For many of us, the holidays mean gathering with loved ones around a warm meal. But for 1 in 6 households in the Ozarks, this season brings difficult choices: pay the heating bill or put food on the table. That means there’s a working mom who isn’t sure how she’s going to afford a meal for her children tonight – much less a holiday meal.
Without help from her local food pantry, Beth, a mother of two from rural Barton County, said she doesn’t know how she’d get through the holidays.
“We cut costs every possible way we can think of,” she said. “My husband works, but it’s not enough income for a family of four, and childcare costs a lot so we chose for me to not work.”
Beth said the holidays can be hard with Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to plan for, as well as figuring out how she will afford presents for her daughter, Dominique, and son, Titus.