Voices: Food insecurity is bad for business. Here’s how Utah employers can help.

In Utah, a food insecurity rate of 11% means that 1 in 10 households experience times when they cannot adequately access food. Many Utahns are still feeling the effects of disruptions to SNAP benefits, with local food banks experiencing additional strain on their resources. Amid already increasing costs of groceries and escalated cost of living, food insecurity is on the rise.

As an assistant professor of management, my research focuses on marginalized or at-risk individuals and their workplace outcomes. In my experience discussing food insecurity, many assume that those lacking food resources are individuals who are unemployed. But food insecurity is not a “poverty” issue. More than 41% of households are working but financially insecure, and these working-but-struggling households are particularly at risk for food insecurity because they may not qualify for assistance.

Indeed, the majority of food insecure households have at least one adult working full time. Front-line service employees exhibit higher rates of food insecurity than average, meaning there is a high likelihood the person serving you is simultaneously wondering how they will afford food this month.

We need to consider the effects of food insecurity using a broader lens and start treating food insecurity as a business issue that impacts both employees and employers. Many employees showing up to their jobs are bringing with them the worries of not having enough food and how they can sustain their families. This non-trivial issue requires attention and calls to action by companies and business leaders in our community.

Why employee performance matters

Caring about employee performance might feel secondary to the pressing issue of not having enough food or going hungry. Yet, maintaining employment is an important guard against worsening food insecurity for families. Lowered performance puts employees at risk for lessened hours or termination, which amplifies their situation. People spend a significant amount of their lives at their jobs, and it’s important to understand how their real-life issues impact them at work.

Beyond an ethical obligation to the people that work for them, companies might also consider their financial imperative to care about food insecurity. Low employee productivity and behaviors such as “quiet quitting” (e.g., workers being withdrawn due to overwhelming thoughts about their food situation) diminish profits. Making sure that individuals have adequate access to food is beneficial to employees and employers alike.

How food insecurity harms work performance

My research, conducted with colleagues at Louisiana State University and Michigan State University, confirms that food insecurity harms employees and is bad for business, too. In a recent study we found that, when at work, food insecure individuals were more likely to spend time thinking about and ruminating over their situation, reducing their ability to give attention to their job. Given their attention was redirected away from their job, it was unsurprising that these employees had lowered aspects of job performance.

Additionally, we investigated whether there were mitigating factors that helped employees ruminate less and better focus on their jobs. We found that supervisor support was a key aspect in helping employees refocus their attention on their work. This could include simply lending a listening ear, offering sympathy to employee situations or helping to identify local food banks or other community resources.

We also looked at whether workplace food benefits, which include things such as discounts on meals, breakroom snacks and employee food pantries, helped employee rumination and job performance. We found that not only did these benefits not help food insecure employees but actually had the potential to amplify negative work outcomes.

Our research offers important insights about food insecurity at work — primarily that it is a workplace issue, and the reach of food insecurity extends outside the home.

Additionally, breakroom snacks and meal discounts are not enough to combat these effects, and companies need to go beyond these benefits to help their food insecure employees.

What employers can do

Here are some practical steps that organizations can take:

Business leaders should recognize the full implications of food insecurity and view food access as a business issue and not just a social one, if not for the sake of their employees and community, at least for their bottom line.

Because when workers and their families are fed, they don’t just show up to work, they show up ready to work.

Bailey Bigelow is an assistant professor in the David Eccles School of Business’s Department of Management.

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