ABOUT THE DASHBOARD

The U.S. Food Insecurity dashboard tracks the national rate of food insecurity by aggregating academic, governmental and nonprofit survey data. As more papers are published and surveys are released, we update this dashboard to better estimate trends in insecurity over time. We invite users to forward old and new datasets that are not included to cfdas@purdue.edu to help develop the most accurate survey average. Future data visualizations included on this dashboard will attempt to track trends such as the rate of food bank/pantry use.

HOW TO USE IT

Select the desired trend line using the panel on the left. Hover over the scatterplot to see the tooltip with expanded information. Click the legend on the right to highlight or remove values.

VARIABLE DEFINITIONS

Food insecurity: A measure indicating that a household has experienced limited access to adequate food due to a lack of money and other resources. Each survey might use a slightly different method to define and collect data on rates of ‘food insecurity,’ but we only include studies that demonstrate they have used a validated measure. Typically, this measure is some form of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Module.

Date: The approximate day on which the survey data collection was completed or end of the reference period for the given food insecurity measure. Because food insecurity is typically measured over a specific timeframe and survey data is collected over multiple days, we pick a single date to represent one observation of the food insecurity rate.

Rolling Average: Unweighted mean of 10 most recent data-points.

Local Regression: Locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) with a span of 0.3.

Linear by dataset: Linear regression of datasets with more than one observation.

SOURCES

  1. Acciai et al., 2021, Food insecurity and food assistance program participation in the U.S.: One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/2021-09/food-insecurity-and-food-assistance-program-participation-in-the-u.s.-one-year-into-the-covid-19-pandemic_0.pdf
  2. Anh & Norwood, 2020, Measuring Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic of Spring 2020, https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13069
  3. Bertoldo et al., 2022, Food Insecurity and Delayed or Forgone Medical Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306724
  4. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 2019 – Present, National Health Interview Survey, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.htm
  5. Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability, Consumer Food Insights, https://ag.purdue.edu/cfdas/data-resources/consumer-food-insights/
  6. Fitzpatrick et al., 2020, Assessing Food Insecurity among US Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic, https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2020.1830221
  7. Mui et al., 2022, Acquisition, mobility and food insecurity: integrated food systems opportunities across urbanicity levels highlighted by COVID-19, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021002755
  8. Niles et al., 2021, A Multi-Site Analysis of the Prevalence of Food Insecurity in the United States, before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab135
  9. Parekh et al., 2021, Food insecurity among households with children during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a study among social media users across the United States, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-021-00732-2
  10. Urban Institute, 2022, Food Insecurity Trended Upward in Midst of High Inflation and Fewer Supports, https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/HRMS%20Food%20Insecurity%20Brief_0.pdf
  11. S. Census Bureau, 2019 – Present, Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/cps/cps-supp_cps-repwgt/cps-food-security.html
  12. S. Census Bureau, 2020 – Present, Household Pulse Survey, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/household-pulse-survey.html
  13. Yenerall & Jensen, 2022, Food Security, Financial Resources, and Mental Health: Evidence during the COVID-19 Pandemic, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010161

DASHBOARD AUTHORS

Sam Polzin and Jayson Lusk

Author:

Sam Polzin and Jayson Lusk

Published:
December 12, 2022

Data & Resources