GIS technology supports a wide-ranging array of government initiatives, from emergency management to urban forestry to disability representation. Now, recent federal changes to food stamp benefits are bringing national attention to efforts addressing food insecurity.
St. Mary’s Food Bank — which is affiliated with Arizona state agencies including the departments of Economic Security, Education, and Health Services; several municipalities; and tribal nations — is leveraging ArcGIS and other GIS technology from Esri in partnership with Arizona State University to support government entities’ and other organizations’ efforts to get food to people statewide.
“We support 700 partner agencies, and that could be a church, a school — it could be tribal governments,” Marcos Gaucin, chief programs officer for St. Mary’s Food Bank, said. “We serve to support them with food, and then they do that last-mile distribution into their community.”
Chinle Unified School District No. 24, a public unified school district based out of Chinle in Apache County, Ariz., in the Navajo Nation, is one example.
“St. Mary’s Food Bank has been an essential partner in helping us tackle food insecurity in our remote community,” Quincy Natay, superintendent at Chinle Unified School District No. 24, said via email. “This partnership is a lifeline for many in our community, and we are grateful for their continued commitment.”
Prior to adopting the technology, the organization's food distribution strategy was largely based on anecdotal evidence, Gaucin said. Now, the data and GIS technology more clearly indicate where the highest food insecurity rates are geographically. This information can be compared with other data, like the locations of grocery stores or schools, to understand food accessibility and potentially inform the targeting of resources in those areas.
These visualizations can also support the organization’s ability to communicate the need for funding investments, especially with government, Gaucin said. They can also paint a clearer picture of other factors correlated with food insecurity, like the lack of vehicle ownership.
Recent and proposed changes at the federal level are impacting work to address food insecurity, and these actions may increase communities’ reliance on non-government organizations to get access to food.
For St. Mary’s Food Bank, those changes come in the form of canceled food allotments, to the tune of more than 1 million pounds. “We are leaning on some of our other donors; we are leaning on some of our contingency money to fill those gaps,” Gaucin said, underlining that the organization’s staff will monitor everything happening with impactful federal budget decisions. Federal funding changes are impacting areas like digital equity, too; there, experts suggest states may need to rely more heavily on private and philanthropic investments.
However, while his organization is financially powered by donations, Gaucin said only about 20 percent of those come from the government. The other roughly 80 percent comes from private individuals, corporations, foundations, grants and the like, Gaucin said. About 25 percent of the organization’s food comes from the government.
“We’re here to make sure that people eat,” Gaucin said. “That’s been our mission since 1967 … and that will continue to be our mission.”
