by ABBY J. LEIBMAN and LIZA LIEBERMAN
For activists like us, it comes as no surprise that those who are most affected by these hostile actions are women—working women on the front lines as the majority of service workers, women who are single heads of households, women who are newly unemployed as businesses shutter and those in pink collar administrative positions are laid off.
Hunger in the wake of COVID-19 is being felt acutely by women across every sector and in every community. Indeed, earlier this month, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research labeled the current situation a first-ever “she-cession”—since a majority of the jobs lost in April were held by women.
And as is often the case, women of color and other particularly vulnerable populations are hardest hit by lob losses, school closures, limited childcare options, and—of course—economic hardship, all of which result in food insecurity.
In fact, a new report found staggering rates of food insecurity among the one in five college students who are also parents, and the one in ten who are single mothers. For these women, access to programs like SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is critical but often burdensome and sometimes out of reach. For these college students, finances will continue to be drastically impacted as this crisis prolongs, and it is critical to ensure they can access the federal nutrition programs to which they are entitled.
