To all the parents who know food insecurity:

We are different and yet, we are the same. Most important, we are united. Each of us knows the underreported and, sadly, sometimes ignored truth that despite economic rebounds and temporary relief measures since the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 8 children in the United States experience food insecurity.

It is not important whether you can recite the statistic – you live it each day. The fact that you skip meals so your kids can eat and that you find the most affordable food to keep a roof over their heads may contribute to the lack of awareness.

But know we are not criticizing your ability to protect your beautiful children, rather we are inspired by you and want each and all of you to know that we see you and we care.  You are far from alone. Your allies are stretched across the country, siblings-in-arms, if you will.  And we are proud that we are among them.

Who we are: Scarlett Johansson and Claire Babineaux-Fontenot

Scarlett, the daughter of an immigrant, born in 1980s Manhattan, was a little girl who dreamed of being an actress and often performed for family at home.

Claire, the granddaughter of sharecroppers, born in 1960s rural Louisiana, was a little girl from a big family who dreamed of being a lawyer and loved to travel the world through books.

Different as we may be, we share the experience of understanding what it is like for a family to struggle to make ends meet. We both witnessed the power of our parents' tenacity as they fed and protected their children from the often-cold realities of our world. 

Food insecurity is occasionally talked about as a public issue, debated by scholars and political pundits. At its core, however, food insecurity is an intimate family experience, nuanced and painful, and rarely understood by those who have not lived it. 

Every kind-hearted person will tell you that they care – we believe they do. Yet many people have tried many strategies to end hunger while the percentage of the population experiencing food insecurity remains stubbornly high.

We believe it may be because, so often, the decision-makers of society do not have firsthand experience with navigating the very systems they help to create.

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They have no understanding of what it means to explain to your daughter why you are waiting in line for food even though you’ve been working double shifts.

They have not carried the constant worry that one sick child and a missed day might mean the loss of your job.

They have not left an abusive partner to start over with nothing but a fierce love for your children and a will for a better life.

They have not raised two children on minimum wage only to be faced with the difficult decision of whether to take a promotion that will improve your résumé and give you a raise – but would push you above the income threshold to receive child care benefits, resulting in less money each month for food, if any at all.

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The experiences of people facing hunger are each unique and important stories of individuals who yearn to thrive but too often come up against systems that fail to support them. Change will happen when we work together to address these systems.  

A movement to end hunger is underway in the United States, and we believe that your voices, the voices of people with lived or living experiences, should be at the center of it. In fact, we believe the better descriptor is lived expertise.

In listening to your stories, we know that food alone is not the problem – the problem is housing, it’s health care, it’s child care, it’s opportunity and stability – the problem is being truly heard.

And while those big and nuanced problems are being solved, in partnership with you, the Feeding America network of food banks, pantries and meal programs will be there for support – support filled with compassion, with love and with faith in you and your power. We know the power you carry because we carry some ourselves, and it is magnificent.    

You are not alone, though we recognize how lonely it can feel.  You are not without choices, though the choices may seem impossible. You are not without hope, though the light in the distance may be but a flicker.

Rather, you are mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. You are grandparents and aunts and uncles. You are families found along the way and chosen. You are dreamers, all, of America. We stand with you, proud and tall. 

Together in hope,

Scarlett Johansson, philanthropist, and Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America.