Food recovery and produce distribution as a system strategy for increasing access to healthy food among populations experiencing food insecurity: lessons for post-pandemic planning

Using data from an intercept survey of 428 adults who received free surplus produce at five distribution sites and qualitative data from 15 interviews with site personnel, we examined facilitators (e.g. community partnerships, coalition support) and challenges (e.g. limited refrigerated storage, lack of transportation infrastructure) to operating a food recovery and distribution program in Los Angeles County. Overall, this food system intervention appeared to fill an unmet need for recipients, nearly 80% of whom were food insecure and 60% visited a site several months/year or monthly. For many living in this county's underserved communities, this effort was instrumental in increasing access to healthy food before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To sustain/expand this program's reach, local governments and food assistance programs should provide greater coordination and oversight, and invest more resources into this food recovery and distribution infrastructure.

Do food distribution and competitor density affect agonistic behaviour within and between clans in a high fission-fusion species?

According to the ecological model of female social relationships (EMFSR), within-group competition and between-group competition in female-bonded species are shaped by food distribution. Strong between-group contests are expected over large, monopolizable resources and high population density, but not when low-quality food is distributed across large, undefended home ranges. Within-group contests are expected to be more frequent with increasing heterogeneity among feeding sites and with group size. We tested these predictions in female Asian elephants, which show traits associated with infrequent contests-graminivory, high fission-fusion and overlapping home ranges. We examined how food distribution and competitor density affected agonistic interactions within and between female elephant clans (social groupings) in the Kabini grassland, southern India. We found stronger between-clan contest in the grassland than that known from neighbouring forests, and more frequent agonism between females between clans than within clans. Such strong between-clan contest was attributable to the grassland being a food-rich habitat patch, thus supporting the EMFSR. Within-clan agonism was also frequent, but did not increase with food heterogeneity, contradicting the EMFSR. Contrary to recent claims, increasing within-clan agonism with group size suggested ecological constraints on large groups despite high fission-fusion. High population density may explain such frequent contests despite graminivory and fission-fusion.

Infant and child mortality in the Netherlands 1935-47 and changes related to the Dutch famine of 1944-45: A population-based analysis

Precise estimates of the impact of famine on infant and child mortality are rare due to lack of representative data. Using vital statistics reports on the Netherlands for 1935-47, we examine the impact of the Dutch famine (November 1944 to May 1945) on age-specific mortality risk and cause of death in four age groups (stillbirths, <1 year, 1-4, 5-14) in the three largest famine-affected cities and the remainder of the country. Mortality during the famine is compared with the pre-war period January 1935 to April 1940, the war period May 1940 to October 1944, and the post-war period June 1945 to December 1947. The famine's impact was most visible in infants because of the combined effects of a high absolute death rate and a threefold increase in proportional mortality, mostly from gastrointestinal conditions. These factors make infant mortality the most sensitive indicator of famine severity in this setting and a candidate marker for comparative use in future studies.

Tailored Informational Interventions for Reducing Surplus and Waste of Fruits and Vegetables in a Food Market: A Pilot Study

This pilot study explored the effectiveness of tailored informational interventions to reduce the surplus and waste of fruits and vegetables at the distribution level in Chile. Stalls from a fresh food market were randomized to intervention (n = 5 selling fruits, n = 5 selling vegetables) or control (n = 4 selling fruits, n = 4 selling vegetables) groups. The causes of surplus and waste were estimated by questionnaires. Surplus, avoidable waste, and unavoidable waste were measured using direct quantification before and after the intervention, and were expressed relative to the initial stock. Before the intervention, the surplus was (median [25th-75th percentile]) 46.2% [33.3-51.2] for fruits and 51.5% [41.3-55.0] for vegetables; avoidable waste was 0.1% [0.0-0.8] for fruits and 1.8% [0.7-5.3] for vegetables; and unavoidable waste was 0.0% [0.0-1.0] for fruits and 0.0% [0.0-1.3] for vegetables. Planning and storage represented the main causes explaining surplus and waste. After the intervention, the intervention group decreased the surplus of fruits compared to the control group (-17.8% [-29.0--11.0] vs. 5.8% [-0.6-7.8], respectively; p = 0.016), without other differences. In conclusion, tailored informational interventions based on the causes of surplus and waste may reduce the surplus of fruits in a fresh food market. Interventions might also include management strategies for the surplus to improve grocers' business operations.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Distribution at Emergency Food Assistance Organizations in the Southwestern United States: A Qualitative Investigation

