Grandfamilies disproportionately at-risk for food insecurity, advocates say

It was under tragic circumstances when 2-year-old Alivia went to live with her grandmother, Corrinna Martin, in West Haven Connecticut. Alivia had survived a brutal domestic violence slaying that killed her mother, Chaquinequea Brodie, 29, and her older sister, My’Jaeaha Richardson, 9. 

Martin, who was once in foster care herself, said she wasn’t going to let her granddaughter, who had just witnessed the deaths of her mother and sister, experience the added trauma of growing up in the system. So she took on the responsibility of raising Alivia herself. 

Martin soon discovered that being a grandma, spoiling the grandkids with candy and junk food when they came to visit, is different from being a full-time mom, she said. 

“Once she came into my custody full time,” Martin said, “I became responsible for all of her nutritional sustenance.”

When a grandparent or any relative becomes the guardian of a family member’s child, like Martin taking in Alivia, they’re frequently referred to as grandfamilies or kinship families. Grandparents raising children face unique legal and financial challenges including food insecurity. 

According to a report from the grandfamily advocacy group Generations United, grandfamilies face higher rates of food insecurity than other families. The report estimates there are 2.5 million children being raised by their grandparents in the U.S.

“No one should have to go hungry because they stepped up to care for a child,” said Jamarl Clark, assistant director of the National Center on Grandfamilies at Generations United. 

Clark added that a child raised by a family member or relative has “more stability, higher levels of permanency, better behavioral and mental health outcomes” compared to non-relative foster care. 

Yet due to a lack of resources and support services, one in four grandparent-headed households said they have trouble providing enough food for their families between 2019 and 2020 — more than twice the national average, according to the Generations United report. 

Compared to all households, grandparent-headed families have a 60% higher rate of food insecurity, it says. 

“We’ve had grandparents take out mortgages to make sure that their kids can eat,” Clark said. 

Grandfamilies, which are disproportionately Black, Native American and, in some regions, Latino, can be led by grandparents or any adult family member like aunts, uncles, cousins or even a family friend. Many of the kids in grandfamilies have experienced past traumas, according to the report, which makes them more likely to develop eating disorders. Many studies have linked food insecurity to a host of negative impacts on a child’s psychological, physical, behavioral and educational development. 

The typical grandfamily emerges, said Clark, when an adult child passes away and leaves behind a son or daughter. 

“Grandmother is just living her life,” said Clark. “She’s about to get ready to retire; everything’s going well.”

Then, “all of a sudden, there’s a knock at the door — ‘Here, grandma, here’s a five-year-old. Take care of them,'” he said.  “But grandma needs the resources to ensure that she can take care of her grandchild.” 

With Alivia in her custody, Martin had to juggle providing healthy food, clothing and medication on a fixed income of roughly $1,000 in disability benefits a month.  

“Trying to take care of a young child on disability benefits was a struggle at first,” Martin said. “Never did she go hungry or anything like that, but other things lapsed.” 

Martin made it a point to ensure the fridge and cupboards were stocked with food even if that meant some bills went unpaid. On a few occasions, after the grocery costs drained her monthly budget, she couldn’t even cover the entire copay for a medication that she needed for her illness: secondary adrenal insufficiency.

“Even a copay can be $45 — that’s three or four meals,” she said.  

Food and financial assistance are available to foster parents but Martin said she never applied because she was terrified that admitting any type of hardship might jeopardize her efforts to adopt Alivia legally. 

Other grandfamilies like Martin’s also don’t apply for food benefits even when they’re eligible for them, Generations United found. According to the report, 42% of low-income grandparents who are the guardians of a relative’s child do not participate in food assistance programs.

Grandfamilies who go through a formal adoption process gain access to many resources, but not all grandparents take this route. They may not know how to navigate the process or they don’t have enough money to hire an attorney, said Clark. 

Additionally, many assistance programs determine eligibility by income and retirement savings, and that can sometimes disqualify people, he added. 

“Why should they be penalized for the money that they have set aside for retirement?” Clark said. “Why should the child be penalized?”

The report offers several policy recommendations, including government funding for more navigator programs to connect and support kinship families and grandfamilies to existing resources, and creating a “child-only” food assistance benefit for grandfamilies who would otherwise be ineligible. 

Many grandparents who find themselves in financial dire straits say they feel ashamed and worry about the judgments of others, even friends and other family members. 

One of the stories in the report is that of Alice Carter, a grandparent who fell on rough times while caring for her two grandchildren. After a series of setbacks, Carter and her kids lived out of a car for more than a year. She struggled to secure enough food every day to feed the kids. Sometimes, Carter would drop by a friend’s house around dinner time hoping her grandchildren would get invited to eat. 

“My granddaughter doesn’t like to talk about it,” Carter said in the report. “She was ashamed.” 

For her part, Martin said she only began to speak openly about her challenges after the adoption of Alivia, who is now 8 and in the third grade, was finalized in November 2021. 

“I’m speaking up about this now because there needs to be more services for grandfamilies,” Martin said.

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Brian Rinker is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and journalist. He covers public health, child welfare, digital health, startups and venture capital. His work has been published by Kaiser Health News, Health Affairs, The Atlantic, Men’s Health and San Francisco Business Times. Brian received master’s degrees in journalism and public health from UC Berkeley.