Since the beginning of 2020, the entire world has been facing a global health crisis due to a severe pandemic disease, COVID-19. In addition to unprecedented healthcare effects, it has caused cascading consequences at social and economic levels. While food insecurity has been increasingly considered as an issue affecting also high-income and urban areas, the pandemic has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and disrupted the third sector activities based on voluntary work from elderly people: this situation has required a timely reconfiguration of existing food aid systems. In this context, cities must be pivotal; on this purpose, along this dissertation, it is provided an overview of the risks faced and the resilient efforts pursued, during this emergency, to mitigate food security problems and food aid systems disruptions at an urban level in a developed country. Particularly, the empirical assessment is provided by the city of Milan suggesting an innovative approach for offering food assistance during COVID-19 lockdown. To explore solutions enhancing resilience, it has been studied the adaptive change of Milan urban surplus food redistribution system, Smart City Food Sharing. Indeed, prompt interventions are based on previously developed knowledge and capabilities. For this reason, facilitator factors have been identified confirming expertise and awareness previously developed. Together with enablers, also hurdles affecting the configuration of the emergency food aid system have been singled out. Along this dissertation, the main areas of research covered are the following: food aid for food security, especially in emergency situations, and disaster management. Subsequently, evidence from literature has been validated through the discussion of the case study, benefitting mainly from semi-structured interviews to on-field experts who operated in order to provide food aid to vulnerable people in the city of Milan. Through the discussion and formalization of adopted solutions, some considerations have been formulated coupled with the elaboration of a guideline, that can be useful to implement food aid systems for other urban contexts in similar future events.
Con l’inizio dell’anno 2020, si è manifestata una crisi sanitaria globale dovuta ad una severa pandemia, COVID-19. Oltre a conseguenze disastrose sulla salute, è possibile individuare implicazioni a cascata sul piano economico e sociale. Anche in paesi ad alto reddito, con una crescente attenzione verso la sicurezza alimentare, è stato riscontrato, a causa della pandemia, un aumento della vulnerabilità esistente ed un collasso del terzo settore basato su volontari in età a rischio. Sottolineando il ruolo centrale delle città in questo contesto, è stata realizzata una panoramica a livello urbano in un paese sviluppato dei rischi riscontrati e degli sforzi resilienti compiuti per mitigare problemi di sicurezza alimentare e far fronte all’interruzione degli ordinari servizi di assistenza. Nello specifico, è stato studiato l’approccio innovativo realizzato dal Comune di Milano per offrire aiuti alimentari durante il periodo di lockdown. In particolare, è stata approfondita l’adattabilità di un virtuoso sistema di ridistribuzione di eccedenze alimentari, Smart City Food Sharing. Infatti, la capacità di fornire un intervento tempestivo ed efficace può essere legata a know-how e competenze precedentemente sviluppati. A questo proposito, sono stati evidenziati i fattori abilitatori a conferma dell’esperienza consolidata. L’analisi del caso studio ha inoltre consentito l’individuazione degli ostacoli che hanno influenzato la configurazione del sistema emergenziale. All’interno di questa ricerca, la revisione della letteratura è stata focalizzata sulla comprensione della sicurezza alimentare, in particolare in situazioni emergenziali, e sulla gestione dei disastri. Successivamente, le evidenze emerse dalla letteratura sono state validate grazie alla comprensione del caso studio beneficiando, prevalentemente, di interviste semi-strutturate rivolte agli attori del sistema emergenziale di aiuti alimentari attivo sul territorio di Milano. Attraverso la discussione e formalizzazione delle soluzioni adottate, sono state formulate delle considerazioni e una linea guida utile per implementare un sistema di aiuti alimentari in altri contesti urbani in caso di eventi simili futuri.
Food aid in an urban context during COVID-19 emergency : identification of solutions enhancing resilience, hurdles and enablers
AMIDEI, CHIARA;BERGAMASCHI, ALESSANDRA
2019/2020
Abstract
Since the beginning of 2020, the entire world has been facing a global health crisis due to a severe pandemic disease, COVID-19. In addition to unprecedented healthcare effects, it has caused cascading consequences at social and economic levels. While food insecurity has been increasingly considered as an issue affecting also high-income and urban areas, the pandemic has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and disrupted the third sector activities based on voluntary work from elderly people: this situation has required a timely reconfiguration of existing food aid systems. In this context, cities must be pivotal; on this purpose, along this dissertation, it is provided an overview of the risks faced and the resilient efforts pursued, during this emergency, to mitigate food security problems and food aid systems disruptions at an urban level in a developed country. Particularly, the empirical assessment is provided by the city of Milan suggesting an innovative approach for offering food assistance during COVID-19 lockdown. To explore solutions enhancing resilience, it has been studied the adaptive change of Milan urban surplus food redistribution system, Smart City Food Sharing. Indeed, prompt interventions are based on previously developed knowledge and capabilities. For this reason, facilitator factors have been identified confirming expertise and awareness previously developed. Together with enablers, also hurdles affecting the configuration of the emergency food aid system have been singled out. Along this dissertation, the main areas of research covered are the following: food aid for food security, especially in emergency situations, and disaster management. Subsequently, evidence from literature has been validated through the discussion of the case study, benefitting mainly from semi-structured interviews to on-field experts who operated in order to provide food aid to vulnerable people in the city of Milan. Through the discussion and formalization of adopted solutions, some considerations have been formulated coupled with the elaboration of a guideline, that can be useful to implement food aid systems for other urban contexts in similar future events.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/166471