In 2023, more than 50 million people across the United States turned to food pantries and other charitable organizations for meals. But many may be unable to reach the food they need, particularly if they live in a more well-off area, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.
On the surface, it may make sense that there are fewer food pantries in areas with less poverty. However, this means that people who are experiencing food insecurity there have a harder time getting the food they need.
"A lot of food insecure folks live in the southern half of the Atlanta metro area, where income levels tend to be lower. Because of that, there are also a lot of agencies there who are serving those populations," said Jerry Shannon, the corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "We identified the north and northeast metro as the most underserved areas. There, poverty is a little less concentrated and more dispersed, so you don't have as many agencies available to help the people who need it."
Lack of transportation puts even more strain on people experiencing food insecurity
The project was part of the Georgia Hunger Study, a collaborative effort between the University of Georgia, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, the Georgia Department of Human Services and Feeding Georgia, an organization that coordinates efforts between state food banks and the national nonprofit Feeding America. The study team worked with the nine regional food banks across Georgia to gather data from surveys and focus groups at the more than 2,000 food pantries in the state.
The researchers found that many people who rely on food banks may not have vehicles, which makes reaching aid organizations even harder.
"People's ability to go and access food is highly reliant on their access to reliable, affordable transportation options," Shannon said. "A real challenge of helping people get food is not so much getting the food to the agencies but helping people find agencies that are open and accessible to them."
Food banks also face their own challenges. Many are understaffed, so planning, coordination and recordkeeping are much more difficult, the researchers said.
Increasing access, improving structure can help people get healthy foods
Allowing more collaboration between food banks could make it easier to bridge gaps in underserved areas, the researchers said. Food banks could coordinate to provide food at different times to accommodate the work schedules of their clients.
Some food pantries also offer information on resources such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or are experimenting with providing credits for Uber rides.
"If we could think about these agencies not just as an immediate source of food in that moment but as places that can connect people to the kinds of social services that provide a more robust safety net for them, that can also be really useful," Shannon said. "Sometimes it's not just a matter of starting a new agency in one of these access gaps but thinking through how to help people living in those gaps get to agencies with food and other resources relevant to their situation."
This study was published in The Professional Geographer and co-authored by Maya Rao, Jung Sun Lee, Abigail Klinker, Abigail Borron and Alison Berg.
