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This research guide aims to define food insecurity and introduce closely related concepts at the local, national, and global levels. Use the tabs across the top of the guide to navigate.
Compiled by BGSU Librarians Vera Lux, Edith Scarletto, and Maureen Barry.
What is Food Insecurity?
Keywords/Related Concepts
Terms & Definitions
- How to talk about food (in)securityBrief peer reviewed introductions to concepts, ideas, and terms related to issues in food insecurity. Both text and video.
Local/State
Government Agencies
- Ohio Benefits PortalCheck for eligibility, apply for assistance, access assistance.
- SNAP Benefits: Ohio Office of Family AssistanceInformation on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Ohio and other resources.
- Wood County Job & Family ServicesSNAP administration
Advocacy/Policy Organizations
- Children's Hunger AllianceFounded in 1970, Children’s Hunger Alliance is an Ohio nonprofit organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger. Produced Ohio needs report: The State of Childhood Hunger: Creating a Full Future
for Ohio’s Children - Ohio Food Policy NetworkA collaborative network of active local food councils and multiple state, regional, and local stakeholders throughout Ohio guided by a Steering Committee that facilitates collaboration within the network.
Background and Context
USDA US Food Security by State 2020
Voices of Food Insecurity
- Root to Seed Food Justice PodcastProduced by Community Food Initiatives in SE Ohio
- BG Ideas: Food Pantries, Food Insecurity, and Social StigmaIn this episode, Dr. Jolie Sheffer interviews Natalie Orslene, a BGSU graduate student and ICS Student Research Award winner, and Dr. Shannon Orr, Professor of Political Science. They discuss factors impacting food pantry access and the social stigma associated with food insecurity.
Programs
- Healthy Food Access Portal Profiles & Research SpotlightsIn 2014, the Ohio Regional Convergence Partnership and Finance Fund, in partnership with The Food Trust, conducted a statewide research study to identify communities in Ohio with greatest need for improved access to healthy food.
- Produce PerksTo improve the health of under-served communities by increasing affordable access to healthy food.
Data and Datasets
College Students & Hunger
National
Get Involved
Government Agencies
- USDA : Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)Eligibility tool, FAQ, and how to apply.
- USA.gov: Food AssistanceLearn how to get food for yourself and your family through SNAP (food stamps), D-SNAP, and WIC for women, infants, and children. Apply for school meals for your kids and supplemental food for seniors. Find out how food programs can provide emergency help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- USDA: NutritionDescriptions and links to food assistance programs and organizations (SNAP, WIC and more)
Policy/Advocacy Organizations
- Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)Nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. Provides research and data and promotes legislative action.
- National Black Farmers AssociationA non-profit organization representing African American farmers and their families in the United States. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts have been focused on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.
- Local Government Food Policy Database (Growing Food Connections)searchable collection of local public policies that explicitly support community food systems.
Background and Context
- Overview of Food Security in the United StatesUnited States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service
- U.S. Food Insecurity ResearchFeeding America
- Identifying and Countering White Supremacy Culture in Food SystemsDuke University World Food Policy Center
USDA U.S. Food Insecurity 2020
Voices of Food Insecurity and Food Activism
- Real Stories of HungerFeeding America
- Food Sovereignty in the USA: A Selection of StoriesU.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance
- Real Food MediaSee: Voices of the Food Chain
Community Organizing
- Freedge"We promote equal access to healthy food through the installation of community fridges (public refrigerators) that are used to share food and ideas at the neighborhood level."
- Food Rescue US"Our local volunteers pick-up excess healthy food from local food donors and deliver it directly to local social service agencies that feed the food insecure."
Data and Datasets
Global
Intergovernmental Organizations
- United Nations: World Food ProgrammeUN WFP is a humanitarian organization, working on issues of hunger & famine around the world.
- Committee on World Food SecurityThe Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was established in 1974. An international and intergovernmental organization focused on food security and nutrition for all.
- Food and Agricultural Organization of the United NationsThe Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
UN World Food Insecurity
Where is food produced?
Global Food Insecurity
Voices of Food Insecurity
- Voices of the HungryFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Policy/Advocacy Organizations
- Stimson: Food Security ProgramNonprofit, nonpartisan global policy organization. The Food Security Program produces commentary, reports, policy memos and papers related to global issues of food insecurity.
- Inernational Food Policy Research InstituteThe International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.
- World Food Policy CenterA research/eduction/convening organization within Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Their mission is to advance connected and inclusive food system policy and practice in support of equity and resilience of local/national/global food systems.
BGSU Researchers
BGSU Subscription Resources
- Environment CompleteIndexing, abstracts and full text for journal articles, monographs and conference papers on environmental topics including agriculture, ecosystem ecology, renewable energy sources, pollution & waste management, environmental law, and more.
- PubMedA service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed includes over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.
