Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 01 frontiersin.org Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in Manitoba, Canada and ways forward for resilience: a scoping review Kristen Lowitt 1 *, Joyce Slater 2 and Evodius Rutta 1 1 Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, 2 University of Manitoba, Manitoba, ON, Canada Various studies over the past 3  years have synthesized trends and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s national food system. However, less research has characterized the effects of COVID-19 within regional and provincial food system contexts. This article presents results from a scoping review of peer- reviewed and grey literature published from March 2020 until end of March 2023 examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Findings are presented according to the categories of food security funding, policy, and programming; individual and household food security; and food systems. In each area we synthesize key findings and discuss their significance in relation to existing food systems scholarship and national trends. Using review results, we propose priority areas for research and practice to support equitable and resilient food systems in Manitoba, including: (1) undertaking evaluation of food system policies, programs, and funding implemented during the pandemic (2) enhancing food security monitoring for vulnerable populations (3) further exploring community experiences and responses to food security, and (4) examining opportunities for local food systems development. KEYWORDS pandemic (COVID19), Manitoba, food systems, resilience, food policy 1 Introduction e outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 presented significant challenges to Canada’s food systems, from disrupted supply chains to business closures and heightened demand for emergency food aid (Hobbs, 2020; Holland, 2020). e situation of individuals and communities that were already precarious within food systems, such as temporary foreign labourers and those already experiencing food insecurity, worsened (Arrell Food Institute and Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute, 2021; Polysky and Garriguet, 2022). A range of funding and policy measures were rolled out, with the pandemic prompting debate about how Canada’s food system should be rebuilt and renewed to enhance resilience to similar disruptions in the future (James et al., 2021; Regnier-Davies et al., 2022). While various studies over the past several years have synthesized trends and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s national food system, less research has been devoted to characterizing the effects of COVID-19 within regional and provincial food system contexts. However, doing so is crucial to a fuller understanding of the place-based impacts of the OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Tarek Ben Hassen, Qatar University, Qatar REVIEWED BY Ginny Lane, University of Idaho, United States Hamid El Bilali, International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, Italy *CORRESPONDENCE Kristen Lowitt kristen.lowitt@queensu.ca RECEIVED 29 April 2023 ACCEPTED 19 December 2023 PUBLISHED 08 January 2024 CITATION Lowitt K, Slater J and Rutta E (2024) Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in Manitoba, Canada and ways forward for resilience: a scoping review. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1214361. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1214361 COPYRIGHT © 2024 Lowitt, Slater and Rutta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Review PUBLISHED 08 January 2024 DOI 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1214361