This study aimed to identify changes in food distribution operations at emergency food assistance organizations (EFAOs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. EFAOs across the Houston metro area, TX (human service centers and food pantries) as well as the Houston Food Bank (HFB) participated in the qualitative study. Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews and focus group (December 2020–February 2021), and coded using semi-structured thematic analysis. Categories were pre-identified based on the interview questions. Direct quotes supported subcategories. Directors from 18 EFAOs were interviewed; 8 HFB leadership staff participated in a focus group. Four major categories of change due to COVID-19 included new safety measures, changes in food distribution process, changes in volunteerism and staffing, and changes in amounts of food distributed. This study helps identify susceptibilities in EFAOs’ food distribution chain should be addressed to manage future emergency food insecurity crises more effectively. An understanding of the changes/challenges incurred by EFAOs during the COVID-19 pandemic can inform policymakers to ensure local food distribution organizations are prepared to fill the needs during future a crisis of food insecurity.

Comparative Analysis of Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emission of Diesel and Electric Trucks for Food Distribution in Gowanus District of New York City

New York City’s food distribution system is among the largest in the United States. Food is transported by trucks from twelve major distribution centers to the city’s point-of-sale locations. Trucks consume large amounts of energy and contribute to large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, there is interest to increase the efficiency of New York City’s food distribution system. The Gowanus district in New York City is undergoing rezoning from an industrial zone to a mix residential and industrial zone. It serves as a living lab to test new initiatives, policies, and new infrastructure for electric vehicles. We analyze the impact of electrification of food-distribution trucks on greenhouse gas emissions and electricity demand in this paper. However, such analysis faces the challenges of accessing available and granular data, modeling of demands and deliveries that incorporate logistics and inventory management of different types of food retail stores, delivery route selection, and delivery schedule to optimize food distribution. We propose a framework to estimate truck routes for food delivery at a district level. We model the schedule of food delivery from a distribution center to retail stores as a vehicle routing problem using an optimization solver. Our case study shows that diesel trucks consume 300% more energy than electric trucks and generate 40% more greenhouse gases than diesel trucks for food distribution in the Gowanus district.

Measuring Caenorhabditis elegans Spatial Foraging and Food Intake Using Bioluminescent Bacteria

For most animals, feeding includes two behaviors: foraging to find a food patch and food intake once a patch is found. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a useful model for studying the genetics of both behaviors. However, most methods of measuring feeding in worms quantify either foraging behavior or food intake, but not both. Imaging the depletion of fluorescently labeled bacteria provides information on both the distribution and amount of consumption, but even after patch exhaustion a prominent background signal remains, which complicates quantification. Here, we used a bioluminescent Escherichia coli strain to quantify C. elegans feeding. With light emission tightly coupled to active metabolism, only living bacteria are capable of bioluminescence, so the signal is lost upon ingestion. We quantified the loss of bioluminescence using N2 reference worms and eat-2 mutants, and found a nearly 100-fold increase in signal-to-background ratio and lower background compared to loss of fluorescence. We also quantified feeding using aggregating npr-1 mutant worms. We found that groups of npr-1 mutants first clear bacteria from within the cluster before foraging collectively for more food; similarly, during large population swarming, only worms at the migrating front are in contact with bacteria. These results demonstrate the usefulness of bioluminescent bacteria for quantifying feeding and generating insights into the spatial pattern of food consumption.

Where and what? Frugivory is associated with more efficient foraging in three semi-free ranging primate species

Foraging in seasonal environments can be cognitively challenging. Comparative studies have associated brain size with a frugivorous diet. We investigated how fruit distribution (where) and preference (what) affect foraging decisions in three semi-free ranging primate species with different degrees of frugivory: Macaca tonkeana (N indiv = 5; N trials = 430), M. fascicularis (N indiv = 3; N trials = 168) and Sapajus apella (N indiv = 6; N trials = 288). We used 36 boxes fixed on trees and filled with highly and less preferred fruits with different (weekly) spatio-temporal distributions. Individuals were tested in two conditions: (1) same fruit provided concurrently in the same quantity but in a scattered and in a clumped distribution, (2) highly preferred fruit was scattered while the less preferred was clumped. Generally, primates preferred feeding first on the boxes of the clumped distribution in both conditions, with the more frugivorous species at a higher degree than the less frugivorous species in condition (1), but not (2). Therefore, what fruit was available changed the foraging decisions of the more frugivorous species who also engaged more in goal-directed travel. When feeding on preferred fruit, primates probably maximized foraging efficiency regardless of their degree of frugivory. Our findings emphasize that the food type and distribution may be a preponderant driver in cognitive evolution.

