Connecticut
Food Bank and Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released a landmark study in March 2011, “Map the Meal Gap,” providing the first detailed look at the food budget needed by families struggling with hunger here in Connecticut each year – an estimated $199 million.
The study takes a look at ‘meals’ in a whole new way, using county-level data on food costs from The Nielsen Company to break down the food budget shortfall of our residents into an approximation of the meals missing from the tables of people at risk of hunger in Connecticut each year.
“Map the Meal Gap” also compares food costs across counties, showing Fairfield County to have among the highest food costs in Connecticut. In Connecticut Food Bank’s service area, 53 percent of the food insecure population does not qualify for food stamps or other government programs, so they often must rely on other sources such as Connecticut Food Bank and others to help feed themselves and their families. On a county by county level, “Map the Meal Gap” shows that this shortfall represents more than 49 million meals in Connecticut Food Bank’s service area on an annual basis.
Click here to view the Map the Meal Gap data an interactive map format. There you will find:
- The percentage of the population who is food insecure.
- Child food insecurity data by state and county.
- The percentage of the food insecure population who qualify based on income for SNAP (Foods Stamps) and other federal nutrition programs.
- The percentage of the food insecure population who do NOT qualify for federal nutrition programs and often must rely on charitable food assistance programs and who also need better wages and employment opportunities to help them meet their basic needs.
- The average price per meal based on new research by The Nielsen Company.