Wild food production and consumption exist within and outside of modern commercialized food systems, and offer nutritional, cultural, ecological, and sustainability benefits to people and their communities. Production of wild foods (fish, game, and foraged foods) and backyard food (garden produce, poultry, and eggs) may be a source of individual or collective agency amid strains on the food system, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, self-production also has risks for people, such as toxic contaminant exposure or inadequate food safety, and for the environment as overharvest could threaten the sustainability of valuable wild species or their ecosystems. My dissertation uses mixed methods analyses in food systems, One Health, and social-ecological systems theories to examine the roles wild foods fills, from food security to food sovereignty to individual and cultural expression. I analyze data from two projects. The first used an online cross-sectional survey and in-depth interviews about wild and backyard food production in part of upstate New York, USA during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second used community-based semi-structured interviews followed by a focus group discussion to examine fishing in Buffalo, NY, USA. Across case studies, I situate health and wellbeing as outcomes of wild food production and consumption within social-ecological food systems to understand how wild foods adaptively support resilience to shocks and sustain wellbeing. For Chapter One, I examined household level interactions between food security and COVID-19 related hardships with wild and backyard food production. I conducted an online survey of respondents from six counties in upstate New York (n=505, convenience sample). Respondents largely increased (39.6-45.7% across practices) or maintained (31.6–42.7%) wild and backyard food production while a notable minority decreasing production (8.3–21.5%). Household consumption of self-produced foods was substantial and nutritionally significant. The motivation to "exert greater control over food access" showed marked increases from 2019 to 2020 across all production types (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001). Further, backyard food production (gardening and poultry-keeping) demonstrated significant associations with experiences of pandemic hardship (p ≤ 0.05), though wild food procurement activities showed no such relationship. Chapter Two used in-depth interviews (n=42) to deductively explore findings from the earlier survey and to inductively investigate motivations for and barriers to wild and backyard food production and consumption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 was a catalyst for food procurement behavior changes. Interviewees exercised agency and expressed their identities through wild and backyard food production, and experiences of barriers to practice were entangled with cross-cutting socioeconomic inequities and cultural differences. Expressions of agency were most often individually advanced but also commonly included family and social network focused mutual aid as interviewees described grappling with the context of a food system shock. I contextualized the findings with literature on natural resources management, food systems and alternative food networks, and resilience in social-ecological systems. Chapter Three used community-based mixed methods to investigate perceived risks and benefits of fishing and consuming local fish. I interviewed 49 recreational and provisioning urban fishers in Buffalo, New York at two popular fishing sites on Unity Island in the Niagara River (a binationally designated Great Lakes Area of Concern) and held a focus group discussion with 7 more fishers and local fish consumers from a subcommunity within Buffalo. Participants perceived fishing and fish consumption to benefit mental health, exercise, cultural practices, and nutrition. Perceptions of the risk of eating contaminated fish were highly variable, from no risk to unacceptably high risk. Fishers largely reported using heuristics (e.g., “don’t eat too many” or “fast water is safe water”) to navigate harvest and consumption decision-making though a notable minority used published fish consumption advisories. A subset of interviewees reported seeing or participating in consumption of “minnows” (otherwise considered baitfish) and harvesting a “Don’t Eat” species (common carp) on the local consumption advisories. This illustrates gaps between local consumption advisories and practices. My findings point to how subjective perception and agency shape the role of wild foods in social-ecological food systems, to the connections between One Health and wild foods, and to the importance of connecting meaningfully with wild food producers and consumers for natural resource management and public health. Findings also have practical implications for supporting users of wild and backyard foods in a future that may include political, social, and/or ecological instability. Finally, they indicate bridging policy-practice gaps requires both policy reform and community-based co-learning initiatives targeting vulnerable fishing populations. This approach, combining manager-community collaboration, will simultaneously enhance wild food sustainability and health outcomes in Western New York.