3 Out of 4 California Families With Young Kids Can’t Afford At Least 1 Basic Need

Veronica Martinez woke up early one recent morning to make a fresh batch of cookies. She packed them in a box and headed to a community center in East Oakland, where a nonprofit called Trybe invites families to get the things they need — produce, milk, eggs and even diapers.

Most of the families set up appointments first, but Martinez didn’t have one, so she shared the box of homemade cookies with staff in exchange for access to the pantry.

“They do a lot of hard work, you know, and I appreciate the community for helping us out,” Martinez said.

The longest-ever federal government shutdown delayed Martinez’s monthly food benefits, and she needed help to feed herself and her teenage son and daughter.

“When [the shutdown] happened, wow, it was a shock because I only get paid once a month, and that money goes right away to bills, rent and whatnot, and then the rest I had to save for groceries,” Martinez said. “This month I didn’t even pay my rent on time.”

Martinez makes a living caring for the young sons of her sister-in-law, Berenis Miranda, while she goes to work as a security guard. Miranda receives a $2,000 monthly state child care subsidy to pay Martinez for her work, but Martinez said that isn’t enough to get by in a region where the cost of living is outpacing wages.

“It’s hard to afford stuff nowadays,” Martinez said. “You go to the grocery store, you spend $100, and you come back out with nothing, actually. And you’re like, where did my $100 go?”

Miranda said she wishes she could pay Martinez more, but she’s struggling too.

“The Bay Area is not cheap,” she said. “Sometimes I have to rely on the food bank as well.”

Both women’s situations underscore the precarity of raising young children in an expensive state. The Stanford Center on Early Childhood recently reported that three in four California families with young children can’t cover at least one basic need, such as food, housing, utilities, child care or health care — the highest level of families experiencing material hardship since the center began its RAPID survey in 2022.

The findings come on the heels of a report from Tipping Point Community that the Bay Area’s poverty rate climbed over 4 percentage points after a decade of steady decline.

And it’s not just low-income families who are feeling the pinch. In July, 86% of middle-income families reported having difficulty meeting a basic need, according to the RAPID survey. A higher percentage of parents in rural areas faced material hardship (93%) than parents in urban and suburban areas (72%).

A separate RAPID survey found that an increasing number of child care providers nationwide are experiencing hunger. Nearly 45% of child care providers reported experiencing hunger between June 2021 and May of this year. The figure jumped to 58% in June — the highest level in four years of the survey.

Parents of young kids are often first to experience economic strain because they’re in the most expensive phase of life, said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, managing director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood.

“They’re usually earlier in their career — perhaps earning less as a result — their costs are higher because they have to pay for child care or stay home to provide it themselves,” she said. “There’s no public school system to take care of their children yet.

A majority of the parents surveyed said they experienced elevated levels of anxiety, depression and stress. Stewart-Kahn said that’s a concern, because their emotional distress can negatively affect their kids’ development.

Miranda said she’s aware of the potential ripple effects on her sons’ development, but as a single-income earner in her household, she’s focused on making ends meet.

“I can’t be depressed, I can’t be sad, because I have to do what I have to do for my kids,” she said. “The only thing I can do is stay strong and just stay on survival mode.”