COREY S. SPARKS, PHD 1

P. JOHNELLE SPARKS, PHD 1

LESLI BIEDIGER-FRIEDMAN, PHD, MPH 2

1 DEPARTMENT OF DEMOGRAPHY2 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND KINESIOLOGYTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

M AY 1 0 , 2 0 1 2S A N A N T O N I O F O O D P O L I C Y C O N F E R E N C E

C O R E Y. S PA R K S @ U T S A . E D U

A Food Security Assessment for

San Antonio, TX

Outline

Introduction What we know about food insecurity

Description of SA Food security project What we WANT to know about food security in our

community Objectives of project Results from project

SummaryLimitationsMoving forward

Future projects

Food Insecurity

Food secure—These households had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. 85.3% of households in 2009

Food insecure—At times during the year, these households were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food. 14.7% of households

In 2009, 50.2 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 17.2 million children.

Source: Nord, Mark, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2009. ERR- 108, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. November 2010.

What we know

The prevalence of food insecurity varied considerably among household types. Some groups with rates of food insecurity much higher than the national average (14.7 percent) were: Households with incomes below the official poverty line—

$21,756 for a family of four in 2009—(43.0 percent). Households with children, headed by a single woman (36.6

percent). Households with children, headed by a single man (27.8

percent). Black households (24.9 percent). Hispanic households (26.9 percent).

Source: Nord, Mark, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2009. ERR- 108, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. November 2010.

What we know about Texas

Texas ranks 2nd in the country for food insecurity prevalence.

17.4% of households in Texas were food insecure between 2007-2009.

Many Texans qualify for food assistance programs, but do not participate due to: Limited awareness Stigma Inadequate funding Enrollment barriers (staff shortages, red tape,

outdated rules) make the benefits hard to access

What we know about San Antonio

A study conducted by the San Antonio Food Bank and Feeding American in 2009 finds: Many clients are food insecure with low or very low

food security Many clients report choosing between food and other

necessities (bills, rent/mortgage, medical care, transportation, etc.)

Many clients are in poor health

What we know about San Antonio

33% of client households served by the SAFB are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Among households with children ages 0-3 years of age, 69% participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Among households with school-age children, 57% and 42%, respectively, participate in the federal school lunch and school breakfast programs.

Among households with school-age children, 15% participate in the summer food program.

Research Objective 1

Identify the populations and areas within Bexar County/San Antonio that are at highest risk of food insecurity

Population risk factors for food insecurity are high unemployment, high poverty rates, minority status, lower educational attainment, poor quality housing/housing tenure and household structure.

US 2000 Census Summary file 3 and the five year American Community Survey (ACS) 2005-2009.

This allows us to map areas within the city that face high levels of food insecurity “risk”

Objective 1: Population Level Food Insecurity Risk

Risk Index and USDA Food Deserts

Who lives in Food Deserts?

In 2010, these were the populations that lived in the 60 tracts identified as food deserts in Bexar County

17% of the Bexar County Population lived in a food desert

Demographic Comparison of Food Deserts and Non-Food Deserts

Food deserts have higher poverty rates, higher minority concentrations, lower incomes, higher foreign born populations and lower marriage rates

Research Objective 2

Construct and develop a spatially organized Geographic Information System (GIS) of food resources and resources related to addressing food insecurity problems in the city

Use existing sources, national databases and fieldwork to identify a comprehensive locational database of food resources

The database consists of multiple layers of information, including but not limited to locations of grocery stores, restaurants, food pantries, markets and farmers markets

This allows the visualization and comparison of areas of the city where at-risk populations live with their food resources and transportation opportunities

Also use public data from USDA on “food deserts”

Objective 2 Data

Reference USA database

Addresses and characteristics of over 16 million businesses in the US

This source was queried for NAICS codes representing restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and other food-related businesses

San Antonio Food Bank Database of addresses of all partner agencies

ESRI road data

Objective 2 Methods

Geocoding of addresses Process that gives addresses real world geographic

coordinates Allows businesses to be mapped relative to other

features (roads, food deserts, etc)

Geographic Network Analysis Service area analysis Allows for the mapping of an area around a business

to be mapped in terms of drive or walk times e.g. What are the areas that can reach a grocery store in

15 minutes?

