Emergency Food Provision for Children and Families during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Examples from Five U.S. Cities

Abstract

As lockdown and school closure policies were implemented in response to the coronavirus, the federal government provided funding and relaxed its rules to support emergency food provision, but not guidance on best practices for effectiveness. Accordingly, cities developed a diverse patchwork of emergency feeding programs. This article uses qualitative data to provide insight into emergency food provision developed in five cities to serve children and families. Based on our qualitative analysis, we find that the effectiveness of local approaches appears to depend on: (i) cross‐sector collaboration, (ii) supply chains, and (iii) addressing gaps in service to increased risk populations.

Food Insufficiency and Mental Health in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Future COVID-19-related policies should aim to increase public awareness of and provide additional funding to school food programs and food banks. 64 These sources of free groceries and meals may increase access to food among those who are food insufficient and help to mitigate poor mental health outcomes. Given the confluence of material need insecurities, non-food related interventions to alleviate food insufficiency should be considered, including paid sick leave, rent/mortgage delays, and stimulus funding for the recently unemployed.…”

Local Food Supply Chain Dynamics and Resilience during COVID‐19

“…In response to COVID‐19, the federal government also relaxed rules to expedite emergency food provision efforts (Jablonski et al 2020). The USDA gave states temporary administrative flexibility in their SNAP program including some measures that may allow more local food markets to accept food assistance dollars (USDA‐FNS 2020).…”

“…This increased flexibility and support within governmental food assistance programs has resulted in new partnerships between LRFS and the emergency food system (Wallace Center 2020), and may allow more LRFS enterprises to participate in nutrition programs postpandemic. Given that cross‐sector collaboration and adaptable supply chains have been key to the effectiveness of these emergency feeding programs (Jablonski et al 2020), LRFS may play a role in filling some gaps at the local level.…”

The Impact of State Farm to School Procurement Incentives on School Purchasing Decisions

“…Increasing purchases of some local foods in order to receive state reimbursement incentives for FTS will result in additional revenue per meal, even if less meals overall are being served. Inasmuch as expansion of summer meal service continues into 2021, there will be more opportunities for local sourcing as more of the meal service calendar overlaps with summer growing seasons. FSDs may be able to offset budget shortfalls with local purchasing to a more significant degree in these months and can plan to take advantage of seasonally low prices. While supply chains have largely recalibrated since the advent of the COVID‐19 pandemic FSDs may avoid some future supply chain disruptions by proactively leveraging local food reimbursements to form relationships with local producers. State budget shortfalls may threaten funding for local food reimbursement programs, but given the amount of emergency feeding that has been shifted to schools since the onset of the pandemic, 50 FSDs have justification for advocating to maintain funding for these programs, particularly to the extent that FTS may increase the number of parents who continue to frequent schools for access to meals. …”