Ending Hunger: How COVID-19 Revealed a Path to Food Access for All

Abstract

This article explores how a devastating hunger crisis, which seemed destined to accompany the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, was thwarted by historic federal emergency food policy interventions. We outline the vital public policy innovations in food access launched during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the nonprofit emergency food network programs designed to implement and accompany these policies. In particular, we focus on innovations that addressed hunger for two vulnerable groups, children and the elderly, and we describe how these innovations increased food access. Finally, we advocate for the continuation of COVID-19 anti-hunger pandemic policies in the “next normal” because they reveal a path to end hunger that preserves people’s dignity and provides healthy and affordable food access for all.