Food insecurity surged with COVID-19, harming Israel's children most

• Published date: 25 September 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The survey, led by SPI Director Prof. Michal Grinstein-Weiss, was based on an online questionnaire taken between August 18 and 22 and shared with The Jerusalem Post this month. It defined families as suffering from food insecurity based on the accepted index of the US Department of Agriculture.

The survey showed that at the height of the coronavirus, the phenomenon of food insecurity was more acute – reaching about a quarter of Israeli families, including about a third of single-parent ones. With the opening of the economy in recent months, that percentage has declined, but still remains high.

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Food insecurity has declined with each successive coronavirus wave, however. The Washington University team did four previous surveys on food security during previous waves, as well as when COVID was on the decline and the country started to open up. In the first wave (June 2020), some 23% of respondents said they experienced food insecurity, 22% in the second wave (September 2020), 18% in the third wave (January 2021) and 13% in June.

In general, families with children were hit hardest during this Delta wave – 17% of families with children said they were experiencing food insecurity. In addition, Arab-Israeli families have suffered most throughout the crisis, with 43% of them saying they experienced food insecurity in wave one, 41% in wave two, 37% in wave three, 32% in June and 36% in this current wave.

The WU team found an expected but strong link between food insecurity and behavior in children, Weiss told the Post. This included outbursts of anger, expressions of violence and more.

Specifically, 68% of food-insecure parents said their children suffered from rage and outbursts compared to 57% of parents who had food security, while 48% of food-insecure parents said their children had experienced bouts of violence, compared to 31% of food-secure children.

Also, 62% of food-insecure kids were found to exercise excessive use of electronic devices (compared to 50%), to suffer from eating disorders (48% versus 19%), and from sleeping disorders (64% versus 40%).

Children from food-insecure families were found to have physical health challenges (11% versus 3% of food-secure children), mental health challenges (15% versus 6%) and socialization issues (20% versus 13%).

A SURVEY by Prof. Aron Troen of the Hebrew University Faculty of...