pandemic, 2.4 percent of respondents ….
pandemic, 2.4 percent of respondents answered “all of the time” or “most of the time” in response to the question “How often did you feel nervous?” That number jumped to 21.5 percent for the time after COVID-19 struck Montana.
“Navigating a variety of information in the media was stressful to Montanans because it was unclear what was accurate,” Justin Shanks said. “The public needs to be equipped with tangible strategies to access, analyze and share media in the contemporary digital era that’s defined by an ever-increasing pace of access and quantity of information from multiple sources.”
But the news isn’t all bad, Byker Shanks said. A majority of respondents, 54 percent, also reported positive health behavior changes since the start of the pandemic, such as more exercise and greater connection with family and friends. At the community level, the survey highlighted a greater sharing of resources and more flexible federal food assistance for those in need.
Last August, with early results of the Montana survey in mind, Byker Shanks published an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Watershed Moment to Strengthen Food Security Across the U.S. Food System.” In it, Byker Shanks and her three co-authors from institutions in Arizona and Nebraska said the pandemic provides “an opportunity to develop policy, systems and environmental strategies to enhance food security, reduce inefficiencies and decrease inequities, now and into the future.”
Also prompted in part by the survey, Byker Shanks and her colleagues published a position paper in Translational Behavioral Medicine titled “Scaling Up Measurement to Confront Food Insecurity in the USA” that outlines strategies to bolster measurement of food security.
In their report on the Montana survey findings, Byker Shanks and her MSU co-investigators make similar recommendations for state and local policymakers. Those recommendations include leveraging policy and programmatic support to promote food security; reorienting food systems to ensure adequate food for all; formalizing strategies for resource sharing and the use of federal aid; making mental health resources more readily available; communicating to Montanans through a variety of methods; and creating support systems to encourage positive habits.
“This moment in time highlights a food insecurity crisis that’s existed for decades,” Byker Shanks said. “We have a responsibility to solve an inexcusable problem in a society where enough food and resources are available, but we don’t distribute them equally to everyone.”
To learn more about the survey, visit montana.edu/ c a i rhe/pro j e c t s / bykershanks/ COVID-19-food-security. html.
