Shining a Light on Hunger Among Single Mothers

It is clear that women are particularly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis — not only because the “feminization of poverty” is a persistent reality, but also because women dominate the ranks of essential workers in this country. Even before the pandemic, households headed by single mothers often faced heightened barriers to food security and economic stability due to a variety of longstanding issues ranging from employment discrimination to caregiving responsibilities to long-term effects of the wage gap. We are committed to addressing the many circumstances and systemic challenges that contribute to hunger among single mothers.

By the numbers:
More than 80%

of single parents in the U.S. are women.

40%

of single mothers struggle with hunger.

34%

of female-headed families with children live in poverty, compared to 16% of male-headed households and 6% of married-couple families.

15.9%

The unemployment rate for single mothers. It more than tripled in the first 3 months of the COVID-19 crisis (from 4.1% to 15.9%).

This is Hunger
Stories
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"I make sure that my son eats and then I worry about myself. That’s just what a parent does. I take him to a lunch program to make sure he’s getting food."

Rhonda, Louisiana
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Urge Congress: Prioritize Full Funding for WIC — We Cannot Turn Away Millions of Moms and Children

Congress has failed to provide sufficient funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). With rising food costs, more people need support, and our government must step up. If they don’t, insufficient funding for WIC will force states to turn away an estimated 2 million mothers and young children from receiving vital nutrition assistance, creating a waiting list for the first time in over 25 years. Please join MAZON in action today.

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Learn more
The Next Battlefront in the War Against Women: Fighting for Congress to Fully Fund WIC (Ms. Magazine)

We should not have to beg lawmakers to fund federal programs that curb hunger, improve birth outcomes, reduce infant mortality, and promote healthy growth and child development.
Read more.

Let’s Really Try to Abolish Poverty (The New York Times)

Readers respond to a guest essay about the excessive level of poverty in the U.S. Read more.

40 Percent of Single Moms Face Food Insecurity. The Fall of Roe Will Plunge Them Deeper Into Poverty (Ms. Magazine)

The landscape of U.S. “abortion deserts” now glaringly resembles the map of where we see the highest rates of food insecurity. The right to choose whether to have an abortion is not only a matter of reproductive freedom—it’s a matter of economic justice. Read more.

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