Humanitas Launches Groceries for Writers Meals Insecurity Survey for Screenwriters (Unique)

Humanitas, host of the annual Humanitas Prizes and nonprofit focused on supporting film and TV writers exploring the human experience, has launched a food insecurity survey amid its ongoing Groceries for Writers Project.

“Groceries for Writers has been an illuminating project, and it’s inspired a deep interest in the issue of food insecurity amongst screenwriters,” Michelle Franke, executive director of Humanitas, said. “Food insecurity pre-dates the strike and it will outlast it. So Humanitas is eager to envision a future for our direct aid work.”

The survey, which went live Wednesday and will remain open until Sept. 22, is aimed at feature and teleplay writers, with the goal of better understanding “the prevalence and effects of food insecurity — or the lack thereof — in the screenwriting community,” says Franke. The organization defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to food, that ensures one can live an active and healthy life, for every individual in a household.

Questions address personal and household demographics, guild status, writing capacities and levels (e.g. TV writer, feature writer, support or production staffer), as well as histories and impacts of past and present food insecurity, access to grocery stores and food budgeting (both financial and physical).

Respondents can include professional writers — both showrunners and staff — as well as aspiring writers, writers room support staff, production staffers or those in another line of work who are looking to make a career change. (The survey can be accessed here.)

The anonymized results will be published and made publicly available as part of a larger look at the material needs — including if they’re even being met — of those pursuing a career in the arts and entertainment. Analysts, academics, researchers from all backgrounds — including those that work at universities, think tanks, studios, networks and labor unions — can use the results of the survey for actionable measures.

The survey arrives amid screenwriters and their families’ financial considerations around back-to-school and holiday spending. It also comes nearly four months after Humanitas established Groceries for Writers, a direct aid project responding to the ongoing Writers Guild strike.

Designed to support WGA members experiencing food insecurity, and launched from a donation by Bones creator Hart Hanson and his wife Brigitte, the project raises funds and distributes grocery cards to screenwriters and their families across the U.S.

It has also grown to distribute farm bundles to WGA writers in the L.A. area, and non-perishable goods and other supplies directly to WGA member families. To date, over 1,300 e-grocery cards have been given and 200 delivered farm bundles.

“For us, the Groceries for Writers Project demonstrates the structural corrosion in Hollywood, the immediate need for a fair deal, and the stakes surrounding the vital work labor organizers are doing in the film and television industries,” Franke says. “Writers are the heart of our organization. There’s no Humanitas without them.”