Exploring food poverty experiences in the German Twitter-Sphere.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the subjective perceptions of food poverty in Germany by analysing Twitter discourse using the German-language hashtag #IchBinArmutsbetroffen (#IamPovertyAffected) and examines the extent to which various dimensions of a multidimensional theoretical model of food poverty are represented in the discourse. METHODS: Employing a combination of computational social science and qualitative social research methods, the research identifies, and analyses tweets related to nutrition by applying a hierarchical dictionary search and qualitative content analysis. By examining the narratives and statements of individuals affected by food poverty, the study also investigates the interplay among different subdimensions of this phenomenon. RESULTS: The analysis of 1,112 tweets revealed that 57.96% focused on the material dimension and 42.04% on the social dimension of food poverty, suggesting a relatively balanced emphasis on material and social aspects of food poverty in the narratives of those affected. The findings reveal that tweets on material food poverty underscore economic challenges and resource scarcity for food. Social food poverty tweets demonstrate widespread deprivation in social participation, leading to isolation, exclusion, and social network loss. Overall, the results elucidate intricate interconnections among subdimensions and multidimensional manifestations of food poverty. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes methodologically by presenting an approach for extracting food-related textual social media data and empirically by providing novel insights into the perceptions and multifaceted manifestations of food poverty in Germany. The results can aid in a better understanding of the phenomenon of food poverty as it currently manifests in Germany, and in developing targeted social, health-promoting, and political measures that address more effectively the empirically evident multidimensionality of the phenomenon.

Food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England: A co-produced cross-sectional study.

AIM: This study aimed to explore food insecurity prevalence and experiences of adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England. METHODS: This mixed-methods cross-sectional study took place between March and October 2022. Participants were adults with self-reported severe mental illness living in Northern England. The survey included demographic, health, and financial questions. Food insecurity was measured using the US Department of Agriculture Adult Food Security measure. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression; and qualitative data using content analysis. RESULTS: In total, 135 participants completed the survey, with a mean age of 44.7 years (SD: 14.1, range: 18-75 years). Participants were predominantly male (53.3%), white (88%) and from Yorkshire (50.4%). The food insecurity prevalence was 50.4% (n = 68). There was statistical significance in food insecurity status by region (p = 0.001); impacts of severe mental illness on activities of daily living (p = 0.02); and the Covid pandemic on food access (p < 0.001). The North West had the highest prevalence of food insecurity (73.3%); followed by the Humber and North East regions (66.7%); and Yorkshire (33.8%). In multivariable binary logistic regression, severe mental illness' impact on daily living was the only predictive variable for food insecurity (odds ratio = 4.618, 95% confidence interval: 1.071-19.924, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of food insecurity in this study is higher than is reported in similar studies (41%). Mental health practitioners should routinely assess and monitor food insecurity in people living with severe mental illness. Further research should focus on food insecurity interventions in this population.

Living in food insecurity: A qualitative study exploring parents' food parenting practices and their perceptions of the impact of food insecurity on their children's eating.

Food insecurity in rich countries is a growing problem with far reaching consequences but how it impacts parents, particularly their food parenting practices, is under researched. Food parenting practices play a critical role in the development of children's eating and may be a mechanism in the link between food insecurity and children's health outcomes; this study aims to illuminate their potential role. Twenty-one parents participated in a qualitative interview study. Their household food security was very low (18/21) or low (3/21). Reflexive Thematic Analysis generated three themes. Challenges of food insecurity: parents shielded children from hunger by eating less themselves, relying on free school meals and turning to family and food banks when in crisis. They perceived a conflict between giving children food of high nutritional quality and its cost. Practical impact of food insecurity: although motivated to provide children with healthy food, finances meant parents struggled to achieve this goal. Parents used a range of food parenting practices but their use of some that are known to be effective may have been compromised by their food insecurity. Emotional impact of food insecurity: parents described feelings of failure, despair, helplessness and shame. Food insecurity adversely effects both children and parents, and non-stigmatising services that mitigate its impact and facilitate children's exposure to food parenting practices known to be effective are needed.

