Closing the Meal Gap:The Hunger Index
Drew Starbird
What is the Hunger Index?
COMPAREREVEAL
UNDERSTAND
MEASURE
How do we use the Hunger Index?
MONITORINGFORECASTING
COMMUNICATINGDECISION-MAKING
PARTNERING
Hunger in Santa Clara County2012
Household Spending on Food
< 10 10 to 20 20 to 30 30 to 40 40 to 500
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
3527 35044278
5326 5154
$7,000
Eligible for CalFresh
421,000
69%
VUL-NER-ABLE
185,000
31%
606,000 Santa Clara County Households
How many households are vulnerable?
Year Households Meals Needed
2010 173,000 564 million
2011 185,000 596 million
2012 185,000 595 million
Where do Vulnerable households get food?
Santa Clara County 2012595 Million Meals 185,000 households
Purchased289
Food Assis-tance 153.8
Missing Meals 152.2
Food Assistance in Santa Clara 2012Total Food Assistance: 153.8 million meals
CalFresh55%Food Bank
18%
School meals14%
WIC10%
Other3%
How are we doing?
2009 2010 2011 20120
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
109.5 136.6 147.8 153.8
110.4
137.1148.8 152.2
Food Assistance Provided Missing Meals
Santa Clara County Hunger Index
50.2%
50.1%50.2%
49.8%
What have we learned?
Households are spending more on food and getting less. What will
inflation do?
Need to reconsider how we define
“vulnerable.” Are we capturing
everyone?
Food assistance growing faster
than need. Can we sustain it?
We make a difference, and we need to do more. Together we can.