Mutual aid food sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic: case study of Tompkins County, NY.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic led to greater food insecurity across the world, and government and charitable organisations did not always respond quickly enough or adequately to meet food needs. Mutual aid (MA) - neighbours helping neighbours to meet survival needs - mobilised residents to share food, often through outdoor food cabinets and refrigerators. This study aims to understand how MA food sharing was implemented, including food availability, acceptability, accessibility and impact on food access.

Design: This case study describes one MA food sharing system by triangulating data from flyers, notes from nineteen volunteer meetings, six cabinet host interviews, data extracted from 1387 social media posts and 356 photographs, and 111 resident surveys.

Setting: Tompkins County, NY, USA (total population about 100 000).

Results: We estimated high availability of food: approximately 250 000 food servings were shared monthly, mostly carbohydrates. Most residents obtaining food found it acceptable, including satisfaction with food safety and cleanliness, food quantity, and ease of travel to the cabinets but were less satisfied with food variety. MA food sharing was accessible to food-insecure, unemployed and disabled residents, but not other priority populations. About two-thirds of residents reported improved food access. Volunteers exhibited tenacity and ingenuity in meeting operational challenges which included trash and vandalism, winter weather and unusable food contributions while foregrounding residents' safety and privacy as shared values and navigating conflicting views about fairness.

Conclusions: In times of crisis, MA can improve food access through free food sharing cabinets, but barriers include unacceptable food contributions and outdoor conditions.