ASU dashboard helps St. Mary’s Food Bank, tracks food insecurity

Arizona State University (ASU) created an interactive dashboard tracking food insecurity in our state. The dashboard helps St. Mary’s Food Bank (SMFB) make informed decisions about how to better address the communities of greatest need. This innovative tool aims to analyze patterns, provide critical insights and optimize resource allocation to address disparities in food access.

The dashboard visualizes food insecurity by integrating key socioeconomic data such as demographics (i.e., income, education, age, unemployment), SMFB food distribution statistics and access to government assistance programs like SNAP. By identifying the areas of greatest need, the tool offers actionable insights to target food-insecure populations better.

Marcos Gaucin, Chief Programs Officer at St. Mary’s Food Bank, and Aaron Flores, Assistant Professor at School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss it.

What is food insecurity?

“So really, simply put, food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal is going to come from,” Gaucin said. “In Arizona, since the pandemic, we’ve seen that rise, from about 11% up to 14% this year. One in seven people are food insecure. Amongst children, that’s one in five. So if we picture a classroom, six of those kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

Where do you get this data?

“We collect census data, demographic data like age, race, ethnicity, income,” Flores said. “If you’re a renter, all sorts of information. If you’re a female head of household, for instance, and we can overlay that on the food insecurity data, look at it. We can analyze trends with statistical analysis.”

Where is food insecurity the highest in Arizona?

“As I mentioned, for the state, it’s 14% on tribal lands, it’s 21%, and, amongst children, it’s over 30%,” Gaucin said. “One in three children. So these intersections help us identify trends. They help us better model our distribution, with home delivery, with mobile distributions, those type of services in those areas.”