Moving Food Assistance into the Digital Age: A Scoping Review

Abstract

One of the most basic needs globally, food assistance refers to the multitude of programs, both governmental and non-governmental, to improve food access and consumption by food-insecure individuals and families. Despite the importance of digital and mobile Health (mHealth) strategies in food insecurity contexts, little is known about their specific use in food assistance programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to address that gap by conducting a scoping review of the literature. Keywords were defined within the concepts of food assistance and digital technology. The search included relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature from 2011 to 2021. Excluded articles related to agriculture and non-digital strategies. PRISMA guidelines were followed to perform a partnered, two-round scoping literature review. The final synthesis included 39 studies of which most (84.6%) were from the last five years and United States-based (93.2%). The top three types of articles or studies included text and opinion, qualitative research, and website, application, or model development (17.9%). The top three types of digital tools were websites (56.4%), smartphone applications (20.5%), and chatbots (5.1%). Nineteen digital features were identified as desirable. Most tools included just one or two features. The most popular feature to include was online shopping (n = 14), followed by inventory management, and client tracking. Digital tools for individual food assistance represent an opportunity for equitable and stable access to programs that can enhance or replace in-person services. While this review identified 39 tools, all are in early development and/or implementation stages. Review findings highlight an overall lack of these tools, an absence of user-centered design in their development, and a critical need for research on their effectiveness globally. Further analysis and testing of current digital tool usage and interventions examining the health and food security impacts of such tools should be explored in future studies, including in the context of pandemics, where digital tools allow for help from a distance.

A systematic literature review of food banks’ supply chain operations with a focus on optimization models

“…foodbank) as a keyword or tag to identify their research. For instance, a scoping review on “Moving food Assistance into the Digital Age” (Martin et al , 2022) does not contain “food bank” in the title, abstract or keywords; however, the paper’s content is enormously relevant for food banks. While the omission of some potential papers does not necessarily undermine the value of this review, it may temper some of our conclusions.…”

“…foodbank) as a keyword or tag to identify their research. For instance, a scoping review on "Moving food Assistance into the Digital Age" (Martin et al, 2022) does not contain "food bank" in the title, abstract or keywords; however, the paper's content is enormously relevant for food banks.…”

Vendors’ Perceptions and Experiences with WIC Online Shopping Implementation

“…Recent research demonstrates that identifying, engaging, and retaining vendors to implement WIC OS is challenging for WIC State agencies [ 19 ]. However, there is limited information available on vendors’ experiences and perceptions with WIC OS [ 11 , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] ]. Over the past 2 years, ARPA waivers and funding opportunities related to WIC OS have demonstrated their importance and potential; thus, it is imperative to understand the current perspectives of vendors, including their plans and experiences with adopting and implementing WIC OS.…”

Applying Digital Technology to Understand Human Experiences of Climate Change Impacts on Food Security and Mental Health: Scoping Review

“…Over the past decade, there has been an influx of digital apps focused on addressing mental health disorders in general [60][61][62][63][64] or household food security [26] which include a variety of interactive features such as gamification [63] and digital chatbots [64] to manage anxiety and [26] connect users to food assistance programs [65]. The rapid advancements in the field of mobile apps show the prominence of ubiquitous digital devices for addressing a range of issues requiring effective monitoring and management, i.e., climate change or health-related crises [50,52,66].…”