Employment and Food During Coronavirus

Key Findings 1. 45% of respondents with jobs experienced some type of job disruption or loss. 19.7% had a reduction in hours or income, 9.3% had been furloughed, and 15.5% had lost their job since the coronavirus outbreak. 2. 38.5% of respondents experiencing job loss or disruption since the outbreak were classified as food insecure. 3. Respondents experiencing job disruption or loss were significantly more likely to be already implementing food purchasing or eating changes and concerned about food access compared to those who did not experience a change in employment. 4. Respondents with job disruption or loss were significantly more likely to need higher amounts of money per week to help meet their basic needs if they could no longer afford food ($100 with a reduction in hours/income,$107 furloughed, $158 with job loss, compared to$82 with no job impact)

Food Access and Security During Coronavirus: A Vermont Study

Key Findings 1. Respondents reported a 33% increase in food insecurity since the coronavirus outbreak began in Vermont (from 18% to 24%). 2. 45% of respondents with jobs experienced a job disruption or loss. 3. Respondents said the most helpful actions for meeting their food needs would be increased trust in the safety of going to stores and more food in stores. 4. Respondents worried most about food becoming unaffordable and running out of food if they were unable to go out. 5. Vermonters are using a variety of strategies to adapt: a majority of respondents are at least somewhat likely to buy foods that don\u27t go bad quickly (90%); buy different, cheaper foods (69%); and stretch the food they have by eating less (52%)

The Impact of Coronavirus on Vermonters Experiencing Food Insecurity

Key Findings 1. Respondents experiencing food insecurity were more likely to be people of color, female, live in households with children, and live in larger households. 2. 84.2% of respondents who experienced food insecurity at some point in the year before the coronavirus pandemic remained food insecure during the early days of the outbreak. 3. The majority of respondents experiencing food insecurity are not utilizing food assistance programs. 4. ⅔ of respondents experiencing food insecurity are already buying different, cheaper foods or eating less to make their food last. 5. ⅔ of respondents experiencing food insecurity with a job had job disruption or loss since the coronavirus outbreak. 6. Vermonters are helping each other – there was a reported doubling in the percentage of people receiving their food via delivery from other people

COVID-19 Impacts on Food Security and Systems: A Third Survey of Vermonters

This brief report highlights the findings from a third survey of Vermonters since COVID-19. We surveyed 600 Vermonters, representative on Vermont demographics on race, ethnicity and income in August and September 2020. We find that nearly 30% of Vermont respondent households were food insecure between March and September, with households experiencing a job disruption, households with children, and respondents without a college degree at greater odds for food insecurity. One-third of respondents used some type of food assistance program since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns about food access and challenges had largely gone down, on average since March 2020; however, concerns about the cost of food and losing access to food assistance programs have gone up since March 2020. We also identify impacts on diet quality, with 25% of respondents overall, and 50% of respondents in households with food insecurity, indicating they ate fewer fruits and vegetables since COVID-19. We also document a large number of respondents (42%) engaging in home food procurement (fishing, foraging, hunting, gardening) since COVID-19, with many doing this for the first time or more intensely this year. These results highlight the depth of COVID-19\u27s impact on food security and systems over time in Vermont

Alter Egos / Alternative Rhetorics: Belle Knox's Rhetorical Construction of Pornography and Feminism

In early 2014, Miriam Weeks, more famously known as “the Duke Porn Star” was exposed for acting in pornography to pay her exorbitant Duke tuition bills. Throughout the media saga that followed her outing, Weeks defended her decision to act in pornography, arguing that it was a feminist affirmation of her sexual agency. However, Weeks’s defense of her pornography career is not monolithic, but rather, takes two distinct forms. The first form is characterized by structural or intersectional rhetoric, focused on the contextual factors that implicate the meaning of both pornography and feminism. Contrasting this rhetorical pattern is another that emerged in Weeks’s defense of pornography, characterized by neoliberalism. This rhetoric focused on the affirmation of individualism. Weeks’s neoliberal rhetoric constructed pornography as an openly-accessible option to solve economic shortcomings, regardless of the individual’s social location. Not only is pornography constructed neoliberally, feminism is also constructed neoliberally. Weeks’s neoliberal construction of feminism reduced feminism to an ideology premised solely on the affirmation of individual choices made by women, regardless of what those choices are. Thus, it ignored the role class plays in gender-based oppression. Although these two rhetorical patterns appear mutually exclusive, they co-exist within Weeks’s defense of her pornography career, articulating two distinct versions of both pornography and feminism

Expanding the Profile of Short Term Vacation Rental (STVR) Hosts in Savannah, GA

Expanding the Profile of Short Term Vacation Rental (STVR) Hosts in Savannah, GA Abstract This research explores the complex identities of STVR hosts through their roles as entrepreneurs and residents in the communities that they host and live. Additionally, this research studies how hosts’ fluid identity uniquely positions them as potential sustainable entrepreneurs in their community. A total of 26 in-depth interviews were conducted with hosts or STVR managers that were once hosts. As entrepreneurs, extrinsic motivations are often initial drivers for hosting but intrinsic benefits become integral to the enjoyment of hosting and an important motivator for continued participation. As residents, hosts were mixed in their sense of community but many voiced concerns over STVR impacts on their community. Lastly, many hosts already exhibit elements of sustainable entrepreneurship through listing specific efforts to reduce waste i.e. advertising compost bins to guests or promoting minority-owned businesses to guests

The Fruits of Labor: Home Food Procurement Impacts Food Security, Diet Quality and Mental Health During COVID-19

COVID-19 has highlighted the uncertainty and fragility of food security and food access globally. In the United States, unemployment rates reached unprecedented levels at their height in April 2020 (Congressional Research Service, 2020), causing concerns among many Americans about how to access affordable and high-quality food (Callen, 2020). In a rural state such as Vermont, these concerns are especially pressing, as rural areas are estimated to have 50% higher rates of food insecurity than urban areas (Piontak et al., 2014). The stress of this unprecedented period has also had an effect on the mental well-being of many Americans. In a survey from the United States Census Bureau from May 2020, early in the pandemic, respondents reported feeling anxious 30% of the time, and more than 18% reported feeling depressed (Callen, 2020). Opportunities to both improve mental health and food security are thus vital during this pandemic period. Existing evidence suggests that home food procurement (i.e. backyard livestock, fishing, foraging, gardening, hunting, and canning, and backyard livestock production, hereafter referred to as HFP) may offer opportunities to improve diet quality, food security, and mental health via multiple mechanisms. This project explored whether interest and engagement in these activities has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and if such strategies are providing these health and mental health outcomes

Education from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century

Senf, Caro