- StatistaStatista is an online statistics portal providing access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government institutions.
- Social ExplorerSocial Explorer provides quick and easy access to modern and historical socioeconomic and demographic data, bringing together quantitative data with a visual interface to make demographic research, the analysis of social trends, and comparison of neighborhoods, communities, counties, and other areas accessible and interactive.
- ProQuest Global NewsstreamAn online newspaper resource that includes international, national and regional papers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, The Guardian, El Norte, Jerusalem Post, and South China Morning Post.
ScholarWorks Projects on Food Insecurity
Recently published peer-reviewed research articles
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Books on Food Insecurity and Related Topics
Food and Poverty by
Food insecurity rates, which skyrocketed with the Great Recession, have yet to fall to pre-recession levels. Food pantries are stretched thin, and states are imposing new restrictions on programs like SNAP that are preventing people from getting crucial government assistance. At the same time, we see an increase in obesity that results from lack of access to healthy foods. The poor face a daily choice between paying bills and paying for food.
Call Number: HV696.F6 F63145 2018ISBN: 9780826522030Publication Date: 2018-09-24
Food Insecurity on Campus by
The hidden problem of student hunger on college campuses is real. Here's how colleges and universities are addressing it. As the price of college continues to rise and the incomes of most Americans stagnate, too many college students are going hungry. According to researchers, approximately half of all undergraduates are food insecure. Food Insecurity on Campus--the first book to describe the problem--meets higher education's growing demand to tackle the pressing question "How can we end student hunger?" Essays by a diverse set of authors, each working to address food insecurity in higher education, describe unique approaches to the topic. They also offer insights into the most promising strategies to combat student hunger, including * utilizing research to raise awareness and enact change; * creating campus pantries, emergency aid programs, and meal voucher initiatives to meet immediate needs; * leveraging public benefits and nonprofit partnerships to provide additional resources; * changing higher education systems and college cultures to better serve students; and * drawing on student activism and administrative clout to influence federal, state, and local policies. Arguing that practice and policy are improved when informed by research, Food Insecurity on Campus combines the power of data with detailed storytelling to illustrate current conditions. A foreword by Sara Goldrick-Rab further contextualizes the problem. Offering concrete guidance to anyone seeking to understand and support college students experiencing food insecurity, the book encourages readers to draw from the lessons learned to create a comprehensive strategy to fight student hunger. Contributors: Talia Berday-Sacks, Denise Woods-Bevly, Katharine M. Broton, Clare L. Cady, Samuel Chu, Sarah Crawford, Cara Crowley, Rashida M. Crutchfield, James Dubick, Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Jordan Herrera, Nicole Hindes, Russell Lowery-Hart, Jennifer J. Maguire, Michael Rosen, Sabrina Sanders, Rachel Sumekh
ISBN: 1421437732Publication Date: 2020-05-12
A Land Not Forgotten by
Food insecurity takes a disproportionate toll on the health of Canada's Indigenous people. A Land Not Forgotten examines the disruptions in local food practices as a result of colonization and the cultural, educational and health consequences of those disruptions. This multidisciplinary work demonstrates how some Indigenous communities in northern Ontario are addressing the challenges to food security through the restoration of land-based cultural practices.
Call Number: E78.O5 L38 2017ISBN: 0887557570Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Food insecurity in families with children: integrating research, practice, and policy by ISBN: 303074342XPublication Date: 2021
Feeding the Other: Whiteness, privilege, and neoliberal stigma in food pantries by
How food pantries stigmatize their clients through a discourse that emphasizes hard work, self help, and economic productivity rather than food justice and equity. The United States has one of the highest rates of hunger and food insecurity in the industrialized world, with poor households, single parents, and communities of color disproportionately affected. Food pantries--run by charitable and faith-based organizations--rather than legal entitlements have become a cornerstone of the government's efforts to end hunger. In Feeding the Other, Rebecca de Souza argues that food pantries stigmatize their clients through a discourse that emphasizes hard work, self help, and economic productivity rather than food justice and equity. De Souza describes this "framing, blaming, and shaming" as "neoliberal stigma" that recasts the structural issue of hunger as a problem for the individual hungry person. De Souza shows how neoliberal stigma plays out in practice through a comparative case analysis of two food pantries in Duluth, Minnesota. Doing so, she documents the seldom-acknowledged voices, experiences, and realities of people living with hunger. She describes the failure of public institutions to protect citizens from poverty and hunger; the white privilege of pantry volunteers caught between neoliberal narratives and social justice concerns; the evangelical conviction that food assistance should be "a hand up, not a handout"; the culture of suspicion in food pantry spaces; and the constraints on food choice. It is only by rejecting the neoliberal narrative and giving voice to the hungry rather than the privileged, de Souza argues, that food pantries can become agents of food justice.
ISBN: 9780262352789Publication Date: 2019-03-15
