Virginia's Response to COVID-19's Impact on Food Security

Click to interact with the map below that shows the total number of COVID-19 cases by health district. 'Total number of cases' are the number of cases reported in each health district from March 2020 through August 2020.

Health disparities and racial inequities that are prevalent among other diseases unfortunately exist in the COVID-19 environment as well. Case attack rates are disproportionately higher in the African American, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islander communities across the Commonwealth. For example, out of the total cases depicted in the map above, African Americans compose 23% of those cases and Latinx populations compose about 40% of cases statewide. The disparity is even more significant at the localized level; in Fairfax for example, 60% of all cases in that county are from Latinx communities and in Richmond City 34% of all cases in that county are from African American communities.  (2) 

Interact with the dashboard below to get a closer look at how population breakdown, cases, deaths, and hospitalizations by race compare among health districts.

Like health disparities, food insecurity affects many Virginians during the pandemic and beyond it. In 2018, about 9.4% of Virginia households were food insecure. That percentage rose to 22.5% of households in Virginia experiencing food insecurity during April and May 2020. This is due to the pandemic-related economic recession, rises in unemployment, and barriers faced by the emergency food distribution system.  (3) 

Families experiencing food insecurity often depend on school meals to abate hunger for their school-aged children. School Lunch and Breakfast programs help fill that need for low income students. As COVID-19 impacts millions across the country, driving unemployment and lost wages, more students than ever need access to free school meals. 

Engage with the maps below showing student participation in School Lunch and Breakfast Programs in Virginia during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Public schools in the Commonwealth closed for the remainder of the academic year in mid-March. School Nutrition Departments responded quickly to continue serving meals to students in-need outside of traditional cafeteria environments. See the numbers of meals served in Virginia schools March-May 2020 compared to the same time period from the 2018-19 academic year in the chart below  (4) .

As the country struggles to recover the economic impact of the pandemic community eligibility for free school meals offers a significant opportunity for schools to respond to the increased need among their students. With increasing SNAP participation, more schools can adopt community eligibility for the 2020-2021 school year. 

Use the sliding bar on the map below to see how CEP eligibility changed from 2018 (left) to 2020 (right). School divisions are categorized as:

Eligible | Nearly Eligible | Not Eligible | No Data Available

Community eligibility is a powerful tool for high-poverty schools to provide breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students. Community eligibility reduces administrative paperwork for schools so they can focus on providing healthy meals to help students learn and thrive; increases school meal participation by removing stigma; maximizes federal reimbursements; and makes it easier to implement innovative service models like Breakfast in the Classroom. Community eligibility is a win for everyone — administrators, students, families, and school nutrition staff.

Percent of Schools Participating per School Division:

0% - 5% | 5% - 25% | 25% - 50% | 50% - 85% | 85% - 100%

The economic crisis will make more school districts and schools eligible to implement community eligibility for the 2020-2021 school year. Because of this increase in eligibility, more schools can reexamine community eligibility for being a more financially viable option than before the COVID-19 crisis. With community eligibility, schools and school districts are better able to meet students’ nutritional needs.

Virginia's food security programs, also known as feeding programs, exist to supplement hunger needs of populations facing food insecurity. Since the pandemic began in March, the Commonwealth responded to meet the needs of a rising food insecure population due to virus-spread mitigation measures requiring people to stay at home. Unprecedented unemployment levels increased the demand for statewide feeding programs, demands that were successfully met by the collaboration and coordination of Virginia's agencies.

The map below shows changes in adult food insecurity from 2018 to 2020 at the county level. Darker colors indicate a high percentage of food insecurity and lighter colors show a low percentage of food insecurity

Use the sliding bar to compare food insecurity in 2018 (left) and 2020 (right)

According to federal regulations, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) receiving households are not permitted to receive more than their maximum monthly allotment. Virginia was granted permission to provide Emergency Allotments which allow the state to raise benefits more than the maximum amount for the households' size for up to two months, with USDA allowing further extension of benefits month by month through this pandemic. The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) issued emergency allotments in March, April, May, June, July, August, and September serving over 234,000 households with more than $40 million in benefits per issuance. These benefits are 100% federally funded  (5) .

Do you know someone who may be eligible for SNAP? Please refer to the Virginia Poverty Law Center's mobile and user-friendly, SNAP eligibility calculator to learn about estimated benefits linked below. Note: only for Virginia residents.

The Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) Program normally requires a recipient's physical presence to receive supplemental nutrition benefits. However, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) was granted a waiver to remove this requirement and provide remote benefit issuance so that WIC participants did not have to go to the office to sign up for or receive benefits. Additionally, VDH provided Food Package Substitutions to help reduce the number of times participants needed to visit a grocery store to keep getting the food they need for themselves and their children. 

In the coming months, Feeding America estimates a 5.2% increase in food insecure people or more than 450,000 more people through the remainder of the year.  (6)