Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Growing up in a grocery store in the Arkansas Delta resulted in a part of my DNA being formed with the smell of freshly sliced bologna and the clinking of ice in the ice box that kept drinks cold. One of my favorite memories was standing on a Coke case selling the drinks and baked goods to customers of all ages.

Country stores are mostly memories of bygone days, but in my case, I learned many life lessons spending my preschool years there. My daddy was owner and proprietor of the store that served mostly farm workers, community residents and individuals who used the store as a bus stop for trips to bigger cities like Memphis. In his 50 years running the store, he was familiar with multigenerational families, and many of them considered him family.

Early on, I saw hardworking people going to the fields every day —  rain or shine — with a cotton sack or hoe. Not to be overly dramatic but I knew even then, if you did not eat, you could not be healthy enough to work. I got into the food business before food stamps were a staple.

In the 1950s at our store, the real currency was credit, trust and the monthly payments made by patrons when they were paid. Daddy kept a ticket on each credit customer, and with nothing more than a cigar box and his own accounting system, he maintained meticulous records. I never saw a dispute with a customer.

Life changed over time. The ice box was replaced with a refrigerated cooler, and the Coke box was put away. I was trusted to make change, and my payment for helping out was the chance to play the pinball machine.

By the time I left the community, food stamps and cash were prominent means of payment, even though the monthly credit was still an option to regular customers. The type of food changed as new products were promoted on television and added to the basics.

As I became an adolescent, my days of working at the store were replaced by involvement in school activities. But as I became a young adult schoolteacher, I found myself back there holding a makeshift summer kindergarten on the front porch. With more mature eyes, I saw the place and the people differently.

I knew the popsicle from Mr. Raymond’s store was my drawing card for attendance, and it worked. Children walked to the store accompanied by an older child or adult, while the local elementary school principal and a parent with a car transported those who lived too far away to walk. We learned basic skills to be better prepared for first grade.

As a first-grade teacher, I saw starving children eating as much as they could hold in the school cafeteria. With stomachs bulging, we would return to the classroom to digest and hopefully keep it down. I also saw their parents working for a very low wage and trying to navigate the life they had.

Today, many people assume that children no longer live in food-scarce homes. However, according to Feeding America, for the last 19 years at the county level Mississippi has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country. We deserve the rating.

The minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour. The most recent report disseminated by the United Ways in Mississippi underscores the depth of the problem. In 2023, based on the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), 19% of Mississippi households were defined as being in poverty.

Yet this measure failed to account for an additional 30% of the state’s households that were also experiencing financial hardship. These households fall into the ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — earning above the FPL, but not enough to afford basic expenses in the county where they live.

Combined, ALICE households and households living in poverty make up an estimated 49% of Mississippi homes below the ALICE Threshold in 2023. This rate placed Mississippi 50th among all states and the District of Columbia with first representing the lowest rate of hardship. Families below this threshold are forced to make impossible choices — like deciding whether to pay for utilities or a car repair, whether to buy food or fill a prescription.

The history of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP helps explain the hardship many Mississippians face today. It began when unemployment was widespread and there was an agricultural surplus.

From the beginning, its purpose was and still is to supplement the income of working-class families and individuals on fixed incomes due to low wages and high costs of living.

Some of today’s most successful men and women participated in the SNAP or the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, also known as WIC.

During my son’s pursuit of a master’s degree in theology, he applied for WIC, which is a cousin to SNAP. With a new baby and only one very fixed-income, WIC was a critical supplement to their budget.

Research clearly demonstrates access to healthful, nutritious food during pregnancy and early childhood is essential for a strong start in life. For babies, good prenatal nutrition helps lay the foundation for healthy brain development supporting learning, behavior and mental health well into adulthood.

A balanced diet also builds stronger immune systems, leading to fewer infections and doctor visits. It is important to Mississippians to lower the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which all carry high lifetime medical costs and result in missing work. When adults are frequently sick, the workforce becomes less productive, affecting not only families but the state’s overall economic health.

Mississippi consistently has some of the highest food costs in the nation. It can be difficult for Mississippians to afford healthy foods that help their babies grow up healthy. As of July 1, Mississippi has a grocery tax of 5% while 33 states do not have any.

Mississippi continues to struggle with food deserts, where access to full-service grocery stores is limited and reliable transportation is often unavailable. For many families, the only nearby options are gas stations and dollar stores – places where fresh, nutritious food is scarce.

I have no fight with the state auditor or governor if they want to campaign for cutting food stamps to purchase sugary foods. But I do take issue with the growing atmosphere of disrespect toward the working people who rely on these benefits. These families deserve dignity, not judgment.

When the nation was facing a government shutdown earlier this year, Gov. Tate Reeves talked about requesting a waiver to limit the use of food stamps on sugary products such as drinks and candy even though there were questions of whether there would be any SNAP payments at all. He commented that “welfare benefits are a hand-up for those in desperate temporary need.”

The truth is, there was and still is a desperate need across the state for the full SNAP payments disseminated to participants. Yet during the shutdown, Gov. Reeves was not interested in following the strategy Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry implemented. He used Louisiana state emergency funds to allocate $150 million to supplement SNAP during the shutdown.

This contrast reveals a fatal flaw in Mississippi’s leadership. When the weakest link in the chain of productivity breaks or is damaged, the entire system suffers.

Without healthy workers who keep our streets clean, prepare hotel rooms and staff our restaurants, we will have no tourism, no community growth, no strong tax base and no one to train in the highly publicized high-paying jobs coming into our state.

It seems to be a no-brainer.

Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences.