Food Security and Hunger in Poor, Mother-Headed Families in Four U.S. Cities. The Project on Devolution and Urban Change Working Paper

Drawing on 1998-99 survey and ethnographic data from research on the implementation and effects of welfare reform in four large cities, this paper describes the food security of mother-headed families in highly disadvantaged urban neighborhoods who had received or currently receive cash welfare benefits. The families of four groups of women were compared: those who worked and no longer received welfare; those who combined welfare and work; nonworking welfare recipients; and those who neither worked nor received welfare. Food insecurity in the prior year was high in all groups. About half the families were food insecure. There was hunger in over 15 percent of families. Nearly one-third of the families had food hardships affecting children's diets. Food insecurity was highest among families where mothers had neither employment income nor welfare benefits and lowest among families where mothers worked and no longer received welfare, though even in this group, 44.5 percent were food insecure, and 15 percent had experienced hunger. Interview data indicate that, in this population, women who are food secure expend considerable energy piecing together strategies to ensure an adequate amount of food available for themselves and their children. (Contains 58 references.) (SM)