Food Insecurity Post COVID-19: Adapting Food Assistance Programs

Abstract

38 million people, of which 12 million were children, suffered from food insecurity across the United States at the start of 2020. Then the unthinkable happened: the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, plunging the economy into chaos. Everything from working conditions to market conditions were affected, and a rise in food insecurity came as a consequence. Federally subsidized food assistance programs now aim to further pandemic recovery efforts, however they must adapt in order to be successful in post-pandemic conditions. In this paper, I examine current efforts and possible improvements to efforts to alleviate food insecurity. I first offer a review of existing literature, which outlines a few crucial strategies that food assistance programs must employ to maximize their effectiveness. These strategies include exposing children to the programs before the age of 5 and factoring the current economic climate into the actions of these programs in various ways. Secondly, I conduct empirical analysis of recent data in order to display how economic conditions are reflected in the prevalence of food insecurity and how food insecurity is correlated with conditions such as education level, residential area, and job security. My analysis concludes with ways that food assistance programs can maximize their effectiveness in the post-pandemic climate.