Food insecurity among families with children has increased in recent years. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), 17.3 percent of US households with children experienced food insecurity in 2022. At the same time, these families can face added barriers in accessing supports that could help meet their food needs.

For many families with low incomes, unpredictable work schedules, a lack of child care options, and a lack of access to transportation can make it difficult to pick up charitable food—or free groceries or meals—at local food banks or other nonprofit organizations. These same barriers can prevent children and families from accessing government-funded food assistance programs that require meals to be consumed on site.

Recent research from the Urban Institute evaluating Project DASH, a charitable food delivery partnership, and Meals-to-You, a summer meal program that delivered food directly to families, shows how home delivery could help reduce food insecurity and food access barriers among families with children. To connect more families to food assistance, policymakers should consider increasing funding for home delivery programs and making existing programs more flexible.

Families with children can face multiple barriers to accessing in-person food assistance

Programs that deliver food directly to families with children could help address four key food access barriers:

  1. Unpredictable work hours. Many caregivers with low incomes have multiple jobs or work nontraditional hours that they must balance with their family’s child care needs. This can make it difficult for families to pick up free meals and groceries in person, as distribution sites are often only open a few hours per week or month.
  2. Lack of time. Families with low incomes can face increased time constraints because they are unable to access time-saving goods and services that families with higher incomes use to cope with competing demands. This can limit their ability to learn about and access benefits, as well as travel to charitable and government food assistance sites.
  3. Unreliable and shared transportation. Balancing child care and work obligations can be especially difficult for families with low incomes (PDF) who share vehicles or struggle to afford reliable transportation. Relying on public transportation to reach food assistance sites can also be challenging and time-consuming if transfers are required or local transit is unreliable.
  4. Increased care responsibilities. For example, postpartum mothers and caregivers of children with disabilities may be unable to travel for charitable or public food assistance because of their added caregiving responsibilities at home.

Read the full article about food assistance programs by Kassandra Martinchek and Noah Johnson at Urban Institute.