Data Dashboards
The Hunger Data Lab Data Dashboards exist to make data accessible and understandable for use by communities, practitioners, advocates, policy makers, and researchers. We believe that data is necessary to gain an understanding for how hunger and food insecurity impact communities across Texas. With these data dashboards, we hope that you will be able to make informed, data-driven decisions about the work needing to be done to end hunger in your community.
Child Nutrition Programs
Child Nutrition Programs are federal nutrition programs administered by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). These programs help ensure children receive nutritious meals and snacks throughout the school year and summer. School Nutrition Programs are critical for improving food security among children through both the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Through these programs, children are served nutritionally balanced meals, and eligible students can receive Free or Reduced-Price meals at school each day.
Understanding school meals data helps us identify gaps and areas of growth for increased participation in Breakfast and Lunch, especially for children who are eligible for Free or Reduced-Price meals and may be experiencing food insecurity. Maximizing the use of school meal programs increases school attendance, test scores, and reduces disciplinary action (FRAC, 2019). Ensuring school meals are widely available is an effective strategy to reducing hunger and increasing families’ ability to purchase healthy food (Marcus & Yewell, 2022).
How to Navigate the Dashboard:
- First, choose a viewing option (Map or Table)
- Then, select a Data Category (Food Insecurity or School Meals)
- Next, choose the Data and Year
- Lastly, select any number of Texas counties by typing in the search bar, scrolling down the list, clicking on the map, or selecting from the bar graph on the right
Note: Due to the differences in the School Meals Data reported from 2019-21, when School Meals is selected as the Data Category, only the data options with (2019-21) are available for those years.
Food Insecurity Data Source
Food Insecurity data sourced from Feeding America, datasets received on August 12, 2024 (view the full list of citations here). Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection in 2020, the food insecurity data for that year cannot be directly compared to the estimates for other years. For more information, see Feeding America's full explanation on their website.
School Meals Data Source
School Meals data sourced from TDA's Texas Open Data Portal, datasets pulled September 30, 2024 and filtered for October. Due to complexities in allowances and reporting differences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school meals data for 2019-21 differ from 2015-18 and 2022-23. For more information see TDA's full explanation on their website.
Acknowledgements: Our team at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Research Fellows Joshua Been, MLS and Sinai Wood, MLS for their work on this dashboard. Josh, Associate Librarian and Director of Data and Digital Scholarship, and Sinai, Associate Professor, Documents Librarian, both contributed significant time, effort, and creativity to the design and functionality of this tool to ensure that the data can be easily accessed, understood, and utilized by communities across the state. We are grateful for each of them and their willingness to partner with us to make these data accessible to all.
Share Your Feedback or Questions
This dashboard is designed with you in mind. If you have feedback to help improve usability or have questions about the dashboard, please reach out and a member of our team will respond to your inquiry.
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