March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility – a day dedicated to celebrate and recognize the resilience and accomplishments of the transgender community.

On this day, we don’t only celebrate the contributions that the transgender community has paid to society, but also raise awareness about the struggles that they face on a daily basis.

Transgender adults were three times as likely as cisgender people to experience food insecurity this year, according to data analyzed by the Williams Institute at UCLA.

We envision a future where *everyone* in our community has consistent access to fresh, healthy, delicious food. There is still a lot of work to be done before transgender people have full equality under the law. Americans in 30 states can be denied employment just for being transgender, and 28 states allow employers to deny employment to anyone for being lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Without steady employment, access to fresh food becomes a difficult reality.

While Massachusetts is not one of them, many individuals who live here and identify as LGBTQIA+ still experience stigma and discrimination, even within the services they reach out to for support. This creates extreme difficulty for LGBQTIA+ individuals when accessing food resources, healthcare support, housing services, and more.

Food For Free is proud to join today’s celebrations. To end hunger and create equal pathways to fresh food–we must dismantle barriers to access, including stigma and discrimination against our trans community members.