The picture of hunger in your community

Do you know what hunger looks like in your backyard?  Do you know who it affects and what it would take to eradicate it? 

This great new study “Map the Meal Gap 2012: Food Insecurity Estimates at the County Level” released by Feeding America gives us the first ever look at food insecurity at the local level.  The new food insecurity data reviewed with local poverty levels and Hunger in America 2010 data allows us to, among other things, understand better the gaps between those living in poverty, those receiving federal assistance, and those utilizing emergency food assistance programs. 

This study comes with an interactive national map (click to view) that will allow you to look at your own county data including the number of people that are food insecure, average cost of meal in that county, and the total amount of funds needed to end hunger in that county. For example this tells us that across our 20 counties there are 343,400 food insecure individuals that all have a weekly food budget shortfall of $13.51.  This equates to a yearly budgetary shortfall of $140,680,170 to feed 59,109,315 meals to these individuals!   
 

Now, if only it told us exactly how many volunteers are needed to prepare and serve all those meals!