Initiative to Address Root Causes of Food Insecurity and Financial Instability
“When single moms win, our country wins”
Share Our Strength, the organization behind the award-winning No Kid Hungry campaign, launched a groundbreaking initiative aimed at addressing the root causes of childhood hunger in the United States.
Recognizing that it takes more than food to end hunger, Share Our Strength is investing $6.7 million across 28 organizations in 12 states to help families, particularly single mothers with lower incomes and their children, achieve financial security.
“Strong, stable, and secure mothers help raise strong, stable, and secure kids,” said Lillian D. Singh, senior vice president, Family Economic Mobility at Share Our Strength. “By supporting single mothers, we aim to break the cycle of poverty and hunger that affects too many families across the country. We’re eager to fuel the incredible work of our community partners, and stand ready to convene a national conversation to champion a better future for single mothers raising children.”
Through advocacy for policy change and programmatic strategies, partners are working on three high-impact areas: removing barriers to increased incomes and wages, reducing the cost burden of food, and shifting the narrative around single mothers experiencing poverty.
Despite being consistently employed, single mothers and their children face extraordinary levels of food and financial insecurity due to intersecting barriers, including limited access to living wage employment, high costs of basic needs, and social stigmatization. These barriers make it challenging to meet daily needs such as food, childcare and safe housing options, perpetuating a cycle of generational poverty and hunger. Of the nearly 8.5 million single mothers in the U.S., 61% are considered low-income and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the increase in food insecurity in 2022 was most pronounced for households with children headed by single women with 33.1% living with hunger.
“We deeply believe that when single moms win, our country wins,” said Chastity Lord, President and CEO, Jeremiah Program. “At Jeremiah Program we encourage moms to both express gratitude and exercise frustration for bad public policy that feeds generational poverty. Influencing systems change is also their birthright. For over 25 years Jeremiah Program has supported single moms in dreaming big dreams for themselves, their children, and their communities. We thank Share Our Strength for acknowledging the vital role economic mobility plays in eradicating poverty generation by generation, and recognizing the valuable work Jeremiah Program is fulfilling to ensure these women and their children have bright and bountiful futures.”
This work is supported by the Albertsons Companies Foundation. As a recipient of the Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors Innovation Spark Grant of $3 million, Share Our Strength will support creative locally tailored solutions for single mothers such as career coaching; stipends for food, housing, and childcare; counseling support; tax services and more.