Abstract
According to the USDA, 10.5% or 13.7 million U.S. households were food insecure at some point in 2019. In 2020 we have seen those numbers rise due to COVID-19 and researchers at Northwestern University estimate that food insecurity more than doubled as a result of the economic crisis brought on by the outbreak. Food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain access to food and the USDA estimates that more than 11 million children in the U.S. live in food-insecure households. This means that 1 in 6 children may not have consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. At the height of the pandemic, countless families found themselves quarantined and cut off from vital resources. Not only families living in poverty but those in rural areas, who had previously depended upon school lunch programs to provide children with two meals a day, where now facing food insecurity. Although the impact of COVID-19 was unique, the challenges it posed were not. They mirrored those of communities in the wake of natural disasters brought on by climate change such as droughts, storms, earthquakes, landslides, and floods that are occurring more frequently every year. This paper, Emergency Meals-To-You: Preparing for Climate Change Impacts on Hunger and Poverty, analyses the Emergency Meals-to-You program launched by The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty as an emergency model for future climate change impacts on food insecurity.
Presenters
Tyson-Lord GrayResearch Associate, The Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, Baylor University, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus: Responding to Climate Change as an Emergency
KEYWORDS
FOOD INSECURITY, COVID-19, HUNGER, POVERTY, FOOD JUSTICE, NATURAL DISASTERS
