COVID-19 has brought to light the severity of economic inequalities by testing the capacity of the poorest families to make ends meet. Food insecurity has in fact soared all over the UK, with many people forced to rely on food support providers to not go hungry. This paper uses a unique dataset on 55 food support organizations active in Greater Manchester during the first COVID-19 wave, and 41 semi-structured interviews with food aid spokespersons and stakeholders, to shed light on what they overcame, the complications and drawbacks of the food emergency response plan put in place. The results indicate that food aid organizations that remained open were surprisingly effective despite the growth in user demand and the decrease in volunteers. However, the necessity to maintain a timely supply food at all costs came with important drawbacks. The lockdown measures that followed COVID-19 not only affected the financial stability and management of the organizations, and the availability of food, but undermined the ways in which food support providers used to operate. Owing to physical distancing measures and to the increasing numbers of users, more or less intangible forms of support such as financial advice, empathic listening and human warmth were partially lost, probably when they were needed more than ever.

COVID-19 通过测试最贫困家庭维持生计的能力，揭示了经济不平等的严重性。事实上，整个英国的粮食不安全状况都在飙升，许多人被迫依靠粮食支持提供者来不挨饿。本文使用了在第一次 COVID-19 浪潮期间活跃在大曼彻斯特的 55 个食品支持组织的独特数据集，以及对食品援助发言人和利益相关者的 41 次半结构化访谈，以阐明他们克服了什么、并发症和缺点食品应急预案落实到位。结果表明，尽管用户需求增加而志愿者减少，但仍然开放的食品援助组织出人意料地有效。然而，不惜一切代价保持及时供应食物的必要性也带来了重大缺陷。COVID-19 之后的封锁措施不仅影响了组织的财务稳定性和管理以及食品的供应，而且破坏了食品支持提供者过去的运作方式。由于物理距离措施和用户数量的增加，财务建议、同理心倾听和人性温暖等或多或少无形的支持形式已部分丧失，可能是在比以往任何时候都更需要它们的时候。