Exploring the world of food with families: perspectives of low-income families on factors influencing their food choices.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the social and environmental factors involved in the food decision-making processes of families living on lower incomes on the Island of Ireland. DESIGN: A qualitative design was employed for this study, using photovoice and creative mapping methods. Parents were requested to take photos and draw maps of their food environments. Interviews were then conducted with parents, using the materials produced by parents as a cue to discuss their food environments, influences and decision-making processes around food choices. SETTING: The participants were interviewed online via Microsoft Teams. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were parents or guardians of children between the ages of 2 and 18 who self-defined as 'living on a tight budget'. RESULTS: Twenty-eight participants were recruited and interviewed for this study, including twelve parents in Northern Ireland and sixteen in the Republic of Ireland. The findings were mapped on to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and showed that multiple, overlapping and intersecting factors at the individual, micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chrono-system were implicated in family food choices. Upstream factors in particular, including structural, policy and commercial determinants, appear to be significant drivers of behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: While the findings suggest that a complex range of factors are involved in family food choices, it is clear that policy measures and regulations are needed to stave off the impacts of rising social inequality and food poverty. Health promoters should strive to find non-stigmatising interventions to bridge the nutritional divide experienced by lower-income families.

Prevalence of food insecurity among caregivers of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.

Our objectives were to explore the prevalence of food insecurity in primary caregivers of young children in Ireland and to compare two tools for measuring food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among caregivers of children aged <2 years in Ireland in May/June 2020. Relevant survey questions were closed-ended using two established tools for measuring food poverty/insecurity; the Irish Food Poverty Indicator and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the prevalence of food poverty/insecurity. To explore agreement in the classification of food insecurity by the Food Poverty Indicator and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, Cohen's κ was used. Analyses are based on 716 participants; most had a 3rd-level education and were married or in a partnership. Per the food poverty index, Ireland's national measure of food poverty, 3.9% (n = 28) of our sample were experiencing food poverty. This rose to 10.5% (n = 75) experiencing food insecurity when using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, which also measures worry/anxiety around access to food. There was low agreement between the tools, with 11.3% of the sample classified as food secure by one tool and food insecure by the other. Our current measure of food poverty in Ireland may not be sufficient to describe the food-access struggles or worry/anxiety about food access, experienced by the population, particularly during an emergency like COVID-19.

Food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Food insecurity in adults living with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) is an underresearched area worldwide. AIM: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify and collate evidence on food insecurity in adults with SMI, in high- and upper-middle income countries. METHOD: A comprehensive electronic search was completed up to August 2022. Random effects meta-analysis was undertaken to determine the prevalence and the odds ratio for food insecurity in adults with SMI. Narrative synthesis explored the data further. RESULTS: Sixteen publications were included (13 in the meta-analysis). The prevalence estimate of food insecurity in adults with SMI was 41% (95% CI: 29% to 53%, I2 = 99.9%, n = 13). Adults with SMI were 3.31 (95% CI: 2.03 to 5.41) times more likely to experience food insecurity than comparators without SMI (z = 6.29, p < .001, I2 = 98.9%, n = 6). Food insecurity appears to be a risk factor for developing SMI. DISCUSSION: This review suggests adults with SMI living in high- or upper-middle income countries are more likely to experience food insecurity than the general population and that this relationship may be inverse. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Mental health practitioners should be aware of food insecurity and support individuals with SMI to access sufficient food.

Food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England: Peer research interview findings.

Food insecurity means that a person does not have access to sufficient nutritious food for normal growth and health. Food insecurity can lead to many health problems such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other long term health conditions. People living with a severe mental illness are more likely to experience food insecurity than people without mental illness. Peer-led in-depth interviews were conducted with adults with severe mental illness from Northern England, during which their experiences of food insecurity and strategies to tackle food insecurity were discussed. Interviews took place between March and December 2022, with interviews being transcribed and analysed using deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Thirteen interviews were conducted, finding that food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness was often a long-standing issue. Unemployment, the cost-of-living crisis and fuel poverty impacted on experiences of food insecurity. Difficulties accessing food banks such as transport, stigma, and the limited selection of available food was also discussed. Strategies to tackle food insecurity centred on making food banks more accessible and improving the quality of available food. Future research should aim to eradicate food insecurity for adults with severe mental illness, as limited research and action focuses on this population group over and above 'mental illness' or 'poor mental health'. Removing barriers to accessing food such as lack of transport, and providing food which is of adequate nutritional quality, should be prioritised, as well as tackling the stigma and accessibility issues surrounding food banks use.

