'you just can’t afford to be a single parent anymore': working mom struggles to afford necessities
7 minute read
volunteers gabriel balicanta, left, and sharon nolasco help load hampers for the forest lawn community food bank in calgary on tuesday, april 16, 2024.
brent calver/postmedia
it was only a couple of years ago that single mom kelly pascoe was “loving life,” supporting three children on her own, paying an affordable rent with cash left over for the kids’ music lessons and school field trips.
but today — in spite of her survival instinct and tough-mindedness — pascoe is barely getting by, seeing her rent go up by $700 a month since last year, and grocery prices more than doubling to feed her growing teenagers.
“it’s been just awful really. i’m trying to do everything i can to get my bills paid. but it seems you just can’t afford to be a single parent anymore. you can’t afford to live on your own and raise kids,” she says.
“even my friends who live together as couples, they can’t get by either. they’re even looking for people to split their rent with.
“it’s just so ridiculous.”
before the pandemic, pascoe was paying $1,400 a month to rent a small house in forest lawn and paying no more than $150 a week for groceries — bills that were manageable while she worked as a house cleaner.
“i was loving life back then, things just seemed so much easier. i didn’t have to work my butt off, like i do now, just trying to pay for everything with nothing left over.”
in the past year, pascoe’s landlord has hiked the rent to $2,100 a month, and a full load of weekly groceries now costs her, on average, more than $400.
costs for basics like kids’ clothes or internet also continue to inch up.
and while pascoe embraces the honest work of cleaning houses, earning $2,000 per month along with $600 in child tax benefits, her income isn’t nearly enough to pay the bills as she searches for a roommate to at least help share the rent.
pascoe says she has friends who are moving into a small, one-bedroom basement suite, having to pay as much as $1,100 a month, while others are having a hard time finding anything at all.
advertisement
“i remember paying $1,400 for a three-bedroom house only four years ago. it was so much easier, and i could afford to live.”
“now we’ve had to cut cable; i can’t get my kids the guitar lessons or the singing lessons they love.
“they’re even afraid to ask me for money for a school field trip, and that’s heartbreaking.”
and because rent and the cost of other bills like internet, utilities and phones keep going up, pascoe says she has less and less money for food each week.
pascoe is among a growing number of single parents in canada struggling to meet their basic needs, according to the latest research from salvation army canada’s 2023 poverty and socioeconomic analysis.
surveying over 1,500 canadians, the data showed canadians rank inflation, housing security and food affordability as their top concerns with a marked increased in the number of households seeking assistance, needing more clothing, furniture and emergency housing.
the report also found single-parent families are facing the highest degree of hardship across the country. while 25 per cent of canadians fear they do not have enough income to cover their basic needs, that number climbs to 40 per cent for single-parent households.
in fact, up to 45 per cent of single parents reported skipping or reducing the size of at least one meal because they could not afford to buy enough groceries, while another 44 per cent of single parents reported eating less so their children or other family members could eat.
before the pandemic, pascoe says she spent about $150 per week on groceries at no frills, and she’d be able to use coupons to save on larger items, even gas for the car.
“but now, they’ve stopped doing those coupons for some reason, and i can barely make groceries less than $400 right now.
“food has gone up by almost $300 a week for us. it’s crazy,” pascoe said, admitting that she has turned to food banks now and then, desperate to ensure her kids are fed.
advertisement
“all of it is especially hard as a single mom; it’s just so hard to do it all on your own.”
in hopes of supporting struggling forest lawn families and single parents like pascoe’s, the forest lawn community association is now partnering with the calgary food bank to distribute food hampers to area residents in need on a weekly basis.
gar gar, president of the forest lawn community association, says families in the area are facing more and more financial stress as rents continue to rise, leaving little left over for food.
“we have seen the high cost of living really push families to the edge in our community,” said gar.
“we often find that after families, and so many of them are single-parent families here, pay all of their other bills, including rent, whatever is left is not enough for food.”
forest lawn community food bank founder gar gar is shown with a loaded hamper of food at the forest lawn community association.
brent calver/postmedia
/
brent calver/postmedia
when the pandemic first started, flca was handing out about 25 hampers for families who were turned away at other food banks across the city.
now that number has doubled to at least 50 hampers handed out each week.
“it’s very difficult, but this is all we can do for these families,” he says.
“and the saddest part is the people we turn away every week. there is about 50 hampers each week, but we’re getting between 100 and 150 people in need.
“but we just don’t have any left. it really shows the magnitude of the problem.”
gar added that often when children come with their parents to pick up food hampers, they will start eating some of the more nutritious produce immediately, like an apple, and comment on how they haven’t had fresh fruit for a month.
“they will actually say to us, they haven’t had an apple since they can even remember. that is really heartbreaking.”
gar admits single-parent families, like pascoe’s, are hardest hit in low-income areas like forest lawn.
before the affordability crisis, gar says a lot of single-parent families were already struggling.
advertisement
“but now they have nowhere else to go for food. and we are here to just try and make sure their kids don’t go hungry.”
melissa from, ceo of the calgary food bank, says they’re now in the midst of strategizing ways in which more community associations like forest lawn can distribute hampers in the heart of their neighbourhoods.
president & ceo of the calgary food bank melissa from.
darren makowichuk, postmedia
“it’s so much easier for families if they can access food closer to home,” from says, admitting the calgary food bank’s location in an industrial area just east of blackfoot trail can be difficult to access.
as demand for food continues to grow, from says she doesn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.
“it’s really difficult with inflation, because even if it slows down, it never actually gets better. it’s like the horse has left the barn.
“when i came here a year ago, we were serving 400 to 450 households a day. now, we are serving close to 700 households a day. it’s absolutely mind-boggling really, what’s happened.”
of those households arriving for hampers, 30 per cent are families with children, 30 per cent are newcomers to canada, and nearly 20 per cent are households that have some form of employment income.
“that kind of data is really troubling,” from says.
“i mean, when you’re doing everything you can, you have a job, you’re going to work every day, yet you still can’t afford food? that shouldn’t be happening.”
from says not only does that data illustrate the fact everything is still too expensive in calgary, especially housing and food, it also means the sustainability of support systems like the food bank is significantly at risk.
while the food bank is not yet at the point where they are turning families away, from says the wait times between hampers have widened, with families who receive hampers having to wait as much as 14 days before they can receive another.
advertisement
“in a best-case scenario, we would much rather be at five days between hampers.”
in hopes of getting closer to that best-case scenario, from says the calgary food bank is continuing to have conversations with a variety of agency partners in hopes of expanding more into the community.
“we want to talk to more groups like forest lawn, to see where the gaps exist.
“but there’s just so much going on in this space right now,” from says, adding that the calgary food bank now partners with over 50 charities and non-profits in the city, from homeless centres, churches and community groups.
“it’s becoming more and more challenging as food insecurity grows.”
we know the rising costs of groceries, mortgages, rents and power are important issues for so many calgarians trying to provide for their families. in our special series squeezed: navigating calgary’s high cost of living, we take a deep look into the affordability crisis in calgary. we’ve crunched numbers, combed through reports and talked to experts to find out how inflation is impacting our city, and what is being done to bring prices back to earth. but, most importantly, we spoke to real families who shared their stories and struggles with us. we hope you will join the conversation as these stories roll out.
this week: scrimping and saving: food insecurity in calgary
still to come:
- priced out: the rising cost of housing
- the cost of doing business
our series so far:
advertisement
share story
