y sentía que no me iba alcanzar la comida. Mandaba mensualmente antes de la pandemia, ahora desde la pandemia solo he podido mandar una o dos veces.”  

“I send money to my daughter, I help my dad a little when I can...sometimes it all adds up and I feel like I might not have enough for food. I used to send [money] monthly before the pandemic, but now since the pandemic I’ve only been able to send [money] once or twice.” 

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Health Care Access during COVID

Even though healthcare has been a main focus during the pandemic, individuals with non-COVID-19 related health needs have faced logistical and economic challenges accessing needed care. 

Some people have not been able to get the critical appointments they need. For example, Marta and Francis are two mothers who gave birth four and seven months ago, respectively. While their infant children have received their vaccines, the mothers have not been able to get medical help for their evolving medical conditions. Francis started having severe bleeding and other post-delivery symptoms around the time the stay-at-home went into effect. She has tried calling her doctor repeatedly, but she still hasn’t been seen by the doctor, and she’s increasingly worried about her health condition. Marta delivered her youngest child via C-section and then had an additional non-related emergency surgery in late February, as the pandemic intensified. Since being released from the hospital after her second surgery, she has not been able to have any post-op appointments or get the follow-up CAT scan that she needs. She’s been recuperating on her own at home and medicating with over the counter pain medicine. She wonders if she’s healing correctly and when she will be able to make an appointment to get checked out. 

Others cannot afford preventative care.  Because she is undocumented, Mayte uses MassHealth Limited for health insurance, which only covers emergencies. Mayte’s family has been struggling to make ends meet after the store she worked at closed and after her partner got his work hours reduced. Mayte says that if she needed to go to the doctor, she just wouldn’t go because she can’t afford it, especially now with a reduced income and when she is also still in debt for treatment last year for an injury. Although Mayte is thankful she rarely gets sick, she has never had a routine physical exam.  Recently her doctor asked her to make an appointment for a visit, but Mayte says she is not going to go until she has insurance that will cover the cost. 

There is also the risk associated with visiting a clinic during the pandemic. Betty is pleased with her access to telemedicine, but her challenge is continuously going to the health clinic to pick up her son’s asthma medicines. Although she has been given more medicine than usual at each visit so that she doesn’t have to make the trip as often, Betty still fears getting infected with Coronavirus at the health clinic and bringing the virus home. She notes that not everyone wears a mask at the clinic, and she wishes there was another way for her to get her son’s prescription without being so exposed. Another respondent is a senior who has five doctor’s appointments coming up this month and has been staying home for fear of getting the Coronavirus. She worries about how she will get to her upcoming appointments, saying, “the hospital sends me an Uber, ‘cause if they don’t send me one I’m not going.”

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

P-EBT Challenges

In May 2020, Massachusetts began issuing relief funds to families to help buy food via the Pandemic-EBT card program (P-EBT); however, many parents have been confused by the process, and others have been unable to access their accounts altogether.

Five hundred thousand children across Massachusetts rely on free/reduced breakfast and lunch served at schools. When the COVID crisis began and schools closed, kids switched to eating these meals at home. For many, absorbing the cost of these additional meals has been a major stress on family finances. 

The P-EBT program is an innovative solution with enormous potential: P-EBT will provide $398 total to every child receiving free / reduced meals by the end of June, regardless of immigration status. Those who already receive SNAP are having funds added to their existing EBT cards. Those who do not use SNAP will receive an EBT card in the mail that must be activated over the phone prior to use. In total, P-EBT has the potential to provide over $200 million for Massachusetts’ families. 

For those who already have SNAP cards, P-EBT seems to be working well. Funds were automatically credited to users’ accounts, and families didn’t need to take any additional steps to activate. However, for those who are receiving new cards, we’re hearing from families that their experiences with P-EBT have been challenging.  

Francis’s infant son was already on SNAP before the pandemic, but her daughter, a BPS student, was not. She received a mailer and then a card informing her that it was her daughter’s P-EBT card. She and her husband tried to activate the new card with no success. They tried calling customer service but were unable to connect with a Spanish-speaking representative who could help them. When a family friend called on their behalf, they were told that they could not activate the card because she already had SNAP. But Francis is still confused because it is her son, not her daughter, who receives SNAP benefits. The food donations her family has been relying on are dwindling, and Francis was glad to receive the P-EBT card.  But without help or clarification, she may not be able to access it.  