Measurement of food poverty (shoku no hinkon) as capability deprivation in high-income countries: operationalisation with single mothers in Japan.

Existing food insecurity instruments are focused largely on the financial constraints associated with acquiring sufficient amounts of food. This narrow focus has resulted in underestimating the true prevalence of food poverty, particularly in high-income countries. Food poverty needs to be defined as capability deprivation, extending from the nutritional to the temporal, spatial, qualitative and affective aspects of eating. In this article, the Alkire-Foster counting approach is evaluated and an alternative method for measuring such multidi-mensional food poverty is proposed. The method is demonstrated by using evidence from interviews with 53 single mothers, the most high-risk social group in Japan. On the basis of an operational definition of food deprivation and poverty cut-offs, 16 mothers (30%) were identified as living in food poverty, followed by a qualitative analysis of their deprivation profiles. The results show that the economically-poor were highly likely to fall into food poverty, but that food poverty also occurred without economic deprivation, notably among the mental or physical illness carriers and long-hour workers. This multidimensional and decomposable measurement tool is effective for identifying food-poor populations not reflected in traditional food insecurity measurement instruments.

News media framing of food poverty and insecurity in high-income countries: a rapid review.

Food poverty and insecurity have become a public health emergency in many high-income countries. News media coverage can shape public and political views towards such issues. This rapid review synthesizes the evidence on how food poverty and insecurity are represented in the news media. Peer-reviewed publications were accessed through three electronic databases, with reference lists of all included studies screened. Primary research studies conducted in high-income countries and published in English since 1995 were included, with no restrictions on study methods. A combination of deductive coding to Entman's framing theory and inductive analysis was used. Ten studies, mostly rated as low quality, were included in the review. Newspapers were the only type of news media examined. The findings showed a largely absent nuanced understanding of food poverty and insecurity, with the problem often defined by food bank use and the consequences mainly focused on physical health. The causes were mostly attributed to structural factors, with the solutions largely focused on charitable food aid. The discourse of recipient (un)deservingness of food aid was evident. Articles often contained views from government officials and charities, with individuals' experiences of food poverty and insecurity largely absent. The findings of this review highlight that a major shift in print media discourse on food poverty and insecurity is required. More balanced and critical news reporting is required to present a more realistic picture of food poverty and insecurity, including its multi-dimensional nature, limitations of food charity and the need for structural solutions to this important issue.

The determinants of the nutritional quality of food provided to the homeless population: a mixed methods systematic review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Studies assessing the nutritional quality of food provided to the homeless population show deficiencies in micronutrients and excess fat, sugar, and salt. The availability of cheap, energy-dense and nutrient-poor food has changed the profile of people living with homelessness from primarily underweight to obese in western countries. Many factors influence the nutritional quality of food provided to the homeless population such as budget and time constraints, food donations and limited equipment. Nutrient intakes in this population are unlikely to be met outside of charitable meal programmes, making the nutritional quality of these meals crucial. This review will synthesise mixed methods literature with the overarching aim of understanding the determinants of the nutritional quality of food provided to the homeless population. METHODS: This mixed methods systematic review will include English language empirical research studies from Europe, North America and Oceania. The following electronic databases have been chosen for this review: SCOPUS, EMBASE, PsycINFO, EBSCOHost SocIndex and CINAHL. The grey literature databases OpenGrey and ProQuest will also be searched. Quality appraisal will be conducted using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool. Two independent reviewers will be included in study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal. A third reviewer will resolve conflicts. Thematic synthesis will be employed. DISCUSSION: Results will be organised based on a determinants of health model, to highlight areas where change may be effective, thereby making it more likely to be useful to practitioners and researchers. The iterative steps in the systematic review process will be the focus of this article. Findings from this review will be used to develop best-practice guidelines for stakeholders such as policy makers and service providers to improve the nutritional quality of food provided in the homeless sector. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: This mixed methods systematic review protocol has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO): CRD42021289063.

A Mixed Methods, Quasi-Experimental Evaluation Exploring the Impact of a Secondary School Universal Free School Meals Intervention Pilot.

