Food insecurity and dietary diversity among food aid recipients in urban and rural areas at the covid-19 outbreak: An exploratory study

The covid-19 pandemic has affected food aid. This paper reports an exploratory study to estimate the prevalence and degree of food insecurity, household dietary diversity score (HDDS), and the association with demographic, social, and economic characteristics of health status in a sample of food aid recipients in urban and rural areas of Catalonia, Spain. Cross-sectional data on food insecurity, dietary diversity, household income, health, and sociodemographic characteristics were obtained from the survey taken at seven different food aid distribution points from urban and rural locations. Sixty-six percent of the participants identified as new users since the covid-19 crisis. Only 12.5% of the sample lived in households where all adults were unemployed, and 44.8% were employed. Almost a third of the sample (32.3%) reported having someone in their household who suffered from a diet-related illness or disease. The prevalence of severe food insecurity was 52.1%, followed by 28.1% suffering moderate food insecurity. New food aid users due to covid-19 pandemic showed a significantly higher prevalence of food insecurity. No significant differences were found in terms of HDDS. This paper provides evidence that much of the gap in food insecurity is related to dietary diversity and children in households considering different urban or rural areas.