Objective: Examine how food insecurity is related to emerging adults’ food behaviors and experiences of neighborhood safety and discrimination, and identify resources needed to support their health during the COVID-19 outbreak. Design: Rapid-response, online survey. Participants completed the 6-item U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module, a brief measure of food insufficiency, and measures of food behaviors, neighborhood safety, and discrimination. Open-ended questions were used to assess changes in eating behaviors during COVID-19 and needed resources. Setting: C-EAT (COVID-19 Eating and Activity over Time) study invitations were sent by email and text message to a longitudinal cohort. Participants: A total of 218 emerging adults (mean age=24.6±2.0 years, 70.2% female) completed a survey in April-May 2020 during a stay-at-home order in Minnesota. Results: The past year prevalence of food insecurity was 28.4%. Among food insecure respondents, 41.0% reported both eating less and experiencing hunger due to lack of money in the past month. Food insecure respondents were less likely than those who were food secure to have fruits/vegetables at home and more likely to have frequent fast-food restaurant meals, feel unsafe in their neighborhood, and experience discrimination during the stay-at-home order. Food insecure adults reported changes including eating more food prepared at home, eating more take-out restaurant meals, and purchasing more energy-dense snacks as a result of events related to COVID-19. Resources most needed to support their health included eligibility for more food assistance and relief funds. Conclusions: Food insecure emerging adults experience many barriers to maintaining healthful eating patterns during COVID-19.

No abstract

Coronavirus is a novel virus that hit the world starting from developed countries to under-developed countries. Ghana is amongst the countries in Africa that observed some level of confinement by their government leading to the shutdown of various institutions including schools. The resulting impact of the policy saw students being more vulnerable to food insecurity and related issues. This paper examines the effect of Coronavirus on students' food insecurity status at the University of Cape Coast. The research design adopted for this study was the cross-sectional survey design with the University of Cape Coast, Ghana being the study area. A total of 291 students were randomly selected to participate in the study. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings of the study show that socioeconomic characteristics of students and food insecurity status showed no association. Students rated the extent of the effect of the pandemic as moderate and the major area of academic life affected was the change in the academic calendar. Class attendance was the most perceived effect of the pandemic. Students also reported that they were rarely food insecure. The study further found out that the best predictors of students' food insecurity were age, current level, insurance and employment status. The major challenge faced by students during Coronavirus was difficulties in their academics. This led students to adopt mitigation strategies such as online studies, paying heel to Coronavirus protocols, and self-support to mitigate the pandemic's impact. The study concluded that the academic activities of students of the University of Cape Coast were affected moderately by the pandemic and therefore recommends that the University of Cape Coast should improve its information and communication technology infrastructure to make online classes easier and the school should increase funding opportunity to less privilege students.

No abstract