Description

Background: Household food insecurity (FI) is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritious and safe foods or ability to acquire foods in socially-acceptable ways. FI is an ongoing issue in the United States (U.S.), heightening with the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 40% of food-secure individuals in the U.S became food insecure following the COVID-19 outbreak, with Black, Asian, and Hispanic individuals being disproportionately affected. Addressing FI is important for preventing disparities in diet-related illnesses. Understanding the ways agencies adapted and evolved their services to address FI during this major health crisis can inform future capacity-oriented approaches to reduce FI and health disparities. Objective: Elucidate how local agencies in San Diego County addressed FI in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of multi-level sources of existing capital (i.e., assets) in their response. Methods: Guided by the Socioecological Model and a capacity-oriented approach, the research team conducted in-person, semi-structured interviews with the key informants at stakeholder agencies addressing FI across San Diego County. In 2019, key informants at 10 agencies completed interviews and eight of these agencies completed follow-up interviews later with pandemic-specific questions. The reseach team reviewed and discussed each transcript to generate an initial codebook, which is currently being iteratively applied to all transcripts by student researchers in NVivo. The research team meets regularly to discuss coding and identify emergent themes. Analyses are ongoing. Results: Key informants at 16 stakeholder agencies (food banks, govenment agencies, community centers, etc.) completed interviews. Agencies leveraged existing human and social capital by providing flexibility and adaptability of their services (increased food pantry hours, in-home food deliveries, virtual assistance). Existing across-agency partnerships made it possible for individual agencies to continue to provide a holistic approach (providing COVID-19 vaccinations) that expanded the availability and accessibility of services to better address FI and related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Within-agency and across-agency partnership capacities relating to flexibility, adaptability, and holistic approaches allowed for agencies to pivot post-COVID-19 pandemic to better address FI among low-resource communities. Future research should consider the long-term programmatic and food security implications of these agency service adjustments during COVID-19.