Food Insecurity across the Rural-Urban Divide: Are Counties in Need Being Reached by Charitable Food Assistance?

Abstract

An extensive literature has described U.S. food insecurity and its determinants, but there has been little work on the geographic distribution of food insecurity and no work on the distribution of private food assistance by geography. To study the former, we use data from the Map the Meal Gap (MMG) project, which is broken down by Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. For the latter, we combine MMG data with data from the Hunger in America 2014 (HIA 2014) survey to determine the geographic distribution of charitable food assistance. At the national level, we find few differences across the rural-urban interface, but we do find differences within and across regions. We also find that regardless of how it is measured, the distribution of charitable food assistance is directed more toward counties with smaller populations—a finding that holds even after controlling for factors that influence the distribution of charitable assistance.

An Examination of the Adequacy of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefit Levels: Impacts on Food Insecurity

“…In Table 4, we explore whether, in general, the reduction in food insecurity is larger in populous urban areas than in rural areas. To do so, we use a breakdown of counties by Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCCs) which Gundersen et al (2017b) discuss in the context of food insecurity. These RUCCs are broken down into nine categories, ranging from counties in metro areas of 1 million population or more down to completely rural counties of less than 2,500 that are not adjacent to an urban area.…”

Overlapping geographic clusters of food security and health: Where do social determinants and health outcomes converge in the U.S?

“…The percent of the population that is food insecure was obtained from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap (MMG) 2014 data; the methodology is described in detail elsewhere ( Gundersen, Engelhard, Satoh, & Waxman, 2016 ). These data use Current Population Survey (CPS) food security measures, which are based on the Core Food Security Module established in 1996 by the USDA as a means of measuring food insecurity status of households ( Gundersen et al, 2017 , Gundersen and Ziliak, 2015 , Herman et al, 2015 ). Reliability of the estimated food insecurity measures has been established in the literature ( Gundersen, Engelhard, & Waxman, 2014 ).…”

“…In robustness analysis, we estimated regression models using the individual health indicators to understand whether spatial patterns observed in the primary construct-level analysis were robust across each health indicators taken individually as well as to alternative definitions of poverty (i.e 185% and 200%). In additional robustness tests, we explored potential interactions between race/ethnicity and urbanity because previously documented differences in urban/rural inequality and food resources suggests that food insecurity and health outcomes for minorities may differ depending upon urbanity ( Gundersen et al, 2017 , Peters, 2012 ).…”

“…Further, among SNAP participants, those living in areas with higher food prices were 5% more likely to report food insecurity than those living in average-priced food areas ( Gregory & Coleman-Jensen, 2013 ). Food insecurity rates are similar when comparing urban and rural areas, despite the fact that poverty conditions are often worse in rural areas ( Brown and Hirschl, 1995 , Gundersen et al, 2017 ). One hypothesis about why food insecurity and poverty do not correlate geographically is that the spatial distribution of charitable food services (i.e.…”

“…food banks, federal program participation, etc.) is uneven, thus resources to combat food security are more abundant in some high poverty areas than others ( Gundersen et al, 2017 ). Thus, while higher food insecurity rates are expected in counties with higher poverty rates, the spatial pattern of food insecurity is not necessarily the same as the spatial pattern of poverty.…”