How Poverty Affects Lone Mother Families
Poverty is disproportionately affecting single mothers and children. But did you know that British Columbia has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country? Below are a few startling statistics demonstrating how lone parenthood is more significantly affected by food insecurity and poverty in Canada:
Approximately half of lone-parent families in BC live in poverty, with 85% of these families being female-led
Food insecurity is experienced by 1 in 3 Canadian women who are solo-parenting
1 in 6 Canadian children under the age of 18 is affected by household food insecurity
Children who live in single parent families are more than three times more likely to live in poverty than children in two-parent families
Single parents manage many stressors such as stigma, work, and poverty. When the responsibility of solo-parenting compounds with 1) soaring costs of essential living expenses, 2) scarcity and low affordability of childcare, and 3) physical and emotional impacts of poverty, the well-being of both the child and mother in these households can significantly deteriorate.
Here is what Stack and Meredith found in their research exploring the impact of financial hardship on single parents:
Stress of being a single provider
The lone fiscal responsibility the single parent took on was identified as an unavoidable and repeated stressor in their life
Continuous thoughts about being unable to provide necessities could lead to feelings of sickness, hopelessness, helplessness, and depression
Sacrificing necessities
Lone parents often eat less or go hungry to ensure that their children have food, arguably at the detriment of their own health
Lone parents are often forced to choose between paying for utilities or food
Negative Impacts on physical health
Physical symptoms related to strain, stress, and feeling run down
Stress of doing everything was linked to higher susceptibility to illness, especially colds and flus
Negative Impacts on mental health
Sleepless nights, frustration and distress were common among parents
Feelings of paranoia, fear of judgement
Feelings of entrapment, desperation and being unable to get out of the current situation, leading to suicidal thoughts in some cases
Financial hardships can take a mental, emotional, and physical toll on parents and family. At Mom2Mom, we know how resilient parents are in the face of poverty-related challenges. We address poverty’s impact on child development and family life by providing direct support to lone mothers.
Mom2Mom is committed to supporting moms through programs and services that build stronger emotional and social networks.
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 diverse 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.
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.
Written by Celine Tsai
Research for this post is retrieved from:
Government of British Columbia. (2019). Together BC: British Columbia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/initiatives-plans-strategies/poverty-reduction-strategy/togetherbc.pdf
First Call BC. (2020). 2020 BC Child Poverty Report Card. Retrieved from https://firstcallbc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/First_Call_Report_Card_2020_Dec_web_final.pdf
Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. (2021, March 23). Low income statistics by age, sex and economic family type. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.25318/1110013501-eng
Tarasuk V, Mitchell A. (2020) Household food insecurity in Canada, 2017-18. Toronto: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF). Accessed from https://proof.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Household-Food-Insecurity-in-Canada-2017-2018-Full-Reportpdf.pdf