PHOTOS: How Families Struggle To Feed Their Kids In The Pandemic

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Mohd Ali, right, of Selangor, Malaysia, lost his job due to the pandemic. The family’s favorite foods — fried chicken, eggs, fruit and bread — are now typically out of reach. When they can afford chicken, they give most of it to their daughter, Hosna.

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Gloria Hernandez, 82, stands outside her home in Aliaga, a village in the Philippines, where she lives with her daughter and grandsons. During the pandemic, she has been struggling to afford fresh meat and fish.

Xyza Cruz Bacani for NPR

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Hernandez, left, outside her home in the evening. Some nights, she says, she goes to bed hungry.

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Hernandez eats rice with a little coffee poured on top for her meal. She calls it «survival food.

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Hosna Ali, 6, eats rice with dried fish at home in Seleyang, Malaysia. Her dad, Mohd Ali, says the family has not been getting enough nutrients during the pandemic.

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Mohd, 32, prepares a dish his mother taught him: a mix of rice, lentils, curry, chopped long beans and chili powder. «Let my wife rest today. I will cook and show you! he says.

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Mohd, right, eats with his wife, Tawhirah, center, and their daughter Hosna, left. Tawhirah is in her first trimester of pregnancy.

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Beans, biscuits and noodles to stave off hunger — with an occasional serving of chicken for their 6-year-old

When the pandemic hit, the national army put a barbed wire fence around Mohd Ali’s neighborhood. The idea was to restrict movement and prevent COVID-19 transmission. For Ali, the fence made it impossible to get to his job as a restaurant dishwasher.

Then after a cycle of lockdowns, the restaurant closed earlier this year.

The job was a good one. Ali, 32, earned $10-12 a day and could support his family. He’s been trying to find a new gig, but it’s been difficult, he says. The job market is saturated. And he lives in the country without legal permission, making it even harder for him to find work. He and his family came to Malaysia in 2015 to escape the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

What’s most important to him, he says, is taking care of his pregnant wife and 6-year-old daughter. The family has been living off dwindling savings, food aid from charities organizations and kindly neighbors who occasionally offer provisions.

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The home refrigerator is mostly empty. Ali Mohd lost his job as a restaurant dishwasher at the start of the crisis and says it’s difficult to afford the meat, fruit, bread and eggs he used to buy for his family.

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Ali eats a typical Malaysian dish of long beans and rice.

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Aviwe Maphini, 30, eats pasta with canned sardines in front of her home in Cape Town, South Africa. The mom of two was working as a lawyer before the pandemic hit. When she lost her job, she says, «The first thing I thought of was my kids.

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A plate of sardines in the kitchen. Maphini and her family have been relying on cheap proteins to supplement their meals.

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Kukhanyile Maphini, 6, eats a margarine and peanut butter sandwich while watching TV at home. His dad, a police officer, rests on the couch.

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Kukhanyile Maphini, 6, eats a margarine and peanut butter sandwich while watching TV at home. His dad, a police officer, rests on the couch.

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Her biggest goal, she says, is making sure her kids stay in school. «Their education is more important than our stomachs. As long as we can still afford something to eat at the end of the day, it’s OK.

Photos and reporting by Tommy Trenchard

Additional credits

Xyza Cruz Bacani and Annice Lyn are part of the Everyday Projects community, contributing to Instagram accounts from countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, North America and Europe. Visuals edited by Ben de la Cruz, Ian Morton and Nicole Werbeck. Text by Suzette Lohmeyer. Text edited by Malaka Gharib and Marc Silver. Special thanks to Caroline Drees, senior director for field safety and security at NPR.

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