Accessibility of Food During the Pandemic

Since the rise of the novel coronavirus, there have been extreme consequences for nutrition and food security all around the world. COVID 19 has affected the access of food to people in multiple ways. It has not just affected the health crisis but has also brought a major decrease in the economic conditions in the world. People have undoubtedly faced a lot of problems and issues and one of the major problems has also been food. The accessibility of food during the pandemic and the lockdown period has been a tough task for all the people out there. During the lockdown, all the market places were closed, and there were restricted timing when people were allowed to go and get food for their families. Even though home delivery facilities were available, it was only in the urban areas. People in the villages did go through a lot in that particular period. Only the people who had their own farms could adjust to whatever was grown on their own fields. The people who were stuck in hostels and elsewhere during the lockdown also faced problems arranging food and groceries for themselves. In hostels, there were no cooks and people did not have access to restaurants, and neither did they have the option to make their own food.

People in containment zones were not allowed to go out of their houses and groceries were provided to them at their places, However, the quality of food provided to them and also the variety was not diverse. They had to keep whatever they got in groceries as they did not any options. There was a literal scarcity of food in these places as in a family of 9 members, only a certain amount of groceries was available and they had to adjust to that. The vegetables were sometimes rotten and not fresh and yet people had to keep them.

Image 1: Limiting the dines basing on the availability of ingredients and also due to work from home

A lot of market places and shops started going digital. They accepted orders for home delivery and also took online payments which made it easy for people to get groceries but then there was very restricted stock in supermarkets and shops. Zomato and Swiggy played a very important role during the situation as they also started taking orders for groceries and vegetables. The entire idea of digitality not just helped young people but also senior citizens who stay alone and could not go out during the pandemic.

A very important aspect that I personally noticed was the way the families who were tested positive with COVID 19 treated. People in the neighborhood treated them as untouchables and created a lot of issues for them as well. One of my mother’s staff was tested positive along with a few of her family members and people around her house did not allow them to get groceries from anywhere. When a shop nearby tried helping them, people in the society stopped taking groceries from him. These are things that have happened a lot during the pandemic. Sometimes the shopkeepers themselves deny selling them anything. The point of mentioning this particular aspect is to show how people in the society were also a hindrance to accessibility in some cases.

Image 2: lesser availability of food ingredients in containment zones

The whole idea of accessibility of food during the pandemic has brought about a massive realization as to how important food is and how difficult it can get if we do not get the things that we want on a regular basis.