If you want to know how Mississippi families are doing, don’t just look at the numbers in a state budget or listen to debates at the Capitol.
Pull up a chair at a kitchen table.
That’s where a single mother is figuring out how to stretch her paycheck until Friday. Where she decides whether to pay the light bill or buy groceries. Where she helps her children with homework while worrying about how she’ll afford childcare tomorrow. Where she puts everyone else’s health ahead of her own.
Let’s be clear: For too many Mississippi families, particularly Black women raising children, these aren’t occasional hardships. They’re everyday realities.
And they tell us something important: Economic security and healthcare are inextricably connected.
At the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, where I am executive director, we believe what happens at the policy table must reflect what’s happening at our kitchen tables.
Consider this: As of Oct. 8, 2026, 4,777 Mississippi families were waiting for childcare assistance. That’s 4,777 families trying to figure out how to make work work.
What happens when a mother misses a shift because she cannot find affordable childcare? When she loses hours, falls behind on rent or must choose between her paycheck and her child’s safety?
That’s not just a childcare problem. That’s an economic security problem.
And now, food insecurity is adding to the pressure. By April, approximately 43,000 fewer Mississippians were receiving SNAP benefits than nine months earlier. More than two-thirds of SNAP participants in our state live in families with children. Think about what those numbers mean at the kitchen table. A mother stretching one meal into two. A child going to bed hungry. A family wondering how they will put food on the table tomorrow. These aren’t just numbers on a government spreadsheet. These are Mississippi families, and these are our children.
And healthcare is no different.
Mississippi remains among the states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. For too many working adults, accessing affordable healthcare remains a financial challenge.
Think about the mother working an hourly job without paid leave. A doctor’s appointment means lost wages. An unexpected illness can mean an unpaid bill. And getting the care she needs may mean sacrificing something her children need.
These are the impossible choices happening around kitchen tables across Mississippi.
We cannot separate conversations about living wages, affordable childcare, paid leave, maternal health and access to quality healthcare. When one piece is missing, the entire family feels it.
As Mississippi approaches the Nov. 3 midterm elections, these realities deserve our attention. Not because economic security should become a seasonal conversation, but because the decisions made in our state have consequences long after Election Day.
And our responsibility as engaged residents doesn’t end when the polls close.
We must understand how policies are developed, participate in public discussions, follow legislative decisions and ensure that the people most affected have opportunities to be heard.
Black women have always been leaders in strengthening our families, organizing our communities and advocating for change. Their lived experiences are not separate from policy expertise. They are essential to it.
So, here’s my invitation to every Mississippian: Listen to the women at your kitchen tables. Ask questions. Learn how decisions affecting your community are made. Make room for voices too often missing from those conversations.
Because when Black women and their families are healthy and economically secure, our entire state is stronger.
The kitchen table should always have a place at the policy table.
Cassandra Welchlin is executive director of Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, whose mission is to shift power at the voting booth and the policy table for Black women and girls. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and has global experience in this arena.
Image: Cassandra Welchlin (via MSBWR)