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Hunger Takes No Holiday   November, 2008

We do it every year: we plan and shop and cook for days prior to that all-important Thanksgiving Day meal. Some of us celebrate the holiday, cozy and relaxed, with just our kids and partners around us. Some host their extended families, friends and neighbors. But whether serving four or forty, the preparation is the same and usually includes at a minimum, turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, veggies, rolls, gravy and desserts.

The average Thanksgiving dinner for four will cost about $130. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, at the beginning of 2002, an average household spent $102 per week on food and $25 per week on gasoline. As of May 2008, food spending was up to $124 per week and gas prices had more than tripled, to $83 per week. That is a 23% increase in food costs and a 335% increase in gas costs. During this same time period, home heating oil jumped 379%, from $1.21 per gallon to $4.59 per gallon. And while gasoline and home heating oil prices are coming down, oil is still 227% higher than in January, 2002.

Rhode Island currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Foreclosures are on the rise and housing prices are falling, providing less equity to home-owners. According to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the families with the highest rates of food insecurity (30.2 percent) were headed by single mothers. And this is before the additional expenses of the holiday season and winter. That’s why the Rhode Island Commission on Women is urging Rhode Islanders to support the Women Ending Hunger Initiative of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

At this time of year, when tables (and waistbands) traditionally groan with plenty, how do families -- already stretched to the breaking point economically – provide a holiday meal AND have enough left over to provide regular meals as well? Every day of the year, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and their member agencies work to provide healthy, safe and nutritious food to families throughout the state. Already in 2008, they are serving 40,000 Rhode Islanders per month– that is a 10 % increase from last year. And that increase happened prior to the nation’s current financial crisis and people turning on their heat for the winter.

The Rhode Island Commission on Women (RICW) has launched a community challenge to raise funds for the RI Community Food Bank. To make your donation, please visit the RICW website at www.ricw.ri.gov and click on the “Donate Now” button and make this Thanksgiving better for all Rhode Islanders.

The Feminine Face of Hunger   October, 2008

Women are 72 percent of clients at food pantries according to a 2006 Rhode Island study by America’s Second Harvest. Who are these women? Many are elderly, either living alone or acting as primary caregivers for their grandchildren. According to a Meals on Wheels Association of America study, one in five seniors who live with a grandchild are at risk of hunger. Women make up almost two-thirds of grandparent caregivers. In fact, women head up nearly seven of ten older families living below the poverty level. And single older women are not faring much better. According to an AARP study, nearly one-third of single women age 65-plus are classified as poor.

ender is clearly a factor when it comes to poverty and food insecurity. Though women are working in unprecedented numbers, there is still a cultural expectation that women will leave the work force to bear and raise children, and to care for aging or infirmed family members. Intermittent employment patterns, lower earnings than men, and jobs that often don’t provide employer-sponsored retirement plans place women at risk for living in poverty and food insecurity in their later years. Adding to these factors is the expectation that one-third of the nation’s women will live to at least age 90, meaning their retirement income has to stretch farther.

Food Insecurity is defined as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.

In a 2006 USDA study, the overall rate of food insecurity was about 11 percent nationwide. But among low-income households with children headed by a single woman, the rate of food insecurity jumped to 46 percent.

These women do not fit the stereotypes: 30 percent of food pantry clients in Rhode Island have earned income, meaning they work or their spouse works.

So what does this mean? It means that women across the life span – single and working, single with children, working poor, married with or without children, elderly single or with grandchildren – all are at risk of food insecurity. And as we draw toward winter, with zooming oil costs, fewer jobs, and more housing foreclosures, women are at ever increasing risk.

The Rhode Island Commission on Women (RICW) strives to advance women toward full equity in all areas of life and to promote rights and opportunities for all women. The RICW participates in the Women Ending Hunger initiative of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Women Ending Hunger seeks to provide Rhode Island women with healthy nutrition awareness and home-budgeting opportunities, and to increase their participation in the federal food stamp program. The RICW has launched a community challenge to raise funds for the Women Ending Hunger program. To make your donation, please visit the RICW website at www.ricw.ri.gov and click on the “Donate Now” button. Your generous contribution will help ensure that women-- our mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers -- will have a seat at the dining room table.