This article explores how Community Based Organizations, in Watauga County, North Carolina, faced a food crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and quickly came together to fill unprecedented local need for food assistance. Existing bodies of literature on Appalachia and resilience provide useful frameworks for disecting how the community reacted to events as they occurred in the Spring of 2020. Interviews with community leaders document their experiences in the early stages of the pandemic. We conclude that an already frayed social safety net contributed to the crises; but local leaders were able to respond because of their strong community ties and years of local experience. These community leaders explain that the food crisis caused by Covid-19 revealed deep cracks that have long existed in the food system.
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