Arizona State University Collaboration Aims to Combat Food Insecurity with Innovative Dashboard
Arizona is stepping up its fight against food insecurity, thanks to a collaborative effort involving students and faculty from Arizona State University and St. Mary’s Food Bank. Together, they have developed a groundbreaking dashboard designed to streamline the allocation of resources to those in need across the state.
This digital tool integrates a comprehensive range of data, including census demographics, the location of grocery stores, and statistics related to SNAP participation, providing a clearer picture of food insecurity issues.
On February 9, St. Mary’s hosted a workshop where food bank officials were introduced to the dashboard by students, who guided them on how to utilize this service effectively.
Assistant Professor Aaron Flores emphasized the objective of this initiative: “We actually all got together for several months, probably about once a week, and really worked hard on putting together as simple of a training that we could.” He noted the importance of considering the varying levels of experience among users, adding, “And we tried to keep in mind that many of these people have never worked with this type of software.”
Flores highlighted the dashboard’s ability to pinpoint specific areas facing significant food insecurity challenges. “Those aren’t the only places where food insecurity is high, but it’s pretty clear when you look at a map of Arizona that our tribal lands are experiencing high rates of food insecurity,” he explained.
Data from Feeding America underscores the severity of the issue, revealing that over 1 million Arizonans, or about 14% of the state’s population, experienced food insecurity in 2023.
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