The COVID-19 pandemic affected how much Americans purchase groceries. More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is value in understanding how the ways Americans access food has changed over time. In a recent article in PLoS ONE (2022), we analyzed food procurement activities at three different points in the pandemic: September 2020, December 2020, and March 2021. We show how these activities differed across the pandemic and discuss how these trends differed across consumer segments (eg, age, geographic region). Today, using results from the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey, we extend these findings by adding a fourth time period (May 2022) as a follow-up.
These four survey waves all came at unique times during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, vaccine availability varied, which affected food procurement (e.g., daily farmdoc 2021). Figure 1 shows the timing of each survey wave with the proportion of the US population with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (CDC, 2022). In September 2020, the incidence was relatively low, concerns and unknowns about COVID-19 were high, and vaccines were not available. In December 2020, the United States experienced its first major surge in cases and some of the population (eg, health care workers and long-term care residents) were successfully vaccinated. In March 2021, cases were falling and vaccines were more widely available. Finally, in May 2022, vaccines and boosters were available to most Americans.
In each of the four waves, we investigated eight food procurement activities:
Participants were asked if they had completed each of the activities within the last two weeks. They could answer ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘I don’t remember’. In each survey period we recruited approximately 1,000 US consumers to participate in the survey and submit responses to match the US population in terms of gender, age, income, and geographic region. We did not recruit the same individuals to participate in each wave of the survey.
Here, using the four waves of the survey we show how food procurement activities changed across the pandemic.
Food Acquisition Activities Across the Pandemic (2020-2022)
In Table 1, we present the proportion of US consumers who reported participating in each of the food procurement activities for each of the four waves. Read also : The Food Guy: Italian Food Corridor’s Comeback – NBC Chicago.
Throughout the pandemic, shopping for groceries in person and ordering food out of restaurants have been the most common food procurement activities. Low contact activities such as shopping for groceries online and ordering from a meal kit service peaked in December, but usage rates remain higher in May 2022 compared to September 2020. In our latest survey, it took 40.9% of consumers participate in online grocery shopping, up 9.4 percentage points from September 2020; furthermore, 15.4% of consumers used a food package service, up 6.2 percentage points from September 2020. One explanation for this may be that consumers who tried new ways of acquiring food, to initially reduce their risk of COVID-19 , found other benefits as well (e.g., convenience) and continued use.
Restaurants were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Dube, Nhamo, & Chikodzi, 2021; Song, Yeon, Lee, 2021). Our results from May 2022 show that indoor dining in restaurants has rebounded. Most recently, we see that 60% of US consumers indicated that they had eaten at an indoor restaurant in the past two weeks, compared to just 31.8% in September 2020 – an increase of 28.2 percentage points. Similarly, US spending on food away from home, which declined significantly during much of the pandemic, is now above pre-pandemic spending levels (USDA ERS, 2022). Outdoor restaurant dining has been more consistent throughout the pandemic and is likely influenced by differences in weather across the country as well as case rates.
Similar to many other food procurement activities, our results show that the proportion of consumers who visited a food bank was highest during December 2020, at 21.7%. As the pandemic progresses, the proportion of consumers visiting a food bank has fallen to 15.5% in May 2022, although this is still almost double the proportion reported (8.2%) in September 2020 .
The rate of visiting the farmers’ market varied across the four waves. We found that 16.5% engaged in this activity in September 2020, 23.0% in December 2020, 14.8% in March 2021, and most recently, 25.5% in May 2022. Some of this variation is likely due to weather and seasonality (eg, winter holiday markets, product availability).
Concluding Remarks
We are more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and consumer food procurement behaviors continue to evolve. In-person grocery shopping remains a primary acquisition activity, yet a significant portion of consumers continue to use online grocery shopping as well, at rates well above pre-pandemic levels. Eating behavior in restaurants appears to be returning to some level of ‘normal’, as an increasing proportion of consumers feel comfortable eating indoors again. This is in addition to continued use of dining options from restaurants. Other procurement activities such as using a food package service and visiting a food bank are operating below their peak levels in December 2020, yet we saw a greater proportion of consumers taking part in these activities compared to the early stages of the pandemic (September 2020) , before the first major surge in cases. The Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey will continue to monitor food procurement behaviors as we move through the ebb and flow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL. 2022. “Trends in the Number of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the US”. https://covid. Read also : Analysis: Banning food exports, from India to Argentina, threatens inflation.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends.
Dube, K., G. Nhamo, and D. Chikodzi. 2021. “The global restaurant and hospitality industry is gripped by COVID-19.” Current Affairs in Tourism, 24(11): 1487-1490.
Ellison, B., M. Ocepek, and M. Kalaitzandonakes. 2022. “U.S. household food procurement behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.” PLoS ONE, 17(7): e0271522.
Ellison, B., M. Ocepek, M. Kalaitzandonakes, L. Lee and N. Schilling. “How Will the Covid-19 Vaccine Change Food Procurement Behaviors?” daily farmdoc (11):123, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 20, 2021.
Kalaitzandonakes, M.A., B. Ellison and J. Coppess. “Introducing the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey.” daily farmdoc (12):81, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 2, 2022.
Song H.J., J. Yeon, and S. Lee. 2021. “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the US restaurant industry.” International Journal of Hospitality Management. 92:102702.
USDA ERS. 2022. “2021 US food away from home spending 10 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.” https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=58364#:~:text=Food%2Dat%2Dhome%20spending%20increased,i%20% 241.17% 20 trillion% 20 in% 202021.