April is a single mother who was hoping that the P-EBT card would help her get through this difficult time as she cannot rely on prepared school meals due to her son’s dietary restrictions. April was looking forward to receiving a P-EBT card, since her son had received free breakfast and lunch at his charter school.  April has found the process confusing and has tried applying three times using the forms provided by her son’s school.  After weeks of waiting, April was called and told that she was denied due to her income. The caller told her she could continue to pick up free lunches from her school even after April told them that this does not help given her son’s allergies. April left the conversation confused about her eligibility for P-EBT and frustrated by the experience. When she hears government officials talking about how every child in Boston will be fed during this period, she is confused and frustrated that this does not include her.  She has still not received a P-EBT card.

In their own words: 

“A mí me llegó una tarjeta. Traté de activarla pero no pude. Mi amiga lo mismo, ella intento activarlo y no se puedo porque si una ya tiene del otro no le dan de esa. Nosotros intentamos, intentamos activarla con mi esposo y para esperar para que alguien hable con uno ooooh no hay nadie que atienda a uno. Una amiga mía, aplicamos juntas para las estampías, y le respondieron y le dijeron eso porque los que tienen eso, el SNAP no le activan a uno el otro.” ◾ [“The [p-EBT] card came. I tried to activate it but couldn’t. My friend, it’s the same thing, she tried to activate it but couldn’t because she already had the other and they don’t give her the new one. We tried, tried to activate it with my husband and to wait for someone to speak with you ooooh, no there’s no one who can attend you. My friend, we applied together for the [food] stamps and they told her that because of that and she has SNAP they won’t activate the other one.” ]

“If you [the government] are gonna make a statement pretty much that you are going to cover all the students in public and charter, then you should do it for all. And not have a [eligibility requirement] who can and cannot, because it does not say that on the flyers or in any of the information that was given to me.” 

[ Update:  In our most recent interview, Francis informed us that she was finally able to activate the P-EBT card with the help of her daughter’s school nurse.]

Names and some details changed to preserve confidentiality.

Community Organizations as a Source of Food

With activities at community organizations shut down, many of our respondents have lost not only valuable social spaces, but also a vital source of food and supplemental income.

One senior, Blue, is a volunteer foster grandparent with over five years experience. She used to volunteer three days a week from 9 am to 2 pm at a nursery school in Roxbury.  With nurseries shut down, Blue is unable to see her “babies,” and she is also no longer receiving her stipend of $3 per hour. She relies on the stipend, on top of Social Security, to pay for rent and utilities. This month, she is unlikely to be able to pay her bills on-time, and she is considering ending her subscription to cable TV. 

Another senior, Nicole, used to engage in a steady stream of activities at her church and other community organizations. Each of these activities came with a free meal. With those activities shut down or moved online, she has to provide these meals herself and is having trouble making ends meet. Because she is a senior and can’t safely get out, she now has to rely more on a hodgepodge of deliveries from food pantries, other community organizations and her family members. Since food deliveries are inconsistent, she is skipping meals more frequently than before the crisis. 

Golden works three part-time jobs to earn less than $8,000 per year. One of her volunteer jobs, working with young children, would give her a $100 stipend every two weeks, which was just sufficient to cover gas for the month. That position has thankfully gone online but will end later this month leaving Golden without the stipend. Every Monday through Friday Golden has to drive all over Boston to access meal sites and buy groceries for her family but she doesn't know how she will be able to afford the gas to do so once the stipend is gone.  

In their own words:

“So the community had been like organizing a lot of stuff…[and]... every place had food so that was something that before the COVID, you didn’t have to worry about. Now, they are still having the meetings but the meetings are virtual so there is no food. There is no food for the people. So that took away that food option for people.”

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Increased Isolation for People with Disabilities

Among our respondents, we have found that people with disabilities have experienced isolation to a greater extent during COVID-19. Many are disappointed because they are losing the independence they have been working hard to regain. 

Bonnie is in her sixties and is currently fighting cancer for the second time. She has asthma and has been on disability for almost 10 years due to issues with her legs. 

“It’s hard to go out and get stuff now, things have changed now in the city… not for the better for the worse…. For me it’s changed because I don’t get out the way I used to get out. My walk, I used to get my walk on every day without a mask. I don’t do that hardly no more. I used to go out every morning and stay out for an hour or two.” 

“I go out sometimes. I don’t like going outside because the mask, when I got it on, I can’t hardly breath… and that aggravates me, but you gotta wear it.”  

