Food Banks and Food Pantries Provide Protection for Racial and Ethnic Minorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

A mid the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans have experienced food insecurity. Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program soared to 43 million people in April 2020 (Tiehen, 2020). Across the United States, people waited hours to receive food assistance from food banks and food pantries. Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionally affected by food insecurity, with nearly 40 percent of Black and Hispanic families suffering from food hardship during the pandemic and their families with children nearly twice as likely as White families to be struggling to afford food (Harvard University School of Public Health, 2020; Schanzenbach & Pitts, 2020). Food banks and pantries are locally based and directly involved in food storage, food distribution, and meals preparation. Given its role in providing emergency food assistance, how does communitybased food assistance respond to increasing demand during the pandemic? To what extent does community food assistance help Americans in meeting their food needs and reduce disparities in food security? We applied pooled cross-sectional analysis using the Household Pulse Survey Phase 1 (12 weeks, April 23, 2020, to July 21, 2020) and Phase 2 (five weeks, August 19, 2020, to October 26, 2020) collected by the U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Results showed that nearly 10 percent of Americans reported receiving free groceries or meals in the past seven days during this period. Whereas Black households are more likely than White households to receive food assistance from food banks and pantries (odds ratio [OR] 1⁄4 1.53, p < .001) (see Table 1), their risk of experiencing food insecurity is higher (OR 1⁄4 2.2, p < .001), indicating their unmet food needs even with community nutrition assistance support. A similar pattern is also found in Hispanic households, with the OR of food insecurity at 1.49 (p < .001) and that of food assistance by food banks and pantries at 1.14 (p < .05). Greater protection from community food assistance is provided for Black (OR 1⁄4 1.67, p < .001) and Hispanic (OR 1⁄4 1.23, p < .05) households