ABOVE Military families wait in line for food and other staples.
BELOW Sophia Munoz, 4, rests on her father, Edwyn Munoz, during a food distribution event.
Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach to Miramar, where they live, whenever Garcia needs help with baby Ciel. “If we don't have to go grocery shopping, because we get this [food], it helps us put money aside to get another car, something we are really working towards,” Gauna says.
worked as a nursing aid. In San Diego, she hasn’t been able to get a job. “Military families face unique challenges,” Owens adds. “They frequently move, [and] sometimes it’s hard for their spouses to find a job in a new location.” After a decade in the navy, Edwyn is an E6, a rank that, according to the RAND report, has one of the highest rates of food insecurity. “I didn't even know about food drives until I moved here. When we were in Virginia, we only went [to] food drives to assist as volunteers,” Edwyn adds.
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or the Munoz family, who moved to Camp Pendleton from Virginia, the transition to San Diego hasn’t been easy, either. “It’s a shock, having the same pay, but
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a different cost of living,” says Navy serviceman Edwyn Munoz. “It’s [been] really hard [and] a big adjustment for us.” The Munoz family did a lot of planning before they came to San Diego. They are money-savvy, maxing out all their retirement accounts and planning their meals to save on groceries. They bought an electric car to shuttle their three kids so they wouldn’t need to worry about high gas prices. But all their planning couldn’t help the Munoz family when it came to facing their new reality, partly because in Virginia, Jackylyn, Edwyn’s spouse,
t this point, Congress and the DoD are aware of how many people in the military need help to cover their most basic needs. They have commissioned studies
In 2018, only 14 percent of those classified as food insecure in the military used food assistance programs, according to the RAND report. The study stated that “stigma—social, career, or both—was a barrier to accessing food assistance.” Gauna went back to work after her maternity leave a month ago. She’s losing her milk supply, and formula is expensive—“as are diapers,” she adds. Currently, the family only has one car, so she drives all the way from the Naval
and enacted solutions. The problem is that their efforts have seldom paid off. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, who represents San Diego’s Congressional District 51, is part of the House Armed Services Committee. She was involved in approving the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA), a program included in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act
48 JULY 2023
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