Addressing Child Poverty Beyond the Pandemic
Illustration by Ada daSilva/Getty Images
The economic impact of the pandemic has created an opportunity for the federal government to reconsider its traditional responses to poverty and unemployment.
Apr 29, 2021
In the Frontline documentary “Growing Up Poor in America,” 13-year old Ohioan Shawn and his mother and baby sister were subsisting on $885 a month in benefits during the early days of the pandemic half in food stamps and half in rent assistance for their trailer. Shawn’s mother had been diagnosed with kidney disease, yet still had to risk exposing herself to COVID-19 by “working off” hours required to receive her benefits at the local Salvation Army. Shawn tried his best to help at home as a so-called “brother-father” to his younger sibling. This included taking her to get free lunches for school-age kids at McDonald’s. “To climb out of poverty is probably a really hard struggle,” Shawn says in the course