A systems thinking approach to the integration of food insecurity policy

Abstract

Food insecurity represents a growing problem in the United States, with levels of household insecurity hovering around 12.5% of national population. Policy leaders and advocates have long struggled to define adequate solutions, mired in concerns about food access and affordability, as well as overlays of equity and social justice, in part because of the numerous many ways we have measured the problem and defined and evaluated solutions. Most food security programs are designed as temporary assistance and few policy leaders or advocates are well‐placed to address leverage points for durable policy change, both because they are focused on short term solutions and because they are unable to collaborate to identify leverage points within the food policy system that would enable long term solutions. This paper offers a systems thinking assessment of a recent food policy symposium, illuminating the problem and causes as perceived by those practitioners involved in addressing household food insecurity, highlighting the lack of coherence among current stakeholders and an inability to collaboratively address the problem of food insecurity. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

Food safety knowledge and hygienic‐sanitary control: A needed company for public well‐being

“…Hence, lack of acceptable food safety knowledge together with poor handling represents a significant obstacle to the effective practice of food safety. Roggio () argued that food insecurity is a basic challenge to communities and all stakeholders must unite to solve the challenge of food insecurity. He concluded that identification of food stakeholder involvement and system thinking is not enough but these must be matched with proper matching of stakeholders' strengths with appropriate system model that results is adequate food security for the community (Roggio, ).…”

“…Roggio () argued that food insecurity is a basic challenge to communities and all stakeholders must unite to solve the challenge of food insecurity. He concluded that identification of food stakeholder involvement and system thinking is not enough but these must be matched with proper matching of stakeholders' strengths with appropriate system model that results is adequate food security for the community (Roggio, ). Similarly, Ilieva, Ahmed, and Yan () using college student community sample found that access to food impacts on emotional and academic development.…”

An analysis of the transformative potential of major food system report recommendations

“…Analyses have shown that governments often prioritise 'populist' policies that result in short-term economic and electoral benefit, over policies related to longer-term and truly transformative outcomes (Cullerton et al, 2016). As a result, 'temporal alleviation' type food policies, which are politically 'easier', make the real economic and political problems 'invisible' (Roggio 2019), and often target less effective leverage points are implemented. The findings of our analysis reflect this, as evidenced by the unbalanced ratio of recommendations which are directed towards 'inclusivity' (n = 106) compared to 'addressing power asymmetries' (n = 22) and 'connectivity' (n = 28), even in a time when radical, bold, coordinated global actions are required.…”

Identifying Needy Students for University-Industry Snapfeed Program

“…People are struggling to survive to have proper food on the table. In doing so, food security encompasses food with sufficient nutrition, affordability and, physical and economical to meet their needs and food preferences (Roggio, 2019). Thus, the people are easily affected by physical and mental health problems, difficulty in deciding on their life choices (Azdie, 2019), including university students (Martinez, Grandner, Nazmi, Canedo, & Ritchie, 2019).…”