Socioeconomic, demographic and geographic disparities in accessibility to food pantries in the united States

Abstract

Abstract Improving access to food pantries (FPs) may help address food insecurity, yet national-level assessments of geographic and socioeconomic disparities remain limited. We created a dataset of 34,475 FPs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia and analyzed their accessibility to the nearest Census block group (BG). We defined accessibility as high, medium, or low based on travel time or distance. Analyses of 239,780 BGs showed that 23.4% had low FP access. We identified geographic disparities across regions and states. For example, states in the Northeast generally have higher FP accessibility, while those in the South show lower access. Although rural BGs are more socioeconomically disadvantaged than urban ones (mean ADI: 71.3 vs. 45.8), they generally have better FP access (only 8.5% with low access vs. 26.5% in urban areas). However, some rural BGs with low FP accessibility tend to have high ADI values. In urban areas, FP placement shows relatively good alignment withneighborhood needs based on analyses of socioeconomic characteristics. In contrast, rural access patterns are more mixed. For example, less-educated rural populations face greater barriers. Findings from this study can inform policy and implementation strategies to improve FP access in underserved communities.