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.