Government and foodbank food security policy governance: Australian and United States COVID-19 responses

Food security policy governance activities in the United States of America (US) and Australia are compared to identify areas for transformation at national government and third sector frontline services. The US’s Feeding America and Hunger Free America and Australia’s OzHarvest and Foodbank Australia operate in the context of government policies. Despite major differences between countries, five common learnings emerged: (1) There are food security policy governance failures in government and the third sector; (2) Food security policy governance is difficult when the problem of food insecurity is hidden or poorly measured; (3) Food security policy governance should ensure readiness for both disaster management and routine responses; (4) Appropriate Government investment in social protection policies can ameliorate food insecurity; (5) Third sector ‘more than food approaches’ show promise and frontline services can play an important advocacy role to address structural barriers to food insecurity.