Food insecurity amongst households with children is a growing concern globally. The impacts in children include poor mental health and reduced educational attainment. Providing universal free school meals is one potential way of addressing these impacts. This paper reports findings on the impact of a universal free school meals pilot in two English secondary schools. We adopted a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design. The intervention schools were one mainstream school (n = 414) and one school for students with special educational needs (n = 105). Two other schools were used as comparators (n = 619; n = 117). The data collection comprised a cross sectional student survey during the pilot (n = 404); qualitative interviews with students (n = 28), parents (n = 20) and school staff (n = 12); and student observations of lunchtimes (n = 57). Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis, and descriptive analyses and logistic regressions were conducted on the quantitative data. Self-reports of food insecurity were high at both intervention (26.6%) and comparator schools (25.8%). No effects of the intervention were seen in the quantitative findings on either hunger or food insecurity. Qualitative findings indicated that students, families and staff perceived positive impact on a range of outcomes including food insecurity, hunger, school performance, family stress and a reduction in stigma associated with means-tested free school meals. Our research provides promising evidence in support of universal free school meals in secondary schools as a strategy for addressing growing food insecurity. Future research should robustly test the impact of universal free school meals in a larger sample of secondary schools, using before and after measures as well as a comparator group.

Exploring food security as a multidimensional topic: twenty years of scientific publications and recent developments.

The scientific literature dealing with food security is vast and fragmented, making it difficult to understand the state of the art and potential development of scientific research on a central theme within sustainable development. The current article, starting from some milestone publications during the 1980s and 1990s about food poverty and good nutrition programmes, sets out the quantitative and qualitative aspects of a vast scientific production that could generate future food security research. It offers an overview of the topics that characterize the theoretical and empirical dimensions of food security, maps the state of the art, and highlights trends in publications' ascending and descending themes. To this end the paper applies quantitative/qualitative methods to analyse more than 20,000 scientific articles published in Scopus between 2000 and 2020. Evidence suggests the need to find more robust links between micro studies on food safety and nutrition poverty and macro changes in food security, such as the impact of climate change on agricultural production and global food crises. However, the potential inherent in the extensive and multidisciplinary research on food safety encounters limitations, particularly the difficulty of theoretically and empirically connecting the global and regional dimensions of change (crisis) with meso (policy) and micro (individual behaviour) dimensions.

Outside/inside: social determinants of mental health.

Individuals' mental health and wellbeing are dependent on many social factors including housing, employment, education and adequate nutrition among others. These factors can influence at personal, family and community levels. The interlinked and cumulative impact of these social determinants needs to be ascertained to aid appropriate patient management, as well as to establish prevention and health education programmes. Some of these determinants also have to be recognised at policy level. It is crucial for clinicians to understand the role social determinants play in the genesis and perpetuation of mental and physical illnesses, so that appropriate social interventions can be set in place. Clinicians have a role to play in their clinical practice, as well as advocates for their patients and policy leaders. In order to ensure that health is joined up with other sectors, such as education, employment, judiciary and housing, policy-makers must avoid silos. Every policy must have an impact assessment on physical health and mental health. Policy-makers need to understand scientific evidence and must work with researchers, clinicians, communities and patients to help develop and implement rights-based policies.

COVID-19 pandemic and food poverty conversations: Social network analysis of Twitter data.

This novel and mixed-method study investigated food poverty conversations at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown on the social media platform Twitter. NodeXL Pro software was used to collect tweets using the terms 'food' and 'poverty' in any order somewhere in a tweet sent on selected days between April 5 and May 23, 2020. The data obtained from NodeXL Pro were cleaned. Social network analysis tools were used to analyse and visualise our data. Using this method, sentiment-related words (positive or negative words), the top (the most mentioned) 10 hashtags, top words and top word pairs were identified. The patterns of word pairs communicated in our network were visualised based on each word pair's frequency. This also enabled us to carry out a content analysis to create coding of the word pairs' data. A total of 81 249 tweets were identified that contained the terms 'food' and 'poverty'. Our findings revealed that individuals' tweets overwhelmingly contained views about the increase in hunger, food poverty and food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twitter users perceived that when the pandemic measures began, many food-secure families were pushed into food insecurity due to a rapid rise in unemployment and rising poverty due to the quarantine and stay-at-home instructions in place at the time. They also addressed the sharp rise in food poverty being driven by panic buying, food shortages, food affordability and disruptions in food supply and food systems. Our analysis of this data suggests that to mitigate food poverty or to prevent a 'hunger pandemic' for future pandemic emergencies, comprehensive and longer term policy responses and economic supports are needed to strengthen the resilience of food systems. However, the highlighted limitations of this study must be considered.

