COMMUNITY FOOD RESILIENCE IN THE TIME OF COVID: AN EXAMPLE FROM AN APPALACHIAN COUNTY

ABSTRACT

This article explores how Community Based Organizations, in Watauga County, North Carolina, faced a food crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and quickly came together to fill unprecedented local need for food assistance. Existing bodies of literature on Appalachia and resilience provide useful frameworks for disecting how the community reacted to events as they occurred in the Spring of 2020. Interviews with community leaders document their experiences in the early stages of the pandemic. We conclude that an already frayed social safety net contributed to the crises; but local leaders were able to respond because of their strong community ties and years of local experience. These community leaders explain that the food crisis caused by Covid-19 revealed deep cracks that have long existed in the food system.

Keywords::

• Covid-19
• food
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was granted IRB approval by Appalachian State University on 2/16/2021 Study#21-0194. We anonymized the names and respective agencies of our participants to respect their privacy with the exception of Appalachian State University and the Second Harvest Food Bank because of their size.