Local Community Support for Tangible Food Aid During COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a long-haul disaster that has brought forth extreme hardship, in particular food insecurity. Local citizens across the United States created online groups to facilitate mutual aid, a form of community-based disaster relief. In this paper, we are interested in how online mutual aid groups addressed food insecurity through facilitating various community-based initiatives. We interviewed mutual aid group organizers in the United States and found that online groups contributed immediate food relief as well as laid the groundwork for long-term food security. These findings have implications for community resilience in the wake of an ongoing disaster.