Leveraging Social, Environmental, and Policy Priorities to Address Food Security and Diet Quality Outcomes (Oral Session 13)

(OR13-05-25) Local Food Policy Council Coverage Reduces Household Food Insufficiency During COVID-19 In Low-Income and Minority Households

Monday, June 2, 2025

10:48 AM – 11:00 AM ET

Location: S220 E-G

Presenting Author(s)

LC

Larissa Calancie, PhD

Assistant Professor
Tufts University
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.

Co-Author(s)

Yongyi Pan, MS, MPH (she/her/hers)

PhD student in Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science
Tufts University
Brighton, Massachusetts, United States
KB

Karen Bassarab

Johns Hopkins University, United States
KC

Kristen Cooksey Stowers, PhD

University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut, United States
AP

Anne Palmer, MAIA

Senior Research Associate
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
ME

Misha Eliasziw, PhD

Tufts University School of Medicine
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Objectives: To determine whether households living in states with higher local food policy council (FPC) coverage were less likely to experience food insufficiency during COVID-19 compared to households in states with lower local FPC coverage.

Methods: We estimated the prevalence of household food insufficiency in states with high and low local FPC coverage, adjusting for age and gender of the survey respondent, and percent of the state’s population living in a rural area (N=1,909,647). Longitudinal food insufficiency was measured via the US Census Household Pulse Survey (May 2020 – May 2023).

Results: Lower income households in states with low local FPC coverage were more likely to experience food insufficiency than households in states with high FPC coverage (food insufficiency prevalence ratio: 1.05, 95% CI 1.04 – 1.07, p< 0.001). Lower FPC coverage was associated with significantly more food insufficiency among lower-income non-Hispanic Black and white households.

Conclusions: Presence of FPCs may have been a protective factor against food insufficiency for low-income Black and white households during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local FPCs may have potential for promoting resilience and racial equity within food systems.

Funding Sources: Kansas Health Foundation and the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN), which is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 5U48DP00498-05, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) and Prevention Research Centers Program.