The number of families using government food assistance programs can be a useful measurement of food insecurity. These programs have been shown to reduce food insecurity and poverty, but they are not long term solutions for hunger. Also, the people who apply are still vulnerable to discrimination.

Government assistance is not a perfect measure of food insecurity. Some people who are eligible for assistance programs don't use them. This may be due to:

• Barriers to completing the application
• Embarrassment at using government assistance
• Immigration status
• Proof of income requirements that are difficult to meet

Data from food banks can measure food insecurity or food needs in regional communities, by tracking:

• The number of food bank visits or meal site visits
• The number of meals served
• The number of individuals served

Food bank data can be difficult to collect. Many people who use food banks don't visit consistently because they have unstable housing situations.

A more direct way to measure food insecurity is through surveys that ask questions like, "Do you have enough money to get food?" or "Is the food you buy enough for your family?". For example, local surveys tell us that Black and Hispanic/Latinx households are two times more likely than white households to experience food insecurity in King County.

Local studies can also help to identify the neighborhoods with the highest food insecurity. Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment is using the Racial and Social Equity Composite Index, among other criteria, to help determine which areas need resources.

By tracking food deserts, we can track which neighborhoods don't have access to grocery stores and markets, putting families in the neighborhoods at high risk of food insecurity. 

Seattle's Equitable Development Monitoring Program found that 60% of housing units in the Racial and Social Equity Composite Index are within a half mile of a grocery store. However, some neighborhoods lack a healthy grocery store within a half mile, including areas in the West Seattle, the Duwamish Valley, and parts of Rainier Beach in South Seattle.

Food deserts are an imperfect way to measure food insecurity. Some activists now use the term "food apartheid" in place of "food desert", to acknowledge the role that systemic racism has in creating a lack of access to healthy food. 

General

• Birmingham's 'Food Deserts' Have Been Shaped by Its Redlined Past (Civil Eats)
• Disrupting Food Insecurity (Urban Institute)
• Food + Justice = Democracy (TEDx Talks)
• Food Insecurity in the US by the Numbers (NPR)
• Hunger Isn't Just the Absence of Food: It's the Absence of Justice (Northwest Harvest)
• The New Face of Hunger (National Geographic)
• Understand Food Insecurity (Feeding America)
• What Is Food Justice? (FoodPrint)

Local Stories

• How a Seattle Neighborhood Confronted Food Insecurity in the Pandemic (YES!)
• Food Insecurity in Washington (Northwest Harvest)
• Food insecurity remains high and need for assistance dramatically up in Washington (University of Washington)
• For many King County families, food aid 'not nearly enough' as need spikes in pandemic (Seattle Times)
• The Gnawing Hunger of Race (Real Change)
• Farming for Change: Black Womxn Farmers Fight the Pandemic with a Food Revolution (South Seattle Emerald)
• This is what food justice looks like: Access to affordable, healthy, culturally relevant foods (Solid Ground)