“I like to get out. I like to go out. It be miserable sitting in this house especially when the Corona was first out there you’d have to stay in the house and you could hardly go nowhere. I didn’t even want to go to the store, but you got stuff you need and you gotta go out, put the mask on go out, and get it you gotta get it yourself. Especially when there ain’t nobody coming to go get it for you. I’m used to doing my own stuff, my own self. I just hope things get better than what it is now, but it don’t seem like it because cases are still out there.”

Lailah is a single mother with a 12-year-old daughter. Her daughter has autism which makes it difficult for her to start relationships and maintain eye contact with her friends and teachers. Lailah’s daughter is very afraid of COVID, she insists on wearing two masks when she leaves the house and does not ever want to return to school in person. Lailah is concerned that online learning will make it harder for her daughter to practice her social skills with others and stay in her comfort zone. 

Millie has chronic pain with mobility issues that put her high risk of falling.  She describes her time during the crisis as,

“Being back at my house, being isolated, back where I started. Back in it again, but for different reasons.”

Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Shortages at Food Pantries

During COVID-19 and the economic downturn, more people than ever are relying on food pantries to feed their families and survive. The increased demand on food assistance has led food banks and pantries to run out of supplies, struggling to keep their shelves full and meet the needs of their community.

Volunteers at a local food pantry described the stark contrast between the reality now as opposed to before the coronavirus:

“Yesterday [Sunday], I was there at my food pantry [to volunteer], and I hadn’t been there for a long time... And I went and I was packing the bags, and the bags were so, they were so light. We had to find food, stuff to put in the bags, even though they had had a delivery on Saturday [the day before]. And I just was reminiscing about before the COVID, um, the food pantry would be so stocked and you wouldn’t see any bare shelves and each bag would be so heavy that you couldn’t pick it up. 

But yesterday the bags were so light that, um, a little child could pick the bag up. So I don’t know what else they were gonna put in the bag today, because today was the food pantry and that's, you know, and with that change, I know the clients that are coming, the regular clients [they are going to say] ‘oh my goodness, where is the food. There is not enough food in this bag.

But I was talking to the organizer and he was saying when they go to the food bank, instead of getting 10 orders, they can only request 3 orders on account of the people that are requesting food from the food bank on account of COVID-19".   

The shortage of resources at food banks is felt deeply by those who rely on that food. Berta, a single mother of three kids, has been receiving food deliveries from a local church, but is struggling with an inconsistent delivery schedule:

“Sometimes [the church] gives out [food boxes] once a week, but when there’s a shortage they give out [food boxes] once every two weeks.”

The last delivery Berta received was two weeks ago and the church has told her she will need to wait another week. These deliveries are important for her because, in addition to pasta and milk, the boxes include vegetables like tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and carrots, staples that she finds are among the most expensive at the groceries stores now:

“I know that there are a lot of people who also need (the boxes), so that’s why they don't give out like that [now].”

Our respondents also report that some food pantries have shortages of volunteers, in large part because infection risk has led to a drop off in seniors who volunteer.  

There is no state-wide data system that tracks shortages at food pantries, either of food or of volunteers.

Even with money to spend, getting to food is not easy.

For low-income individuals, physically getting to food during COVID is a challenge even for those with physical mobility or financial means to provide for themselves and their families.

As corner stores hike up prices and supermarkets run short on inventory, our respondents must travel further from their homes, make more stops at different stores, and increase the frequency of their shopping trips to put enough food on the table.

Many of our respondents without cars rely on family and friends for a ride. Mary is a mother of five, including a six-month-old infant. The nearby stores have been running low on milk, eggs, frozen foods, and vegetables – essentials that Mary needs to feed her family. Mary’s family has been carpooling with her mother to a different supermarket 30 minutes from her home, which has a better selection, including, “mixed vegetables, peas, broccoli, etc.” As a recipient of WIC and $800 monthly in SNAP benefits, Mary has the means to make larger, less frequent grocery runs, but transportation and childcare are real challenges. Because Mary’s mother can’t always offer a ride, Mary hopes that the City of Boston can provide

“[transportation] help [to] people that don’t have cars to get to grocery stores, to have a good amount of food, because that’s the only thing [she is] having trouble with.”

