Marie Spiker

Just realized I'm part of this Food Security and Nutrition starter pack from @foodequity.bsky.social. Lots of great people and groups on here! 🙌

go.bsky.app/9mZrrpQ

A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles BY VIOLET AFFLECK I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room. She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised…

Violet Affleck makes a powerful argument that society has a lot to learn from people with Long Covid & ME/CFS about the importance of pacing as a means to prevent “crashes,” both for individuals & societies faced with climate crises. #IllnessPolitics
yaleglobalhealthreview.com/2025/05/18/a...

What is your favorite example of something related to public health and/or nutrition and food systems where, as a field, we realized we had it wrong and we moved towards better evidence?

Send me your favorite examples... I want to show students that changing our minds is a good thing!

@laurenbjenks.bsky.social Your talk yesterday was so insightful, refreshing, inspiring, and just what I needed to hear in these challenging times! The challenge of how to fight misinformation while not giving in to confirmation bias is real. Thank you for giving us tools to navigate this!!

"Prices are so high that people are really needing to spend a lot to feed their families." - @mariespiker.bsky.social, UWEpi/DEOHS assistant professor and co-PI of WAFOOD surveys, shared with @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social. Read more: bit.ly/WAFOODS

Grateful to see our WA Food Security Survey data covered by the Seattle Times!

Reporter Jessica Fu says it well: "Households that earn close to or even above-median income might find themselves in a bind: grappling with the price of groceries while ineligible for many forms of public assistance."

Thank you! Donations are great, and volunteering. And community care! Helping neighbors, especially people with mobility issues. And, making sure that people don't perpetuate false and harmful stereotypes about food assistance and other safety nets, which are so essential, especially now!

Screenshot from the press release linked here: https://agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/news-and-media-relations/news-releases?article=42074

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While some food assistance resources are shrinking, the need for them certainly hasn’t.

The situation is sobering, but our state's commitment to addressing hunger gives me some hope.

This part of the press release says it all:

“We all have to eat, and we’re in this together.”

Figure 18d from WAFOOD Brief 16. WAFOOD5 food assistance use in the past month among households with and without children. Example data point: 50% of households with children and 57% of households without children used food banks/pantries in the past month. 43% of households with children used school meals in the past month.

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We collected granular data on the types of food assistance programs people are using, and we see that households with and without children turn to different programs suited for their needs.

Safety nets are not one-size-fits all, and we need a variety of programs for different life stages.

Figure 13 from WAFOOD Brief 16. WAFOOD5 respondents' coping strategies for price increases over the past month, overall and by food security status and urbanicity. Example data point: 53% of overall households reported restricting the quantity and quality of their food intake in the past month to deal with high prices. This was 70% among food insecure respondents and 28% among food secure respondents.

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In our survey, while almost everyone was feeling price increases in their area, food insecure households were more likely to feel stressed about these price increases, and more likely to cope with high costs by restricting the quantity and quality of their food.

Figure 25 from WAFOOD Brief 16. Food items reported as difficult-to-afford in the past 30 days by WAFOOD5 households, by household food security status. Sample data point: 83% of food insecure households and 27% of food secure households reported red meat as hard to afford in the past month.

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Fresh produce and animal proteins topped the list of hard-to-afford foods, highlighting the health impacts of food insecurity.

Food insecurity is linked to physical AND mental health. Among food insecure respondents, 84% reported high stress, and over half reported anxiety or depression.

Figure 23 from WAFOOD Brief 16. Monthly per person household food expenditures reported by WAFOOD5 households, overall and by income level and household food security status. Example data point: Overall, households spend on average $263/month on groceries and $79 on food away from home.

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Something we see in our data is that food is expensive right now!!!

Groceries were listed as the #1 hard-to-afford expense, and on average WA families in our survey reported spending $263 per person per month on groceries. That’s over $1,000/month for a family of four.

Screenshot of the title of the research brief: "Food security and food assistance in the wake of COVID-19: A 5th survey (2024) of Washington State Households. Research Brief 16. Fielded Aug-Oct 2024"

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Read the WAFOOD5 press release here:

🔗 agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/n...

Download our new research brief here—our 16th research brief since 2020, sharing results from a 5th survey of WA residents (n=5,528), fielded in autumn 2024:

🔗 foodsystems.uw.edu/resource/bri...

Here in Washington State we’ve been tracking household food insecurity since 2020 through the WAFOOD surveys.

It feels strange to post research findings with all that is happening, but these data are essential for helping us to protect important safety nets.

Highlights and links to follow.

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Send to Internet Archive - Chrome Web Store Saves the current web page as it appears now to the Internet Archive for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Did you know? Anyone can submit a webpage to the Wayback Machine AKA Internet Archive. There's even a Chrome extension that makes it an easy, one-click process. See something that might get contested or taken down? Submit it.

chromewebstore.google.com/detail/send-...

I'm realizing that the link doesn't work for some reason, sorry about that! I think you'll need to access this by going to @waiterich.bsky.social's profile and tabbing over to his Starter Packs

Click on that link, and then scroll through the list of excellent food systems experts that Richard has compiled, and Follow people to your heart's content!

Food / Land / Nature / Climate Starter Pack Join the conversation

I was contemplating creating a Sustainable Food Systems starter pack, and then realized that, of course, @waiterich.bsky.social has already made an excellent one!!!

🔗 go.bsky.app/D1fzHcq

Sky Follower Bridge - Chrome Web Store Instantly find and follow the same users from your Twitter follows on Bluesky.

For others getting established here, Sky Follower Bridge lets you easily find and follow your old Twitter contacts!

🔗 download the Sky Follower Bridge extension: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sky-f...

🔗 if it's buggy, the developer's troubleshooting guide is great: github.com/kawamataryo/...