Food Assistance during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Natural Disasters and Conflicts

Dear Colleagues,

The triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies) increases the risk of preventable diet-related diseases and significantly impacts public health. The FAO and the UN report that “several major drivers have put the world off track to ending world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030” here. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and conflicts have exposed cracks in the food system and increased the likelihood of food insecurity and other nutrition challenges.

Food assistance is a well-accepted emergency response intervention with people often requiring ongoing support to ameliorate food insecurity. Delivered in many forms, models, and contexts, there is a need to understand the approaches that work best, the challenges to effective intervention, and their impact on nutrition and health. 

We invite papers that explore the following interconnecting themes:

• Food assistance in response to disaster (e.g., COVID-19, natural disaster, war, humanitarian crisis);
• Food assistance to address episodic or chronic food insecurity during COVID-19;
• Health or other interventions (including policies) to address malnutrition in all its forms;
• Nutrition guidance for disaster management or food assistance;
• Reflections on how to better address food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition (including in the healthcare setting);
• Measuring and monitoring food assistance outcomes (e.g., effectiveness, equity, and efficiency).

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue on “Food Assistance during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Natural Disasters, and Conflicts”, we invite you to submit a manuscript to Nutrients to improve our knowledge regarding issues, priorities, and interventions to address all forms of malnutrition related to food insecurity. Original research (qualitative and quantitative), systematic and meta-analyses, and narrative reviews are welcome.

Dr. Christina Pollard
Dr. Sue Booth
Prof. Dr. Flora Douglas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.