Mary also described the difficulties of shopping with children: even when she can get a ride with her mom, without childcare, she had to make the difficult decision of bringing all five children to the grocery store. It was not an easy family outing: Mary described the situation as “stressful”, adding that, “[her children] would not leave their masks on.” Mary plans to continue to go to this grocery store due to their wider selection, but without childcare, she may have to continue bringing her family and risking infection. 

Others cannot so easily find a ride and must rely on public transportation, which increases the risk of COVID infection even when social distancing rules are in place. Betty relies on the T to get around, buying weekly passes from the MBTA. As a single mother of three kids, she feels constant fear when out in public, worrying that she could get infected with Coronavirus and that her children would end up alone. Of her trip to the grocery store, Betty said,

“It’s been really difficult because you go with fear of not knowing if people are sick. You practically don’t know anything. You have to care for your mouth and hands. It’s very frustrating because you don’t know if the person ahead or behind you is infected and it’s scary.”

As the state reopens and more people go out, she worries even more about how much riskier it will be to use public transportation when she goes back to work cleaning houses throughout various Boston neighborhoods: “I use the bus and train a lot. But I’m scared riding because it’s already on my mind. It’s scary because my young boy has asthma and I don’t want him to get sick.”

*Names and some details changed to preserve confidentiality

Undocumented in the Time of Pandemic

Being undocumented during the pandemic means greater risk of COVID-19 infection, increased financial strain, and ​heightened fear.

Our undocumented sample members work cleaning homes or businesses or in restaurants, construction, or retail.  For these jobs, working from home is not an option, close contact with others is often unavoidable, and they may be deemed "essential."  Some have been hospitalized with COVID themselves; others know many people who have been ill.  As the state reopens, it will be workers in these sectors who will be the most exposed especially if safe reopening procedures and social distancing measures are not enforced.

As we noted in an earlier post, undocumented workers are experiencing the greatest financial strain during the crisis. When their workplaces close, they cannot access unemployment benefits, the $1200 stimulus checks, and most forms of public assistance.

“Cuando llego esto del virus los restaurantes fueron una de las primeras cosas que cerraron. Perdimos nuestro empleo. En mi caso mi empleador despidió a todo el mundo” ■  “[When this virus came the restaurants were one of the first things they shut down. We lost our employment. In my case the employer let everyone go.” ]

“Los pagos no se pagan…pero se va acumulando.”  ■  [“Payments aren’t being paid but they’re accumulating.”]

To add to the anxiety from the possibility of getting infected and the stress of financial hardship, there is the fear that asking for help could affect a future immigration application or result in deportation. 

“Al principio si me dio miedo aplicar, me dio susto como ponerme en manos de, de inmigración… me dio miedo poner mi información y mi nombre en el Sistema. Después no me sentía tan asustado porque era necesario.” ■  [“At the beginning yes I was afraid to apply, it scared me to put myself in the hands of, of immigration… it scared me to put my information and my name in the system. Later I wasn’t as scared because it was necessary.”

Respondents who are undocumented and unemployed have been relying on assistance from friends and relatives, landlords who are forgiving their rent, and programs run by non-profits or churches that don’t require information about their immigration status. One sample member said she is grateful that her U.S. citizen daughter will be receiving the P-EBT SNAP installments and was relieved that the information sent to them by her public school specifically stated that it would not affect any future immigration applications.  While they see any assistance they can get as a lifeline, it’s often not enough to help these families avoid hunger. 

“Lo que yo siempre digo, quisiera que hubiera un poquito más de justicia para los indocumentados. Por ejemplo, bueno yo se que un indocumentado tal vez  los trabajos cuestan mucho y aveces abusan de uno como no pagarle horas de enfermedad por ser uno indocumentado. Y uno tambien trabaja, y trabaja duro uno tambien. Y eso fuera como muy bueno; que hubiera mas justicia para las personas” ■ [“What I always say, I would like a little more justice for the undocumented. For example, I know that jobs are hard for the undocumented and sometimes there’s abuse like not getting paid sick time because you’re undocumented. And you work, and you work hard too. And that would be good; that there was more justice for the people.”]

Names and some details have been changed to protect confidentiality

Who Will Look After My Kids If I Get Sick?

Fear during Coronavirus goes beyond concerns about food security and health risks.  Parents are terrified about what would happen to their children if they were to get sick.

Betty, a widow with three kids, says “I watch the news every day, and I’m here thinking so many things and I’m worried. When I learned that someone I knew died, I felt very scared. Three people I know have already died [from coronavirus].” She especially worries about her children because she’s estranged from her extended family and has no one else who could take care of her children if she got sick: “I tell my children, I only have them and they only have me. And if something happens to me, they would become orphans. I don’t want anything to happen to them. I don't want to lose a loved one again. You go outside with fear. I only go outside if I need something.

