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Exploring the implications of COVID-19 on widening health inequalities and the emergence of nutrition insecurity through the lens of organisations involved with the emergency food response
  1. Elaine Macaninch1,2,3,
  2. Kathy Martyn1,2,4 and
  3. Marjorie Lima do Vale1,5
  1. 1 NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, Cambridge, UK
  2. 2 ERimNN (Education and Research in medical Nutrition Network), Brighton, UK
  3. 3 Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
  4. 4 School of Health Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK
  5. 5 Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Mrs Elaine Macaninch, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK; elaine.macaninch{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Background This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 during the first month of containment measures on organisations involved in the emergency food response in one region of the UK and the emerging nutrition insecurity. This is more than eradicating hunger but considers availability of support and health services and the availability of appropriate foods to meet individual requirements. In particular, this paper considers those in rural communities, from lower socioeconomic groups or underlying health conditions.

Methods Semistructured professional conversations informed the development of a questionnaire which gathered insights from five organisations involved with the emergency food response in the South East, England, UK. Descriptive themes were derived though inductive analysis and are further discussed in relation to UK government food support measures and early published data.

Results Four themes emerged from conversations, including: (1) increasing demand, (2) meeting the needs of specific groups, (3) awareness of food supply and value of supporting local and (4) concerns over sustainability. All organisations mentioned changes in practice and increased demand for emergency food solutions. Positive, rapid and innovative changes helped organisations to adapt to containment restrictions and to meet the needs of vulnerable people. Although concern was raised with regards to meeting the specific needs of those with underlying health conditions and the sustainability of current efforts.

Conclusion Considerable gaps in food provision were identified, as well as concerns regarding increased long-term food and nutrition insecurity. The paper makes recommendations to improve nutrition security for the future and considers the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. The generalisability of these early insights is unknown but these real-time snapshops can help to direct further research and evaluation.

  • malnutrition
  • metabolic syndrome
  • nutrient deficiencies
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000120

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @macaninch

    • Collaborators NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, Shane McAuliffe RD and Professor Sumantra Ray, The Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Emily O’Brien, Fran Taylor, The Sussex Community Development Association, Hannah Sherman, Pat Buesnel, The Macmillan Horizon Centre, Mhairi Donald. The Rural Community Network, Chalvington.

    • Contributors EM and KM conducted the interviews. EM devised the questionnaire and restructured the paper. All authors agreed on the themes, and contributed to the research and writing.

    • Funding Publishing fees were supported by NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. Data are available upon reasonable request. Qualitative written responses from participants are available on request. There were no further data gathered.