EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a survey of low-income Americans

Di Fang, Michael R. Thomsen, Rodolfo Nayga () and Wei Yang
Additional contact information
Michael R. Thomsen: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2022, vol. 14, issue 1, No 11, 165-183

Abstract: Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased food insecurity despite emergency legislation that put more resources into food assistance programs, increased unemployment benefits, and provided stimulus payments. We conducted a survey in the US on food insecurity among low-income Americans during the early months of the pandemic. While we cannot estimate causal effects, we are able to show important associations between food insecurity and nutritional and economic assistance that highlight the need to ensure that those newly at risk for food insecurity are able to connect to resources. For example, our results indicate that those who lost jobs due to the pandemic reported the highest level of food insecurity and also the lowest engagement with food assistance programs. The SNAP expansion appears to be important only among groups with higher levels of income stability including non-minority households and those not experiencing a job loss. Thus, the SNAP expansion may not have had a meaningful impact on those most at risk for food insecurity. Finally, our data highlight the importance of school meal programs during normal times. Those who took advantage of school meals before the outbreak are more likely to have experienced food insecurity during the pandemic-related school closures.

Keywords: Food insecurity; COVID-19 pandemic; Low-income; Racial disparity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 I14 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-021-01189-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:ssefpa:v:14:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s12571-021-01189-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ulture/journal/12571

DOI: 10.1007/s12571-021-01189-1

Access Statistics for this article

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food is currently edited by R.N. Strange

More articles in Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food from Springer, The International Society for Plant Pathology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2024-12-29
Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:14:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s12571-021-01189-1