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.