Emergency food supplies and food security in Wuhan and Nanjing, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a field survey

Taiyang Zhong; Jonathan Crush; Zhenzhong Si; Steffanie Scott

doi:10.1111/dpr.12575

Emergency food supplies and food security in Wuhan and Nanjing, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a field survey

Dev Policy Rev. 2022 May;40(3):e12575. doi: 10.1111/dpr.12575. Epub 2021 Oct 15.

Authors

Taiyang Zhong¹, Jonathan Crush², Zhenzhong Si³, Steffanie Scott⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Geography and Ocean Science Nanjing University China.
² Balsillie School of International Affairs, Canada, and University of the Western Cape South Africa.
³ Balsillie School of International Affairs Canada.
⁴ Department of Geography and Environmental Management University of Waterloo Canada.

Abstract

Motivation: Detailed empirical work on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security is scant. Local management of food security has received little attention.

Purpose: This article describes emergency food policies in Wuhan and Nanjing, China during lockdown in 2020 and their implications for household food security in the two cities.

Methods and approach: Policy documents and background data describe the emergency measures. Online surveys of residents of two Chinese cities were used to gauge household food security.

Findings: Despite the determined efforts of provincial and city governments to ensure that food reached people who were locked down in Wuhan, or subject to restrictions on movement in Nanjing, households experienced some decline in food security. Most households found they could not access their preferred foods. But a minority of households did not get enough to eat.Government had contingency plans for the pandemic that ensured that most people had sufficient, if not preferred, food. But not all households were fully covered.

Policy implications: A more resilient system of food distribution is needed, including a relatively closed and independent home delivery system. Grassroots organizations such as residential community committees, property management organizations, and spontaneous volunteer groups need to be brought into the management of emergency food provision.

Keywords: COVID‐19; food access; food insecurity.