How COVID-19 Changed Provisioning Habits in the North Carolina Triangle: The Move Towards Technology in How We Get Our Food (2023)

Undergraduate: Tori DeWald

Faculty Advisor: Caela O'Connell
Department: Anthropology

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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on global society. Across the globe and in an unprecedented way, consumers had to navigate COVID-19 guidelines, store and restaurant closures, and inflation to acquire food for themselves and their dependents (Severson 2020). The height of the pandemic, during 2020 and 2021 and a series of societal lockdowns, resulted in an increase in the use of technology to acquire food, particularly in the forms of curbside pickup, grocery delivery services, meal kits, and order-ahead programs. Now, in the post-lockdown era of the pandemic, beginning in late 2021, these technology services are still being utilized at higher rates than before. This thesis sought to determine if the COVID-19 pandemic changed food provisioning strategies for consumers in the Central Piedmont region of North Carolina and if so, how. For the context of this thesis, provisioners can be understood as consumers, or someone who supplies food to themselves and/or others, specifically from the Triangle region of North Carolina. Providers are those who work in the production, processing, manufacturing, or distribution of food to provisioners in the Triangle region of North Carolina. Based on provisioner survey data from 54 participants, 4 provider interviews, and 4 months of field notes, this thesis argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has created lasting cultural change in provisioning practices that will go beyond the end of the pandemic and increase food system resilience in preparation for future disasters.

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