A Retrospective, Exploratory Case Study of Food Insecurity During COVID-19 Pandemic Among Chinese Americans in New York City

Background

COVID-19 being referred to as the “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” were false accusations that were repeatedly made publicly and stoked public hysteria and racist attacks. This Asian-targeted discrimination and harassment led to an even more dire situation for already economically disadvantaged Asian American who were disproportionately affected strikingly high incident rate of food insecurity during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective

To provide exploratory and transcriptional interpretations of the food insecurity issue during the COVID-19 pandemic among Chinese-Americans in New York City.

Study Design, Settings, Participants

A retrospective instrumental case study of a community-based food pantry participants interviewing nine Chinese American adults (18+) who speak Mandarin or English, have received emergency food assistance during COVID-19 pandemic and resided in New York City.

Measurable Outcome/Analysis

Oral six-item food security questionnaire, followed by open-ended in-depths interview questions which covered demographic, acculturation and food security topics. Guided by the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) and previous studies, we first used the deductive approach to define four categories (corresponds to four levels) of codes: individual, social network(interpersonal), culture and food environment. And then, inductive approach was used when the codes emerged through direct interpretation of participant responses. Lastly, all the codes were condensed to four themes with categorical aggregation.

Results

The four themes are: Lack of ability to process and cope with trauma (Individual level); Negative effect of bonding and bridging social capitals (Social Level); Unbalance between acculturation and enculturation in dietary behavior (Cultural level); and Vulnerable and inequal food system (Environmental level).

Conclusions

The findings can be used to inform future studies and intervention design that food pantries and governmental institutions can implement to increase accessibility and availability of food assistance resources that are culturally appropriate for the Chinese community, and build a stronger emergency food system for unexpected crises like COVID-19 pandemic or natural disasters.

Funding

None