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Here's something that's really struck me from our coverage on global food inequalities: the extent to which this crisis is hitting women much harder than men. A thread.
Globally, women are 10% more likely to be food insecure than men. The gender gap is even greater among people who are poorer, less educated, or unemployed, according to Care, a hunger relief and advocacy group.
Women often eat less or skip meals in favor of feeding family members. Women are going without even though globally they're typically the ones buying, growing and preparing the household food. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-31/hunger-is-threatening-to-kill-more-people-than-covid-this-year?sref=IyTYNZEu
Our global reporting has turned up evidence of this again and again. Mothers and daughters are waiting six or eight hours in U.S. food bank lines. In Uganda, food is rotting at market stalls operated by women, depleting their incomes, while many households face hunger.
In the U.K., mothers are putting on weight and threatened by obesity because they don't have enough access to healthy foods. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-08/weight-gain-is-flip-side-of-covid-food-crisis-for-richer-nations?srnd=storythread&sref=IyTYNZEu
One of the most striking examples: Alicia Rojo Rocha, a farm worker in Idaho. She spends her day surrounded by fields of carrots, onions and potatoes. But she might labor through her whole 10-hour work day having eaten nothing more than an apple. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-hunger-minnesota-pandemic/?srnd=storythread&sref=IyTYNZEu
Rocha's budget is strained, and she's still behind on bills after a virus case at her farm shut down operations (and pay) for two weeks. But still, she prioritizes sending money to keep her grandkids fed, even if that means she doesn't have enough to eat.
. @CARE did a recent study examining 73 global reports published by funders and policy makers proposing solutions to the hunger problem. Of those, 34 never mention women and none of the studies provided data showing the difference in women’s experiences. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-18/women-are-left-out-of-solutions-to-hunger-crisis-study-finds?srnd=storythread&sref=IyTYNZEu
Food inequality is one of the most basic ways the world is split into haves and have nots. And it's one of the many markers of deeply entrenched social divides. Keep watching this space for continuing coverage from @business https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2020-08-31/covid-19-food-crisis-tracking-international-hunger-as-food-bank-need-surges?sref=IyTYNZEu