SAFB agencies

Convenience Stores

Restaurants

Grocery Stores

Drive time analysis Polygons show 5 and

10 minutes drive time areas

Most of Bexar county, and San Antonio especially, has at least a 10 minute accessibility to a grocery

This says nothing about quality of stores or other barriers to access

Research Objective 3

Conduct a survey to assess who in San Antonio faces food insecurity Aimed at documenting social determinants of food insecurity

reported by families that belong to at-risk populations within Bexar County

Conduct primary data collection using a survey instrument based on the standardized assessment tool of Bickel et al (USDA protocols)

Focus on areas defined in Objective 1 to target “at risk” population of the city

Responses from this data collection effort were compared to local, state and national level data on food insecurity from the Current Population Survey (CPS) December supplement on Food Insecurity, which uses the same questionnaire

Survey Locations

5 Locations Agreed to our survey

Claude Black CenterNeighborhood PlaceChristian Assistance

MinistryHemisView Farmers

MarketFlea Market San

Antonio

Survey Respondents

A total of 241 respondents from the five sites

Comparison of CPS with Current Survey

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

CPS 2009 %CPS 2010 %Current Survey %

Comparison of Respondents by Residence

0.0010.0020.0030.0040.0050.0060.0070.0080.0090.00

Current Survey In Food Desert %Current Survey Not in Food Desert%

Children’s Food Security

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

CPS 2009 %CPS 2010 %Current Survey %

Survey Analysis

Further analysis of the survey data show:For Adult food insecurity

Non-Hispanic Blacks faced higher food insecurity than both Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites

Use of home gardens shows a very strong association with food insecurity in adults

For Children’s food insecurity Larger households, lack of social support and living in

a food desert increase the chances of parents reporting food insecurity for their children

Easy access to grocery stores reduced the chances

Summary

In this project, three main objectives were attempted Describe the population level patterns of food

insecurity risk in Bexar county When demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of

the tracts considered food deserts were compared to those not considered being food deserts, a general picture of socioeconomic inequality appeared.

Food deserts showed several negative characteristics including higher poverty rates and lower average incomes.

Summary

Construct a spatial database of food resources within Bexar County

An analysis of estimated drive times to grocery stores was presented, and showed that most of the county, and certainly the city of San Antonio has easy access to a grocery store.

The primary value of the database is for future analyses, where specific questions concerning access to specific types of food establishments or comparisons between accessibility to different types of establishments could be carried out.

Summary

Conduct a survey of individual household food insecurity Levels of food insecurity among the respondents of the survey

were much higher than among the general population of the county.

This most likely stems from the nature of the locations selected for the surveys.

There were few differences in adult food insecurity by age, race or marital status of the respondents.

Additionally, few food access variables affected the rate of food insecurity among adults.

Several associations were found for child food insecurity, including parent’s age, household size, ease of grocery access and social support for food assistance. Additionally, if the respondents lived in a food desert, children within the household were over four times more likely to face food insecurity.

Limitations

First, by relying on census tracts as a unit of analysis, we are ignoring any real “social neighborhoods” that exist in the city/county. Tracts are at best a crude proxy for neighborhoods. Our survey consisted of only a small sample (n=241 people), whose

characteristics only roughly match the population they were chosen to represent.

Further data must be collected to generate a more representative sample of the county’s population, and further analyses are essential to understanding the food insecurity issues present in our community.

The data generated by this project is a good start at forming a database that is inclusive of both individual level surveys and aggregate level neighborhood characteristics.

Moving Forward

Future Projects Further studies of food resource access

Focusing on rural areas around Bexar County

Expand food insecurity study to compare rural and urban areas of South Texas

Examine childhood food insecurity and the roles of program participation

Acknowledgements

Metro HealthUTSA College of Public PolicyUTSA College of Education and Human

Development

Numerous student volunteers who assisted with surveys

Survey locations for allowing us to conduct our work