INDIANAPOLIS — A recent survey by the Indy Hunger Network noted that food insecurity has improved in Indianapolis over the past year. The report describes the findings from a population-based survey of those with a need for food assistance in Marion County in the period from late May through early July 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact families. The survey estimated the amount of additional food assistance needed to meet all of the food need, and the characteristics of those who need food assistance. It built on similar surveys conducted in 2014, 2017, and two in 2020.
Residents who reported having a food need in an earlier survey conducted by Marion County Public Health Department, as well as residents with low to moderate-income who were Dynata (a commercial survey firm) panelists, were invited to participate in the online surveys. After adding statistical weighting, responses from 323 households that met the study criteria were included in the analyses.
Based on Census Bureau survey findings, the percentage of the Marion County population needing food assistance was estimated to be 25%, down from a peak of 28% in June 2020, but above the pre-pandemic level of 20%. The estimates were used to project the total number of missed meals among Marion County residents during the survey period. A total of 242,000 Marion County residents were estimated to need food assistance. This is an additional 48,000 people more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The need for food assistance was found across all ages, all ethnicities, and across income levels from deep poverty to above 185% of the Federal poverty level. However, the Census survey found that in Indiana the percentage of African American households with a
food need was twice as high (21.1%) as the percentage among the general population (9.8%).
Households with children constituted about 46% of the households in the survey. Persons with a food need were found in every part of the city. Two-thirds of the households with a food need reported that one person or more persons in their household was employed for wages.
The number of meals missed in Marion County was estimated to be 526,000 meals per month, down from 638,000 per month in June of 2020. The continued high need for food assistance was well addressed by the food supply, which provided 24.9 million meals in June. Federal nutrition programs in total provided 88% of the meals. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP) alone provided 46% of the meals. The private charitable food assistance network continued to provide more meals than pre-COVID levels. The average number of missed meals was found the be 3.0 per person per week, continuing a slight downward trend over 2014-2021.
Multiple resources come together to constitute the food safety net. They represent a diverse set of players and approaches, and they are keeping hunger largely at bay most of the time for most families. However, even all together the resources are not consistently reaching everyone in need, nor is the safety net achieving food security for recipients. The average household utilized one to two categories of assistance. About one-fifth of households were accessing zero services, potentially due to the stigma of needing help, lack of information about where and how to get help, challenges in accessing services, or other barriers. Lower-income families often face multiple challenges and can only expend so much time and energy on accessing food. So, at times they are going to miss meals, rather than find additional sources of assistance.
As compared to June 2020, the ability to get enough food had changed for a majority of households, but with equal numbers reporting that their situation improved or whose situations were worse. Among those who were better able to get food, the largest factor contributing to the improvement was SNAP benefits. Unemployment benefits did not appear to be a major contributor to ending hunger.
Almost nine of ten food need households (87.1%) in this study were not reliably eating nutritious meals, and nearly one quarter rarely or never eat nutritious meals. The food groups most frequently lacking in family diets were fruits (73.4%) and vegetables (66.7%). The predominant limitation reported was access, with the inability to afford them as the greatest reason.
