Study

COVID-19 has provoked dramatic shifts in food insecurity, and these shifts are unevenly distributed across place or between different social groups. This project seeks to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on household food insecurity, focusing on how experiences of food insecurity vary across states and varied social contexts. We are conducting qualitative research with a diverse group of families across five U.S. states, documenting the ways COVID-19 has affected how families shop for food, cook, and eat. Specifically, we ask:

• How do variations in policy responses to COVID-19 and social context shape families’ ability to prevent or cope with food insecurity?

• How do intersecting inequalities related to race, ethnicity, class, and gender shape how people experience food insecurity during a crisis?

• How do poor and working-class people make meaning of state policies and responses aimed at boosting the economy, addressing unemployment, and supporting food-insecure populations?

• What contextual conditions exacerbate or help families buffer the effects of food insecurity?

Share

• With this project, we seek to understand:

  • The consequences of COVID-19 on low-income families’ food practices and the impact of specific state and local policies

  • How place shapes people’s experiences of poverty and food insecurity

  • How social categories like race, class, and gender are “reciprocally constructing phenomena” that work together to shape inequality.

Act

Our multi-disciplinary team of researchers and extension professionals aims not only to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on household food insecurity, but to translate our research into meaningful community-based action. We will:

• Examine and illuminate structural and systemic inequities, support existing community systems, and co-create solutions for long-term change.

• Use photovoice methods to empower research participants and their communities.

• Communicate research and actionable recommendations to policymakers and leaders to inform policies and programming to support a more effective and equitable food system.

• Elevate narratives of lived experience and highlight the resources and resilience that community members use to navigate the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 crisis.