NERCRD researchers honored with two awards for research on nutrition and food security
Zheng Tian, Claudia Schmidt, and Stephan Goetz were honored with two distinct awards for their paper titled “The Role of Community Food Services in Reducing U.S. Food Insufficiency in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (JARE) in 2022. The paper was recognized by JARE with the 2023 Outstanding Journal Article Award, and also received the Penn State College of Agricultural Science’s 2023 High-Impact Research Publication in Nutritional and Food Security Award.
The paper shed light on the critical role that food pantries, soup kitchens, and other community food services played in helping Americans meet their food needs, especially during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers found that middle-class Americans benefited the most from these services, demonstrating a key role these programs can play in times of crisis. The researchers distilled their findings into a general-audience article published in The Conversation, which was seen by more than 13,000 readers, and also was republished by several national news organizations.
- Tian, Z., Schmidt, C., & Goetz, S. J. (2022). The Role of Community Food Services in Reducing U.S. Food Insufficiency in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. https://doi.org/10.22004/AG.ECON.313316