Food Security
6 articles
Better Access, Higher Vulnerability: What 9,033 California Tracts Reveal
The USDA's food desert framework assumes that distance to grocery stores is a primary barrier to food access.[1] Federal policy has directed resources toward bringing stores closer to underserved communities, from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to state-level incentive programs.[2] Our earlier analysis of 7 Bay Area and major metro counties suggested this framing may be backwards: the most vulnerable communities already had closer stores, not farther ones. But that finding was limited to
The Food Desert Myth: Why Proximity Alone Doesn't Explain Food Insecurity
Analysis of 6,613 grocery stores reveals zero food deserts, yet SNAP participation varies 4.7x. Geographic access doesn't predict food insecurity.
The Widening Gap: Why Some Neighborhoods Are Falling Behind
County-wide SNAP rates rose 2 points over four years. But what happens when we look at neighborhoods instead of the whole county? A more complex picture emerges.
The Food Security Gap: How COVID Widened Inequality
County-wide SNAP participation stayed flat during the pandemic. But a census tract analysis of 408 neighborhoods reveals what aggregate data hides: food insecurity worsened in the most vulnerable communities while improving elsewhere, widening the inequality gap by 49%.
When Work Isn't Enough: What Census Data Reveals About Silicon Valley's Working Poor
In 57 census tracts across Santa Clara County, more than 60% of working-age adults are employed. These same tracts have poverty rates above 10%. This pattern, high employment alongside meaningful poverty, appears in neighborhoods home to 256,773 people. The correlation between employment rate and poverty rate across all 408 county tracts? r = -0.063, essentially zero. Since employment doesn't predict poverty in Silicon Valley, we should think about what Census wage and income data can show us.
Beyond Demographics: How Neighborhood-Level Intersections Predict Food Security Vulnerability
When measuring neighborhood food security vulnerability, single demographic factors don't tell the full story. We built and validated an index that shows how intersecting identities create compounding risk.