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Australia has a hidden but growing problem with household food insecurity, revealing the failure of conventional food infrastructures to support human flourishing. Disruptions to employment and livelihoods due to pandemic lockdowns have exacerbated household food insecurity, evincing the uneven geography of food access in countries globally, including Australia. Increasing demand for food relief had been observed prior to the COVID‐19 pandemic and has been met by food relief providers, which we consider as infrastructures of care addressing growing levels of hunger. This paper reveals COVID‐19's many impacts on the food relief sector across Metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales. It analyses both a questionnaire of food relief providers in 2022 and media articles, social media posts, reports, and websites. It provides much‐needed insights into the impacts of pandemic lockdowns on the demand for food, interruptions to food provisioning, changes to food supply, and alterations made to suppliers' ways of operating. Those insights show how infrastructures of care are place‐based, responsive, dynamic, and constrained by caring capacities. Such insights are increasingly important for understanding infrastructural failures, documenting the real extent of household food insecurity, and challenging dominant discourses of Australia as a food‐secure nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue addressed: Food insecurity is recognised as an increasing problem in disadvantaged and marginalised groups. The aim of this study was to investigate issues associated with food insecurity and nutrition in young people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness in metropolitan Australia. Methods: Eight focus group discussions were conducted with 48 young people (aged between 15 and 25 years) in specialist homelessness services in central and south-western Sydney. Results: Participants described daily experiences of food insecurity, persistent hunger and poverty. Structural barriers to food security and nutrition were identified and included poverty and reduced physical access to fresh foods. Participants also described a desire to save time, for convenience and to be socially connected. Despite the hardships and the chaos of youth homelessness, the groups were defined by their strength of character, resilience and hope for the future. Conclusion: Homeless young people within central and south-western Sydney report varying degrees of food insecurity, despite being supported by specialist youth homelessness services. So what? A collaborative, multistrategic approach with youth participation is required to further enhance the capacity of youth services to improve food security, food access and the availability of nutritious foods for homeless young people. A greater focus on advocacy and policy action is also required to bring food security and nutrition to the forefront of national efforts to improve the health and welfare of disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]