The Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Access: A Comprehensive Study of People’s In-store and Online Grocery Shopping

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity, especially for vulnerable population groups. Among other factors, food access plays an important role in affecting food insecurity. During COVID-19, the way people accessing food underwent tremendous changes. The dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how COVID-19 impacted food access. While food access has been widely studied in the literature, it remains unknown how the changes brought about by COVID-19 affected food access during the pandemic. To fill in the research gaps, in addition to the socio-demographic factors, this dissertation examines how food environment conditions, lifestyle and travel behavior, and food assistance program participation affected people’s grocery shopping during COVID-19. Considering COVID-19 prevention and control policies and residents’ psychological varied across regions and stages of the pandemic, people’s grocery shopping behaviors might differ. This research combines two unique datasets to examine the spatial and temporal variation of people’s food access during COVID-19. The first dataset contains grocery store visit data in six largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. The second dataset comes from two rounds of online survey conducted during COVID-19 in Maricopa County, Arizona. This dissertation comprises three studies. Study 1 focuses on in-store grocery shopping at the census block group level, analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 on in-store grocery shopping trips in terms of frequency and home-to-store distances. The study also examines whether and how such impacts vary across different MSAs. Based on the survey data, Studies 2 and 3 are conducted at the individual level. Study 2 focuses on people’s store choice for in-person grocery shopping. It analyzes how people’s store choices varied during different stages of COVID-19 when compared to before COVID-19. Study 3 examines simultaneous changes in people's in-store and online shopping usages during different stages of COVID-19, along with the influential factors. The findings from these studies provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on food access and offer valuable insights for governmental agencies and local organizations to formulate intervention strategies to enhance food system resilience for future shocks like COVID-19.