This guest blog was contributed by I Can for Kids.
At I Can for Kids, we hear countless stories of parents and kids weighed down by stress, anxiety, feelings of shame, and stigma surrounding food insecurity.
In families we support through our grocery gift card program, about 45% of parents and kids struggle with poor mental health. Among our frontline agency partners, mental health counselling is one of the most common wraparound services or referrals for our recipients.
We help moms, dads, and other caregivers facing overwhelming pressure every day. Many are single parents, struggling to find steady work, or surviving on fixed but insufficient incomes. Kids may be having difficulty at school, living with disabilities, or coping with trauma. Added to these realities is the constant worry about food – and the impossible choices between buying groceries or paying for other essentials such as housing and medication.
This takes a profound toll on mental health – affecting parents and children alike.
Yet our latest program evaluation shows that our grocery gift card model brings immediate relief, by addressing the root cause of food insecurity – insufficient income. When families regain the power to buy the food they need, it quickly improves their mental health and well-being.
Food-insecure kids pay a profound emotional toll
Research consistently shows that the more food-insecure a family becomes, the more their mental health deteriorates. The reverse is also true: when mental health declines, the risk of food insecurity escalates.
When adults can’t afford to eat, they are three times more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders compared to food-secure individuals. On the flip side, those with severe mental illnesses – such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression – are also three times more likely to experience food insecurity.
Kids notice everything. Children are highly aware of financial strain and food insecurity, even when parents try to shield them. Youth and teens face progressively worse mental health outcomes as the severity of food insecurity increases, including anxiety, mood disorders, and risk of suicidal thoughts. They also have greater risk of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. They observe parental stress, delayed grocery trips, and food restrictions and may even begin to ration their own food intake.
During our own interview-based study, parents who accessed our program noted that their children expressed less distress once their household could buy enough groceries for everyone. Children could pack lunches so they no longer had to avoid food breaks with peers at school. Parents also described positive emotional impacts for kids when they could afford special meals such as birthday celebrations.
And, about 70% of the parents in our latest program evaluation highlighted how access to our grocery gift cards allowed their children to worry less about running out of food.
