Page 10 - 2023 Annual Report

T H E Y E A R IN R E V IE W

FO O D S E C U R I T Y

Food Security has been a persistent issue on the local, state, and MONTHLY SNAP GAP, WORCESTER
federal level. Based on the importance of the Bureau’s work on COUNTY ZIP CODES AVERAGE
this issue, the Bureau updated its StoryMap, Is Worcester Food
Insecure? It Depends on Where. The StoryMap, expanded on
its sections related to the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP). One of these expanded topics was the SNAP
Gap. This gap is defined as the percentage of individuals who
are eligible for SNAP benefits but don’t receive them. This
is calculated by comparing MassHealth users against SNAP
beneficiaries. The 2022 version showed the monthly SNAP gap
between January 2018 and July 2022. The 2023 expansion
brought this to March 2023, as seen on the table here, and
added a similar view of the monthly SNAP caseload. Additionally,
new interactive dashboards were created and added to explore
the relationship between SNAP usage, social vulnerability, and SOCIAL VULNERABILITY & SNAP FOR WORCESTER COUNTY
income sources. The scatterplot on this page shows the positive
correlation between SNAP reception and vulnerability using the
2020 Social Vulnerability Index. The map shows the geographic
distribution of census tracts in Worcester County according to
the interaction of these two variables. Many of the tracts with
high vulnerability and high SNAP usage are found in Worcester
itself.
The Bureau has continued sharing its work on food security with
different audiences such as its briefing at the Center for Food
Equity’s Food Summit in May. The WRRB’s work has had clear
impacts on regional and national discussions related to hunger
and food insecurity and established a need for a comprehensive
Community Food Assessment, which has been a joint project
between The Center for Food Equity, Coalition for a Healthy
Greater Worcester, and UMass Chan’s Prevention Research
Center. The Bureau serves on the Steering Committee and has
been an active contributor to the effort to quantify the lived SOCIAL VULNERABILITY & SNAP FOR WORCESTER COUNTY
experience of food insecurity in Worcester.

SCAN FOR MORE:

Is Worcester
Food Insecure?
It Depends on Where

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