GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY - TWIN CITIES, MN

NINE COUNTY FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT AND INTERACTIVE MAPPING TOOL

LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS | 2023

Food Works Group (FWG) partnered with Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) to conduct a food security assessment of their nine-county Twin Cities region, in pursuit of making more informed investments in the community to improve food security. This work included conducting stakeholder interviews, surveys, and focus groups with a variety of stakeholders, including individuals experiencing food insecurity, staff and volunteers at food access organizations, and government staff supporting food access work. Leveraging this stakeholder input, FWG then analyzed and compiled existing local, regional, and national data sets related to food security and food access to develop an interactive map and tool. This tool detailed food security rates and food access points in the region in order to support GTCUW in identifying geographic pockets of high food insecurity. The tool is a live and modifiable application that allowed GTCUW to better understand and address geographic pockets of food insecurity, thus better allocating their investments over the next five years to improve the region’s food access.