Struggle and Adaptation During COVID-19 Food System Disruptions

This time of collectively enduring and working to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) presents many challenges to people, communities, states, nations, and the world. Currently, we are urged to stay-at-home if possible, keep social distance and shelter in place to flatten the curve, protect people at high risk and most vulnerable to infection, and curtail the asymptomatic spread of the virus. Economically, people are facing and experiencing the disruption of schedules, careers, livelihoods, and protracted financial losses. Businesses, particularly in the food service and hospitality sectors, are experiencing declining sales, decreased revenue, and tremendous uncertainty. Food economics Professor William Masters of Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy states the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is “the largest loss of income and decline in gross domestic product caused by a single identifiable event” (Jiminez, 2020, p. 2).