Home food procurement associated with improved food security during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Home food procurement (HFP), including gardening, is associated with food security and improved health behaviors and outcomes. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HFP increased in many high-income countries; yet little evidence has demonstrated what impact HFP had on food security. Furthermore, existing HFP studies are largely qualitative from unrepresentative samples, limiting population-level understanding of HFP engagement and impact. Using data from a representative sample of residents (n=988) in northern New England in the United States conducted in Spring/Summer 2021, we explore the relationship between HFP engagement in the first year of the pandemic and changes in food security status. We employ matching techniques to compare food security outcomes in households with observably similar demographic and social characteristics, and examine food security outcomes in three periods among households who do and do not participate in HFP. Our results show that nearly 60% of respondents engaged in at least one kind of HFP in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecure households being more likely to do HFP. Food insecure households (both newly and chronically food insecure) were also more likely to do HFP activities for the first time or more intensely than they had previously. Newly food insecure households were the most likely to engage in HFP overall, especially gardening. Furthermore, HFP engagement early in the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with improved food security for food insecure households in the 9-12 months after the start of the pandemic, though these improvements were primarily associated with newly, not chronically, food insecure households. Future research about HFP should continue to explore multiple HFP strategies and their potentially myriad relationships to food security, diet, and health outcomes.

Home and wild food procurement was associated with greater intake of fruits and vegetables during the COVID-19 pandemic in northern New England

“…A 2020 survey of Vermonters found that food-insecure households were more likely to engage in a suite of HWFP activities except gardening in the first six months of the pandemic as compared to food-secure households (11) . Furthermore, there is some evidence that these practices work to improve food security: among households that experienced food insecurity in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, those that engaged in HWFP were significantly more likely to become food secure a year into the pandemic (12) .…”