Nicole is a Caribbean immigrant and single mother of three. She has been struggling with the anxiety of unemployment, making rent, and taking care of three girls in a two-bedroom apartment. One of her biggest concerns though, is the risk of contracting COVID. She has taken precautions to minimize that risk - mask and gloves, sanitizing surfaces, not visiting family - but worries that illness for her is uncertainty for her daughters. “I can’t imagine...me getting ill,” she said, “I don’t know what would happen to the kids. I don’t know who would help me.”

Names and some details changed to preserve confidentiality

Staying Home Means Paying for More Meals

With schools, daycares, churches, and community centers shuttered, many of our respondents have lost not only social spaces, but also sources of food.

Alicia was given free lunch every day at work and had an employee discount for meals at her job. Her husband got 50% off dinner at the restaurant he cooked at, her daughter received free lunch at her BPS school, and her son was fed at daycare. Now, despite frequent use of meal sites across the city, their food budget has increased. Without work, summer camp, or daycare, this budget strain is likely to continue in the coming months. 

One senior, Nicole, explained that she previously engaged in a steady stream of activities, such as volunteering at after-school programs, attending meetings and rehearsals at her church, and socializing with friends at the senior center. Each of these activities came with a free meal or stipend. With those activities shut down, she has to provide these meals herself and has trouble making ends meet. Because she is a senior and can’t get out, she now has to rely more on deliveries from food pantries and other community organizations. Since delivery times can be inconsistent, she is more frequently skipping meals than before.

April, a working single mother, told us that a lack of access to support networks has affected her ability to feed herself and her family. Previously, April could rely on her mother to provide a balanced and healthy dinner after her son would get breakfast and lunch from his school. Now, April does not want to bring her son to his grandmother for fear of getting her infected. April is struggling to replace both the quantity and quality of her son’s meals. April is relying on less healthy food to feed her son and splitting portions to make her food last longer. Even still, April has fallen behind her rent to get enough food to feed her family. 

In their own words:

“Right now, I’m in survival mode, okay. The things that I used to do and the place that I used to be able to go to be able to make ends meet and to get, you know, the extra dollar that’s not happening no more…that's not happening no more.”

Names and some details changed to preserve confidentiality.

Where Economic Desperation has Emerged

After our first two weeks of interviews, we are seeing two groups that are experiencing extreme economic hardship. 

The first is undocumented workers, many of whom have lost jobs in the restaurant or cleaning sectors.  Because they are ineligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and other assistance programs, these workers are unable to replace their lost earnings. Some are receiving SNAP benefits for their U.S.-born children, but these benefits are not enough to feed an entire family.  

The second is individuals whose sole source of income is approximately $885 per month of SSI plus $194 per month of SNAP.  While their income flows have not changed, these individuals were already missing meals because benefit levels are so low, and rising food prices appear to be leading to an increased number of skipped meals during COVID.  

In contrast, the UI-eligible job losers in our sample are doing ok for now, as the $600 unemployment insurance supplement means that they have sustained, and in some cases increased, their weekly incomes. The $1200 economic stimulus payment has also made a difference.

Retirees with Social Security benefits or pensions and recipients of Disability Insurance benefits appear to have enough to cover food costs as they have not experienced any change in their income flows, though some of them are now doing more to support children who are out of work. Their challenges in acquiring food come from empty shelves and spiking prices at local markets – and difficulties traveling to larger grocery stores that are further away from their homes and require bus rides that pose infection risk. 

In their own words:

 “Mucho miedo…sobre todo el pago de la renta…vivimos pensando cómo vamos pagar.” ◾ [“A lot of fear…above all else about rent payment…we live thinking about how we are going to pay.

“Hemos tenido que racionar…en vez de cuatro piernas de pollo ahora solo tres” ◾ [“We have had to ration… instead of four legs of chicken now only three”]

“Necesito volver a trabajo, eso es lo único que nos mantendría tranquilos. Íbamos aplicando en muchos lados para ayuda económica y no hemos tenido respuesta.” ◾ [“I need to get back to work, that is the only thing that would allow us to feel calm. We applied in lots of places for economic support but we haven’t heard a response.”]

Names and some details changed to preserve confidentiality.