Abstract
Food insecurity increases with human and natural disasters. Two tools were developed to assist effective food relief in Western Australia: the Food Stress Index (similar to rental stress, predicts the likelihood of household food insecurity by geographic location) and a basic and nutritious Food Basket Recommendation (that quantifies the types and amounts of food to meet dietary recommendations for different family types). This study aims to understand and compare the processes and impact of using these tools for organisations and their clients involved in emergency food assistance and/or disaster preparedness. A multiple case-study design analysed organisation’s use of the tools to assist the response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the catastrophic bushfires in Australia. Qualitative interviews were conducted by telephone and Zoom (a cloud-based video conferencing service) in July–August 2020. A purposeful sample of eight interviewees representing seven cases (government, food relief and community organisations involved in emergency food assistance and/or disaster preparedness). Three themes emerged from the analysis, (1) organisations are confident users of the tools; (2) Collaborations were “Ready to Go” and (3) Food Stress Index is a “game changer”. Findings demonstrate the intrinsic value of the tools in the provision of emergency food relief under both normal circumstances and in times of increased need, i.e., COVID-19 pandemic. The study highlights the value and importance of ongoing intersectoral collaborations for food relief and food security (e.g., the Western Australian Food Relief Framework) and suggests that upscaling of the Food Stress Index and food baskets will increase the effectiveness of measures to address food insecurity in Australia.
Highlights
Households most at risk of food stress are vulnerable to food insecurity because of inadequate income and factors related to financial hardship [3]
The case studies focus on the use of the Food Stress Index (FSI) that highlighted geographic areas at greatest risk of food stress and nutritious food basket recommendations developed to meet the nutrition requirements of different family group scenarios
Consistent with this, our study found that users of the FSI and recommended food baskets were able to see the wider applicability of the tool across different scenarios (Stage 4 Visionary), overlaid with additional data such as housing status to predict areas of need and address poverty more broadly
Summary
The population prevalence of food insecurity, when a household cannot access safe, nutritious, appropriate and affordable food to meet the families’ needs in socially acceptable ways, is not regularly or consistently measured in Australia [1]. Services supporting food-insecure families are interested in any information that can assist them in targeting and tailoring their assistance. A similar concept to housing stress, occurs when a household needs to spend more than 25% of their disposable income on food [2]. Households most at risk of food stress are vulnerable to food insecurity because of inadequate income and factors related to financial hardship [3].
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