Food Poverty, Vulnerability, and Food Consumption Inequality Among Smallholder Households in Ghana: A Gender-Based Perspective.

We examined gender-based household welfare differences in Ghana among smallholder households. We measured disparities in welfare outcomes (food poverty, vulnerability, and food consumption inequality) across male and female household heads and identified the set of covariates influencing them. The study utilizes a dataset from a farm household survey undertaken in Northern Ghana from October to December 2018. A multistage sampling approach was adopted in selecting 900 farm households. The Oaxaca-Blinder mean and Recentered Inference Function decomposition techniques highlighted the sources of gender differentials in household welfare outcomes. The findings indicate a significant gap in food consumption expenditure per capita and household dietary diversity scores between male- and female- headed households, and these gaps are as high as 28.2% and 18.1%, respectively. However, there are no statistically significant differences in vulnerability to food poverty between male- and female-headed households. The Lorenz curves confirm inequality in gendered households' food consumption expenditure and dietary diversity scores. This study highlights the existence of systemic female-headed household vulnerability to food poverty in Ghana. This study provides significant evidence of the need for policymakers to address food systems' structural deficiencies and inequalities with gender in mind.

The Economic Perspective of Food Poverty and (In)security: An Analytical Approach to Measuring and Estimation in Italy.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals have set clear targets on global poverty, hunger and malnutrition to be achieved by 2030, which have prompted academics and policymakers to identify useful strategies and drivers. Moreover, the COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities at national and sub-national levels thus hampering the achievement of these goals. On considering the multifaceted nature of poverty, a recent research strand focuses on food poverty and insecurity issues in terms of economic access to food and healthy diet consumption, with moderate and extreme food insecurity affecting almost 9% of the population in Europe and North America. This paper aims to analyse food poverty and insecurity at regional level in Italy. Using micro-data from the Italian Household Budget Survey carried out by ISTAT, an analytical approach was proposed to define and measure the different degree of food poverty and insecurity. Moreover, to obtain insights into whether food poverty and insecurity can afford population healthy nutrition, inequality of the distributions of food expenditure categories are estimated. The results provided us with information on other important aspects of the poverty. Indeed, in Italy individuals who are at-risk-of-food-poverty or food insecure amount to 22.3% of the entire population. Furthermore, the at-risk-of-food-poverty-rate varies at regional level from 14.6% (Umbria) to 29.6% (Abruzzo), with high levels of food consumption inequalities observed above all for vegetables, meat and fish. All these issues could help policy makers to define economic intervention policies aimed at reducing social exclusion and achieving more equitable and sustainable living conditions for the entire population.

A scoping review of the social dimensions in food insecurity and poverty assessments.

Food poverty is a phenomenon that is currently receiving increasing social attention in both the Global South and the Global North. It is often equated with food insecurity, for which numerous assessment tools and reports exist. However, only limited specific data can be found on food poverty. Starting from a theoretical concept of food poverty, this article examines in a scoping review which dimensions of food poverty are captured by indices and indicators of food insecurity and general poverty assessments. The review focuses particularly on the social dimension of food poverty and points out that it is under-reported and that no adequate assessment tools exist so far. Existing indices and indicators of food insecurity and general poverty assessments are critically reviewed and suggestions for the assessment of social food poverty for policy and practice derived.

Newspaper coverage of food insecurity in UK, 2016-2019: a multi-method analysis.

