Mapping Disparities in Charitable Food Access in Georgia

Charitable food assistance is vitally important for many food-insecure households, but relatively little research has been done to assess the availability of these programs on a broad scale. This article describes a project to analyze the spatial availability of these programs in the state of Georgia. We collected data on charitable food agencies from nine regional food banks in February 2023. We created proximity scores based on three measures of agency proximity and density at the census tract level. Controlling for population density, we identified spatial hot and cold spots for agency proximity and identified distinct demographic characteristics for these areas. Our analysis identifies hot spots for charitable food availability in areas of high poverty concentration in the metropolitan Atlanta area and sections of south Georgia. Cold spots are found in the northern Atlanta area and other small sections of the state. This analysis demonstrates how food-insecure households in mixed-income urban areas might have difficulty accessing charitable food programs. Our findings correspond with other research showing how suburban and other mixed-income areas can amplify economic precarity. This project provides a model of how broad-scale research on charitable food can be conducted through collaborative research.