Examining the Geospatial Characteristics of COVID-19 Pandemic Summer Meal Distribution Sites in North Carolina

ABSTRACT

School meals are an important social safety net. During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and community organizations were able to serve meals through federal summer meals programs (SMP) to reach kids in need who were not in school. It is important to understand how access to these programs may have been impacted across sociodemographic characteristics to prevent exacerbation of health disparities in future public health emergencies.To examine the geospatial characteristics of COVID-19 pandemic SMP distribution sites in North Carolina.Cross-sectional study of COVID-19 SMP distribution sites (n = 2,567) in North Carolina during the 2019-2020 school year.GIS was used to conduct a geospatial analysis. Pandemic SMP sites were mapped and spatially joined to US Census sociodemographic data and USDA Food Desert Atlas data, including designated census tracts. SMP site service areas were created for rural (10-mile) and urban sites (3-mile), and sociodemographic data aggregated within these areas to understand reach. Summary sociodemographic and food environment characteristics of meal sites were generated, and bivariate analysis used to assess group differences.There was a school meal site in 71% (267/368) of Food Desert Census Tracts. Census Tracts with meal sites had significantly higher levels of percent poverty (18.8% vs 13.2%) (P < 0.001), percent minority population (34.7% vs 25.7%) (P < 0.001), and a higher number of housing units without vehicle count beyond 1 mile from supermarket (56.3% vs 36.0%) (P < 0.001) compared to Census Tracts without SMP sites.In North Carolina, meal sites were generally well placed to serve those in the most need. Future work should try to understand factors determining SMP location. The use of geospatial analysis of sociodemographic characteristics and use of spatial location-allocation modeling to inform meal distribution sites should be further explored to prevent future exacerbation of health disparities.