Why are we starting up?
Researches by the European Institute for Gender Equality, shows that women and specially single mothers, as they make up almost 85 % of all one-parent families in the EU, are more vulnerable to food insecurity and its health consequences. There are several factors that contribute to this vulnerability, however access to labour market, lowpaid and insecure jobs are the most important factors that make women and children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Data shared by Eurostats in 2020, shows that female unemployment rate is up to 55% above the EU average but also women are highly represented in part-time and short-term work earning 16% less per hour than the average, in the South of Europe. SAVE THE CHILDREN reported that the highest relative child poverty in the South of Europe rates between 33.3% and 29.5% for children under 18. Furtermore WHO reported in 2016 that 1 in 3 - 11 years olds, were already overweight or obese by 2014 and over 60% of children who are overweight before puberty will be overweight in early adulthood. Those facts, however, are in exact contradiction considering France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, as the largest agricultural producers of fresh food supplies in the EU.