History Commons^™

Finding Comfort And Discomfort Through Foodways Practices During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Public Folklore Project, Lucy M. Long, Jerry L. Reed, John Broadwell, Quinlan D. Odum, Hannah M. Santino, Minglei Zhang

Non-Thesis Student Work

This article describes an international oral history project run by the nonprofit Center for Food and Culture on how individuals found both comfort and discomfort through foodways during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project expanded the concept of comfort food to include the range of activities included within foodways and also explored the variety of meanings attached to the concept, emphasizing that both “food” and “comfort” are culturally and socially constructed. The project resulted in an archive of documentation from over 65 interviews, a virtual symposium, and an on-line exhibit. The exhibit and resources on comfort food, folkloristic approaches to foodways, …