Food Security in the Time of COVID-19 for a Marshallese Community

Marcia A. Shobe (), Sophie Hill, Yvette Murphy-Erby, Baqir Fateh and Haixia Wang
Additional contact information
Marcia A. Shobe: IDEALS Institute, Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Sophie Hill: Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Yvette Murphy-Erby: Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Baqir Fateh: IDEALS Institute, Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Haixia Wang: IDEALS Institute, Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Using an individual and family ecological systems model, we explored food security among a Marshallese cohort in Northwest Arkansas during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that Marshallese households were experiencing high rates of food insecurity due to socioeconomic and systemic risk factors. Seventy-one Marshallese adults shared socioeconomic information about their household via an online survey. Descriptive results indicate that 91% of respondents report food insecurity. In terms of systemic barriers, almost half of Marshallese respondents do not have health insurance. Additionally, while most respondents report feeling calm, peaceful, and energetic, paradoxically, 81% report feeling depressed and downhearted at least some of the time. Logistic regression findings suggest that food insecurity is significantly related to education levels and household economic strain. These results are analogous with national findings, whereby non-native households are more likely to experience higher levels of food insecurity, lower rates of education, and higher economic strain than native households. As a collective community, the Marshallese could benefit from culturally responsive individual and family systems approaches for improving educational, social, financial, and health opportunities through workforce development, household income and asset development, and food security initiatives. Additional implications for policy, practice, and research are provided.

Keywords: food security; Marshallese; COVID-19; education; economic strain; functional status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3189/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3189/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3189-:d:1065504

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().