The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Access to Culturally Sensitive Food in Seattle

Abstract

Disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic created a relatively sudden and compressed onset of economic downturn, high unemployment rates, stay-at-home orders, closure/limited hours for food retail, with a substantial impact on food insecurity. While researchers have explored food access during the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing culturally sensitive food options was often not considered in their studies. This research aims to focus on this aspect using Seattle as a case study while considering food business operation status (closed or open). The study examines culturally sensitive food access changes with food business operation status (closed or open) and business ethnic associations. Building on research conducted from the beginning of pandemic lockdown in Seattle (Proksch et al. 2021) on business operational status, access is analyzed through three sets of binomial regression models representing three periods (early beginning, business reopening, and post restrictions) in the COVID-19 pandemic (May/ June of 2020, November/ December of 2020, and June/ July of 2022 respectively). The results suggested that during the COVID-19 pandemic, culturally sensitive food access was less likely to reduce compared to mainstream food access.