Food insecurity and social work: A comprehensive literature review

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive literature review of food insecurity in social work. A search of peer-reviewed scholarly articles yielded 1686 abstracts with relevance to food insecurity. While there has been a rapid increase in the number of articles written on the topic of food insecurity since 1955, there has been a disproportionate interest in the issue in the Global North. The authors found that the literature clustered around five key themes: food access, food insecurity for vulnerable groups, food policy, food systems and interventions. Relevance of these findings to social work practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.