COVID-19 is Taking a Toll on Moms in Our Community
If COVID-19 has done anything positive, it is shining a light on our community’s most prevalent social issues and forcing us to face them head on.
Everyone is struggling, but moms in particular are hurting. Between unnerving data that shows women’s participation in the labour force continuing to dwindle despite men’s rising, fears of children’s health and safety returning to school, and food insecurity, it isn’t difficult to see why moms are struggling more than ever.
Here is what you need to know about why moms living in poverty are even more vulnerable, and how you can help them and their children.
Why Moms Aren’t Working Anymore
Women are hardest hit by job losses because the industries they tend to dominate, such as hospitality and health care, have suffered the most under COVID-19. Also, these industries often only offer part-time, low-paying and precarious jobs that conflict with childcare and don’t provide enough income to lift moms and their kids out of poverty.
“My stress level was high already before COVID. Now it is very high.”
Why You Should Care
The heightened stress levels due to job losses, risk of contracting the virus, and social isolation has moms feeling overwhelmed. Moms feel immense pressure to make the perfect choices for their families, and when they struggle, they feel like it’s their fault.
In reality, these problems are not the result of poor choices, but of structural failures such as devaluing domestic duties, unaffordable childcare options, and soaring costs of essential living expenses.
“The crushing toll on working mothers’ mental health reflects a level of societal betrayal…This isn’t burnout—this is societal choice.”
For women living in poverty, these inequities are only deepened. Here are just some of the alarming statistics related to poverty in Canada:
81.3% of all lone-parent households are led by women; approximately 1 in 4 of these families are living below the poverty line.
1 in 5 Canadian children live in poverty; 1 in 2 status First Nations children live in poverty.
1 in 3 women in Canada who are single parents are food insecure.
For every $1 invested in early years of a child’s life, the government may save $3-9 in future health, criminal justice, and social assistance spending.
The Impact on Children
When we fail to intervene and help moms, children are stuck in the cycle of poverty.
Research shows that children living in poverty are the most likely to have compromised cognitive development, poor mental and physical health, and poor educational outcomes. Simply put, poverty hurts kids.
The devastating impact on children shows us why relief for moms is crucial, especially as the pandemic only worsens these problems.
How Mom2Mom is Making a Difference
We provide a unique approach to reducing poverty-related stress on children in Vancouver. We support moms facing the dual challenges of poverty and lone parenting because it is a proven and effective way to improve the lives of vulnerable children. Here are some of the ways we do this as a community:
Monthly Grocery Support: this program helps keep food on the table every month. Over half of all moms connected to Mom2Mom no longer need to visit the Food Bank to be able to feed their children.
Our Compassion Fund: the program provides funding to relieve short-term stress, invest in long-term wellbeing, and remove barriers for moms in need. Compassion Fund investments include extra grocery support, costs for mom’s and children’s activities, professional development related fees, appliance repair, medical expenses not covered by MSP, and more.
Relationship Volunteers: we connect all participant moms with a relationship volunteer. Volunteers are women from different backgrounds, often who have raised families themselves and want to use their knowledge to support other moms. They are stable, non-judgmental allies who offer active listening, and emotional and practical support.
“I didn’t have to sacrifice things that I would like for myself or my daughter. I could pick healthier options without sticking to the cheaper foods that I was buying before.”
- Participant Mom
Here’s How You Can Join Us
Donate to support moms living in poverty. When you become a member of The Mom Squad, Mom2Mom’s monthly giving program, you can provide grocery support to some of Vancouver’s most vulnerable families.
Share this blog post with family and friends.
Shift our thinking of poverty as an individual choice to a structural failure. Removing the stigma of poverty allows moms in our community to feel less isolated.
Support initiatives that demand long-term solutions to address issues like food insecurity.
When caring community members like you invest in moms and demand our government does so too, we can break the cycle of poverty.
For too long, our society has relied on the unpaid labour of women to support our communities; as a result, our communities have suffered, and moms are at their breaking point. When a mom has the practical and emotional support she needs, her children benefit as they move from surviving to thriving.
“The pandemic has made it undeniable that raising children is, and always has been, a community endeavor — and mothers need their communities now more than ever.”
Written by Samantha Schumacher
Statistics for this blog post were retrieved from:
“Household Food Insecurity in Canada.” PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research, March 2020. Retrieved August 27, 2020, from https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/.
“Just the Facts.” Canada Without Poverty, n.d. https://cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-the-facts/.
“The Facts about Women and Poverty in Canada.” Canadian Women's Foundation, January 2021. https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/womens-poverty/.