Perceptions of What Is Important for Appetite-An Interview Study With Older People Having Food Distribution

The proportion of older people in the population increases and more and more continue living in their own homes. Appetite among the elderly people is important to their nutrition and health. The increased risk of unintended weight loss and malnutrition is linked to food distribution among home-living elderly people. The aim was to describe experiences and perceptions of what matters to appetite among home-living elderly people having food distribution. The design was qualitative where interview data were collected among 13 interviewees in 2017 to 2018. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results are presented in three domains: the food, the meal situation, and the adaptation to meal service with categories and themes responding to each domain. The six themes related to appetite among the elderly people concerned the following: eating tasty, savory, and culturally adapted food; eating healthy and sustainable food; eating alone or together with others; eating in a pleasant meal environment; having choices to make about the meal; and last, accepting disabilities and increased dependency. One conclusion is that many aspects should be taken into consideration when promoting appetites of people who also get food distribution. It is highly individual and an understanding of which aspects are relevant must be considered; consequently, person-centered care is suggested to promote appetite.

Concurrent effects of age class and food distribution on immigration success and population dynamics in a small mammal

During the settlement stage of dispersal, the outcome of conflicts between residents and immigrants should depend on the social organization of resident populations as well as on individual traits of immigrants, such as their age class, body mass and/or behaviour. We have previously shown that spatial distribution of food influences the social organization of female bank voles (Myodes glareolus). Here, we aimed to determine the relative impact of food distribution and immigrant age class on the success and demographic consequences of female bank vole immigration. We manipulated the spatial distribution of food within populations having either clumped or dispersed food. After a pre-experimental period, we released either adult immigrants or juvenile immigrants, for which we scored sociability and aggressiveness prior to introduction. We found that immigrant females survived less well and moved more between populations than resident females, which suggest settlement costs. However, settled juvenile immigrants had a higher probability to reproduce than field-born juveniles. Food distribution had little effects on the settlement success of immigrant females. Survival and settlement probabilities of immigrants were influenced by adult female density in opposite ways for adult and juvenile immigrants, suggesting a strong adult-adult competition. Moreover, females of higher body mass at release had a lower probability to survive, and the breeding probability of settled immigrants increased with their aggressiveness and decreased with their sociability. Prior to the introduction of immigrants, resident females were more aggregated in the clumped food treatment than in the dispersed food treatment, but immigration reversed this relationship. In addition, differences in growth trajectories were seen during the breeding season, with populations reaching higher densities when adult immigrants were introduced in a plot with dispersed food, or when juvenile immigrants were introduced in a plot with clumped food. These results indicate the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on immigration success and demographic consequences of dispersal and are of relevance to conservation actions, such as reinforcement of small populations.

Risk-taking behaviour may explain high predation mortality of GH-transgenic common carp Cyprinus carpio

The competitive ability and habitat selection of juvenile all-fish GH-transgenic common carp Cyprinus carpio and their size-matched non-transgenic conspecifics, in the absence and presence of predation risk, under different food distributions, were compared. Unequal-competitor ideal-free-distribution analysis showed that a larger proportion of transgenic C. carpio fed within the system, although they were not overrepresented at a higher-quantity food source. Moreover, the analysis showed that transgenic C. carpio maintained a faster growth rate, and were more willing to risk exposure to a predator when foraging, thereby supporting the hypothesis that predation selects against maximal growth rates by removing individuals that display increased foraging effort. Without compensatory behaviours that could mitigate the effects of predation risk, the escaped or released transgenic C. carpio with high-gain and high-risk performance would grow well but probably suffer high predation mortality in nature.

Participation, political economy and protection: food aid governance in Darfur, Sudan

Humanitarian food assistance aims to meet short-term emergency needs, yet often it is sustained over many years and develops its own systems and infrastructure that interact with local governance and local communities. This paper explores the links between participation and local governance, as well as the implications for exclusion of certain groups, the dignity of those involved, and protection issues. The paper proposes a framework for reviewing the governance functions and capacities of local Food Relief Committees, based on the following criteria: accountability; gender equity; legitimacy and authority; representativeness; responsiveness; and transparency. A case study of the Darfur region reviews how local governance evolves as a result of both the wider conflict and of adapting to the international humanitarian system, itself a form of governance. The paper concludes by proposing three strategies for enhancing participation and applying lessons learned: improved analysis of participation; linking programming strategies and protection; and taking account of governance functions and capacities.