BACKGROUND: Food insecurity is a growing concern in the UK. Newspaper coverage can reflect and shape public and political views. We examined how frequently food insecurity was reported on in UK newspapers, how the problem and its drivers were described, and which solutions were proposed. METHODS: Using Factiva, we searched for news articles that were substantively about food insecurity and published in national UK newspapers between 01 January 2016 and 11 June 2019. We examined whether the number of articles differed over the study period, and conducted a thematic analysis to theoretical saturation using a random sample of articles. RESULTS: Overall, 436 articles met our inclusion criteria and 132 (30%) were analysed thematically. Reporting was more prevalent in the summer, with mentions of 'holiday hunger' among children, and leading up to Christmas, when charity was encouraged. Articles often contained views from advocacy groups and charities, who appeared to play an important role in maintaining news interest in food insecurity. From the thematic analysis, we developed themes related to the problems ('definitions of food insecurity' and 'consequences of food insecurity for individuals'), drivers ('insufficient income as an immediate driver' and 'government versus individual responsibility'), and solutions ('charitable food aid' and 'calls for government action'). The problem of food insecurity was often defined by food bank use or hunger, but other definitions and a range of consequences for individuals were acknowledged. Articles identified government as a driver of food insecurity, especially in relation to the roll-out of Universal Credit. Few articles proposed individual failings as a driver of food insecurity. The reported existing solutions predominantly focused on food banking and redistributing 'food waste'. The public, charities, and individuals experiencing food insecurity were generally portrayed as supportive of government action to tackle food insecurity. However, contention within government regarding the extent of food insecurity, governmental responsibility and potential solutions was reported. CONCLUSIONS: Food insecurity was a topic of significant interest within UK newspapers. Newspapers were used to call for government action and advocate for structural, income-based solutions.

Food Insecurity: A Constant Factor in the Lives of Low-Income Families in Scotland and England.

During the school summer holidays, pressures on the already tight budgets of low-income families are compounded, particularly when the safety net of free school meals is removed. The main aim of the current study was to investigate how low-income parents and carers feed their families during term time when children receive free school meals and if, and how, strategies differ during the school summer holidays. A secondary aim was to investigate the role of holiday activity and food programmes in supporting parents and carers to feed their children during the school summer holidays. We used purposive sampling to recruit a total of 21 parents (N = 20 Female, N = 1 Male) whose children attended free summer holiday clubs in Scotland and England during summer 2017. Participants were asked about their food and shopping habits during the school term and if, and how they differed during the school summer holidays when free school meals were not available. The findings suggest that food insecurity is a constant factor in the lives of low-income parents in England and Scotland, and that the stages of food insecurity and the strategies employed to mitigate its effects appear to be cyclical, aligning with the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) food insecurity continuum and the school academic year. During term time, parents and carers worried about food, suggesting they were experiencing mild food insecurity, despite their children being in receipt of free school meals. As the school holidays approached, moderate food insecurity was experienced as parents reported that they began "provisioning," storing food and reducing household expenditure. During the summer holidays, food did not last, and parental food acquisition habits became more intense. Parents downgraded food brands and bought reduced price items of food. Ultimately, parents self-sacrificed their own nutritional intake by only buying food their children would eat and parents often skipped meals or only ate their children's leftovers. However, children's attendance at holiday club helped make the food at home last longer and once school resumed, parents returned to their less intense, but constantly coping approach to food shopping. The findings of this study suggest that food insecurity is a constant factor in the lives of low-income families who simply do not have enough household income to prevent them from experiencing food insecurity, even when initiatives such as free school meals and access to holiday club provision with food and activities are in place.

Assessing Food Poverty, Vulnerability and Food Consumption Inequality in the Context of COVID-19: A Case of Bangladesh.

There is no denying the fact that, for a developing country like Bangladesh, the economic consequences of lockdown for containing COVID-19 pandemic can be far reaching affecting livelihoods of millions of households. Given that the share of food consumption expenditure to total expenditure is higher in the lower income groups of Bangladesh, this shock is expected to directly affect affordability of consumption of basic food items of these households. Using nationally representative household survey data of Bangladesh, and while following the Feasible Generalized Least Square method, this paper attempts to examine food poverty, food consumption inequality along with vulnerability to food poverty of households and explores the importance of different socio-demographic and environmental factors in this connection. Our estimation reflects that, greater percentage of households with young children or with elderly people are found to suffer high food vulnerability. In addition, households in environmentally endangered regions e.g. drought prone areas or river erosion affected places are more food vulnerable than those in other parts of the country. Certain occupation groups e.g. day labourer and self-employed are found to be highly vulnerable to food poverty while according to our decomposition analysis of food consumption inequality, area of residence (urban vs. rural) is expected to cause sizable inequality in food consumption. This study can therefore, help in identifying food vulnerable households for government's social protection programs and COVID-19 incentive packages, and thereby can contribute towards designing effective poverty reduction strategies.