Primary Submission Category: Health equity
Are food pantries the new grocery stores for grandfamilies? Disparities in emergency food assistance dependence based on family structure
Authors: Emily Nelson
Presenting Author: Emily Nelson*
Were some types of non-traditional families, such as those headed by grandparents, left out of emergency food assistance during the pandemic?
The COVID-19 pandemic had diverse impacts on people in different demographics including age and family structure. In 2021, grandparent-headed households had a 60% higher rate of food insecurity than households headed by non-seniors,1 and grandfamilies faced unique challenges during the pandemic as many seniors left the labor force earlier than planned2 and therefore may have been disqualified for the pandemic unemployment benefits available to more traditional families with children.
Using household food pantry utilization data from January 2019 to December 2020 collected by Greater Cleveland Food Bank using FreshTrak, we analyzed food pantry use data in an Ohio county for 2019 and 2020 (n= 1,169,568 pantry visits) to explore differences in pantry use based on whether families had households with seniors and children (grandfamilies). We assessed differences in the number of families in each group, their number of visits per month, and their rate of visits per month through descriptive statistics, the visual analysis of charts, and repeated measures ANOVA.
Our results show family structure had a significant (p=0.00) impact on food pantry utilization, with grandfamilies’ monthly average visits higher than any other group for 23 of the 24 study months. Other groups’ visits were greatly impacted by pandemic events such as school closures and unemployment benefits, but grandfamilies’ visits remained constant, suggesting emergency aid was insufficient for this group.
References:
- Goyer A. Together at the Table: Supporting the Nutrition, Health, and Well-Being of Grandfamilies. Generations United; 2022:68. 2022.
- Castro MF. The COVID Retirement Boom. Economic Synopses. https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/economic-synopses/2021/10/15/the-covid-retirement-boom. 2021.