GEOSPATIAL TOOLS AND ANALYSES TO ASSESS, EDUCATE AND INFORM SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF RURAL FOOD INSECURITY

Food insecurity is a general and growing concern in the U.S.; in 2012, 14.5 percent of US households were food insecure (USDA Research, 2013), with North Carolina ranking 5th among the 10 states exhibiting significantly higher household food insecurity rates than the national average (Gunderson et al. 2013). In particular, rural food insecurity is a significant but understudied problem in the U. S. The extent and distribution of food insecure rural residents has not been well-mapped, and little work has been done on the identification of logistically and economically feasible strategies for increased access to healthy food in rural communities. Emergency food providers have taken steps to meet the rural service gap, but distributing food from food banks and food pantries to the neediest in rural areas has proven to be highly problematic (Molnar et al. 2001; Bitto et al. 2003). An important barrier to success is the lack of information about food access in rural area.Decision tools for researchers, farm markets and market systems using ever-evolving GIS technologies serves as a new approach to quantify the many facets that encompass rural food insecurity and ways to address these challenges. A Geographic Information System (GIS) serves as the means by which spatially related phenomena can be created, analyzed and rendered in the digital environment. All 100 North Carolina counties, as well as municipalities and private contractors require the use of GIS personnel, ranging in fields from land assessment, banking and zoning to environmental monitoring, school districting, crime analysis, economic analysis and sociology. Experience and skills in GIS acquired during undergraduate and graduate studies are broadly applicable in diverse fields, including health science, sustainability, sociology, demography, economics/business, transportation and allied STEM fields such as computer science, information systems and environmental science. Integrating STEM technologies with intervention planning has the potential to be a cost-effective means for assistance organizations to conduct effective planning aimed at understanding and ultimatelyimproving food and nutritional security in rural communities.