The National Food Access and COVID research Team (NFACT) is a collaboration of researchers at 18 sites across 15 states exploring the impact of COVID-19 on food access, food security and food systems. 

Letter from the Director 

Dear NFACT Community,

With the holiday season upon us, we are acutely aware of how many may be going without during this time, whether from the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts or other challenges facing communities and households globally. Recent NFACT work featured in this newsletter highlights the complexity of changes and impacts in our food system since the pandemic as well as the disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and other vulnerable populations.  Our first collaborative national paper continues to demonstrate the profound impact of the pandemic on BIPOC communities, households with children, and those with job disruptions who experienced food insecurity at significantly higher levels. A recent brief from the NY Capital region further demonstrates how widespread food insecurity is among Black and Hispanic low-income households.   The Washington State team's recent first of it's kind comprehensive report also highlights the major impacts on food production, supply chains and access, as well as opportunities for resilience and learning for future emergencies. Other recent NFACT work also shows profound changes within the food system, including with 59% of Mainers and Vermonters engaging in home or wild food production since the pandemic.  As NFACT continues to follow and track these changes over time, 2022 will offer more insight into the lasting changes and the evolving strategies for food security since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sending my best to you all for a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Best,

Meredith 

Meredith Niles, PhD

NFACT Director

Associate Professor

University of Vermont

New Policy Briefs and Publications

All Sites

All eighteen NFACT sites coauthored a new manuscript, A Multi-Site Analysis of the Prevalence of Food Security in the United States, before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic, published in Current Developments in Nutrition. The article presents findings from 18 study sites across 15 states over the first year of the pandemic with over 27,000 respondents. Study findings indicate that food insecurity rates were higher across the country compared with pre-COVID-19 levels. Additionally, BIPOC respondents, households with children, and households that experienced a job disruption had higher levels of food insecurity compared with the general population. 

Maine

Research summarized in a new brief, COVID-19 Affects Coping Strategies and Food Access for Maine Adults, found that more Mainers used food coping strategies since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While most do not use risky food coping strategies (such as eating spoiled food), the percentage of those that do has increased since the start of the pandemic. 

Maine and Vermont 

A collaborative team from Vermont and Maine sites conducted a survey in the late spring early summer of 2021 that examined home food production (HFP) behaviors before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. The results summarized in new research brief, Home Food Production and Food Security Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, include a high prevalence (59%) of HFP and significant increase in HFP since the start of the pandemic, especially among food insecure respondents.  

New York Capital Region

A new brief, Impacts of the First Year of COVID-19 on Food Security in the New York’s Capital Region , found that food insecurity across the region has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, over 70% of both Black and Hispanic households and households with an income below $25,000  report experiencing food insecurity.  

Vermont

The Vermont team surveyed a single cohort of Vermonters at three time points over the course of the first year of the pandemic. A recently released research brief, Food Security and Assistance Programs in Vermont Before and During COVID-19, found that use of food assistance programs increased by 87% during the first year of the pandemic, and noted demographic differences between those who use federal assistance programs or community-based programs.  

Washington

The Washington team recently completed a report commissioned by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) that comprehensively examines the pandemic impacts on the state's food system with particular attention paid to underserved, BIPOC, and other socially disadvantaged communities.  

Researcher Spotlight

What is your research focus and role with NFACT research?

I'm a disaster scientist and public health researcher focused on public health impacts of disasters and public health emergencies. Since 2014, the primary focus of my research has been investigating food environment disruption and food insecurity following disasters including Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, and Florence, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and Camp Fire in Paradise, CA in 2018, and most recently COVID-19. I'm a member of NFACT leading a NY State study site and collaborating with researchers in the NYC, CT, and MA sites.

What has been most surprising about your NFACT research?

What has been most surprising about my NFACT research is the similarities between household experiences during COVID-19 and other disruptions such as hurricanes. It's been great to understand the COVID-19 experiences through a disaster science lens and to understand the commonalities across communities coping with a disruption.

What future NFACT work do you have planned?

I am collaborating more and more with other NFACT researchers and leveraging NFACT data to begin to tackle the shortcomings in how we measure food insecurity in a broader hazards context. Currently, a team of NFACT and other researchers are looking at data from several NFACT sites/states to develop a Disaster Food Security Scale with funding from a 25 Years of Measuring Food Insecurity grant. I hope to improve how we monitor food insecurity in the US so that we can better prepare for, respond to, and recover from future disruptions. This is becoming more and more important as our climate changes.

Fun Fact

My new favorite hobby, developed during the pandemic, is kayaking! I miss traveling, so getting out on the water to kayak in new places and being in nature has been a fun new experience and a way to capture a bit of the wanderlust feeling from home.

NFACT in the News 

Conferences & Presentations 

Have an update or idea for the newsletter?

Want to suggest a student or researcher to highlight?

Contact Mattie: malpaugh@uvm.edu

Want to contact NFACT or get involved?

Contact Meredith: mtniles@uvm.edu