Along with the on-line exhibit of excerpts from the oral histories we conducted, there also are a number of publications that resulted from the project. Most of these are available on-line. COVID-19 continues to be with us, but the crisis seems to be over, and life seems to have gone back to the way it was before the pandemic. While it is nice to feel somewhat safe now, the pandemic opened our eyes to many of the problems in our contemporary food system–and society as well. These articles speak to some of the issues we became aware of because of COVID-19 and some of the solutions that people developed. Hopefully, we can keep those lessons in mind!
PUBLICATIONS–Comfort/Discomfort Through Foodways Project (Feb. 2023)
Lucy M. Long, Jerry Lee Reed, III, John Broadwell, Quinlan Day Odum, Hannah M. Santino, and Minglei Zhang. Finding Comfort and Discomfort Through Foodways Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Public Folklore Project. Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture,, 8/2, 2021. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/33644)
“Folkloristic Perspectives on Foodways and Comfort During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Special issue of Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture, ( 9/2 Fall 2022). (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/index)
Lucy M. Long. Introduction to Special Issue: Folkloristic Perspectives on Foodways and Comfort During the Pandemic. Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture, 9/2 Fall, 2022: 1-6. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/35794)
Hannah Santino and Lucy M. Long. The Liminalities of Scones: Comfort Food, the Pandemic, and Other Excuses for Indulgence. Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture, 9/2 2022: 1-10. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/35801)
Jerry L. Reed, III. Discomforting Foodways: Reflections on The Challenges Faced by Individuals During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture, 9/2 Fall, 2022: 1-7. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/35802)
Lucy M. Long. How the Pandemic Redefined Comfort Food: American Individualism, Culinary Relativism, and Shifting Moralities. Popular Culture Studies Journal. 10(1) 2022: 1-18.
center for food and culture 
Good morning Lucy
Thank you for the articles.
In New Zealand we have just suffered major floods across the whole of our North Island. For us this follows on from the COVID-19 issues the whole world has been dealing with over the last two years. We are now facing disruptiono a new s to infrastructure, damage to food businesses and crops, displacement of people from their damaged communities; the rebuild will take years. There are serious issue around our food chain and whether we will be able to sustain ‘normal’ food traditions or whether this event will mean that people will have to adapt to a new approach to food based on what the new norm will be as the food chain rebuilds.
Regards Steve Chaney
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Steve, thank you for the reminder that discussions of comfort food point to serious issues around the food system and that people are suffering. The pandemic made many of us more aware of these issues, and at least a few people began working towards making things better. Let’s hope for more awareness.
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