Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Food Security And Assistance Programs In Vermont Before And During Covid-19, Madeleine Burke, Ashley C. Mccarthy, Emily H. Belarmino, Farryl Bertmann, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Here we surveyed a cohort of Vermonters at three time points over the first year of the pandemic. The surveys were conducted in March/ April 2020, June 2020, and March/April 2021. The demographics of the 441 Vermonters who responded to all three surveys are comparable to average Vermont demographics on income, but the respondents were more likely to have a college degree and to identify as female. This brief explores how the use of food assistance programs varied within this population and changed over the course of the pandemic. Key findings include: 1. The number of Vermonters using food assistance …

Food Security Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Following A Group Of Vermonters During The First Year, Ashley C. Mccarthy, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Belarmino, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

We surveyed a cohort of Vermonters three times during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the impacts of the pandemic on food security and food access. The surveys were conducted in March/April 2020, June 2020, and March/April 2021. A total of 441 Vermonters responded to all three surveys. This brief shares changes in their experiences between March 2020 and March 2021. Key findings include: 1. Food insecurity rates increased during the pandemic and remained above pre-pandemic levels a year after the start of the pandemic. 2. 31.6% of respondents experienced food insecurity at some point in the …

Food Insecurity Prevalence Across Diverse Sites During Covid-19: A Year Of Comprehensive Data, Meredith T. Niles, Francesco Acciai, Deanne Allegro, Alyssa Beavers, Emily H. Belarmino, Farryl Bertmann, Erin Biehl, Jessica Bishop-Royse, Brianna Bradley, Barrett P. Brenton, James Buszkiewicz, Brittney N. Cavaliere, Young Cho, Eric Clark, Lauren Clay, Kathryn Coakley, Jeanne Coffin-Schmitt, Sarah M. Collier, Casey Coombs, Marcelle Dougan, Anne Dressel, Adam Drewnowski, Tom Evans, Beth Feingold, Kathryn J. Fiorella, Katie Funderburk, Preety Gadhoke, Diana Gonzales-Pacheco, Amelia Greiner Safi, Sen Gu, Karla Hanson, Amy Harley, Kaitlyn Harper, Alan Ismach, Anna L. Josephson, Linnea Laestadius, Heidi Leblanc, Laura R. Lewis, Michelle Litton, Katie S. Martin, John Mazzeo, Scott Merrill, Roni Neff, Esther Nguyen, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Abigail Orbe, Jennifer J. Otten, Sondra Parmer, Salome Pemberton, Giselle Pignotti, Zain Al Abdeen Qusair, Victoria Rivkina, Joelle Robinson, Stephanie Rogus, Chelsea M. Rose, Saloumeh Sadeghzadeh, Mateja R. Savoie-Roskos, Rachel Schattman, Brinda Sivaramakrishnan, Mckenna Voorhees, Kate Yerxa, Rachel Zack

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Key Findings

1. NFACT includes 18 study sites in 15 states as well as a national poll, collectively representing a sample size of more than 26,000 people. Some sites have implemented multiple survey rounds, here we report results from 22 separate surveys conducted during the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
2. 18 out of 19 surveys in 14 sites with data for before and since the pandemic began found an increase in food insecurity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to before the pandemic.
3. In nearly all surveys (18/19) that measured food insecurity both before …

Covid-19 Impacts On Vermont Farms And Food Businesses: Pivots, Needs And Opportunities For The Future, Meredith T. Niles, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Belarmino, Mark Cannella, David S. Conner

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This report highlights results from a survey of Vermont farm and food businesses conducted during August and September 2020, with a total of 223 respondents. The survey was distributed via a number of non-profit, business, and state agencies in Vermont. Respondents included farms, food and farm product retail, agritourism operators, on-farm food processors, food and beverage manufacturers, nurseries/greenhouses/garden centers, and food hubs/aggregators. Overall, we find the majority of respondents experienced a COVID-19 business impact, especially in market and financial ways. We also find that the majority of respondents had business changes they wanted to make, but couldn't because of a …

Home Food Production And Food Security Since The Covid-19 Pandemic, Meredith T. Niles, Mattie Alpaugh, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Belarmino, Sam Bliss, Jennifer Laurent, Jonathan Malacarne, Ashley Mccarthy, Scott Merrill, Rachel E. Schattman, Kathryn Yerxa

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

We conducted a Northern New England survey to understand the initial and continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, food access, and home food production (HFP) (i.e. gardening, fishing, harvesting shellfish, foraging, hunting, trapping, raising animals for meat, dairy, or eggs, and food preservation such as canning, drying or freezing). The surveys were conducted in the Spring and Summer of 2021 (March – June). The survey was conducted in Maine (n = 562) and Vermont (n = 426). The cohort of respondents was representative of racial and ethnic identities of Vermont and Maine state populations. The data presented …

Climate Impacts Associated With Reduced Diet Diversity In Children Across Nineteen Countries, Meredith T. Niles, Benjamin F. Emery, Serge Wiltshire, Molly E. Brown, Brendan Fisher, Taylor H. Ricketts

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

It is widely anticipated that climate change will negatively affect both food security and diet diversity. Diet diversity is especially critical for children as it correlates with macro and micronutrient intake important for child development. Despite these anticipated links, little empirical evidence has demonstrated a relationship between diet diversity and climate change, especially across large datasets spanning multiple global regions and with more recent climate data. Here we use survey data from 19 countries and more than 107 000 children, coupled with 30 years of precipitation and temperature data, to explore the relationship of climate to child diet diversity while …