TRACKING

Pandemic research by Maxwell faculty

BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

Uncertainties about daily meals are a fact of life for Gerald, a divorced, retired Black man in his late 60s. With $19,000 in annual household income and the minimum $16 a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Gerald and his stepson sometimes run out of food, or must choose between buying groceries or other necessities.

Once a month, the senior center gives him a food box, but he is unable to carry it up the steps to their second-floor apartment, and it often contains processed food that is not good for his health; he is on the kidney transplant list. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has gone more often to food pantries—at least when he can get a ride—but supplies have diminished.

“At the senior center, they used to have an abundance of food,” Gerald says. “But being so many people was in the pandemic, we would get the food from the food bank and it was hurting. Oh, my God, it was hurting. During COVID they did not have enough food at the food bank.”

Gerald’s story is one of 60 gathered by Maxwell sociologist Madonna Harrington Meyer and sociology graduate students for a book she is writing with Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs, about food insecurity among lower income seniors. Harrington Meyer and Heflin are researchers in the Center for Policy Research, the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and the Aging Studies Institute (ASI).

“By conducting in-depth interviews, we are able to connect individual, everyday experiences with nationally representative data sets,” says Harrington Meyer, who is a University Professor and a Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence. “What we see is that the challenges millions face securing enough food for their families are not so much caused by, but exacerbated by, the pandemic.”

While Harrington Meyer investigates policies from the individual perspective, Heflin examines how policies work using big data, studying, for instance, access to SNAP and WIC (a nutrition program for women, infants and children) during the pandemic.

“With the pandemic, I really feel like I’m being called for service in a new way,” says Heflin. “With the high level of food hardship we’re seeing, SNAP and WIC have become more important than ever, and I’m pleased to be able to document and improve the coverage of how these programs are being implemented throughout the country.”

Harrington Meyer and Heflin’s research, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, is one of many current projects by Maxwell faculty that track the toll of COVID. Scholars across the School are analyzing data, conducting surveys, and examining policy initiatives, often in collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines, to better understand the true impact of the pandemic—and to inform more effective policy.