COVID Connections: Lessons from Adaptations to COVID?19 as Strategies for Building Food System Resilience

To identify elements of crisis response that might hold lessons for resilience beyond the current moment, we studied a central North Carolina food system during COVID-19 pandemic. Based on ethnographic interviews with farmers, employees and volunteers access organizations, local government employees, our work found connection, networking, innovation, technology adoption were sources strength growth. Lessons: actors their social connections helped them to exchange information resources, meet increased needs among SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants Latina/os immigrants, combine efforts adopt technologies learn from new labor pools. Challenges: while navigating COVID-19, faced challenges spanning labor, safety, information, policies, supply shortages, weather, unreliable information. In addition challenges, offer series future research directions identified in study findings. Our shows small-scale production organization responses are important dynamic parts resilient system. Regional systems’ able pivot more quickly than large-scale systems presented flexible, locally suitable model will likely prove adaptive