Skip to Main Content
Statistics & Reports on Food Justice
Delivering to Deserts: New Data Reveal the Geography of Digital Access to Food in the U.S. (The Brookings Institution)
Digital food access could be a game-changer for people who struggle with brick-and-mortar food access barriers, including those living in disinvested areas historically defined as “food deserts” and individuals facing mobility challenges or time constraints. But at the same time, there are few neighborhood-level assessments of the digital food services footprint and whether those service maps align with the communities of greatest need.
Hunger in Massachusetts (Project Bread, 2022)
Recent data show that food insecurity is beginning to rise at the state-level coinciding with the end of several pandemic-specific federal benefits programs. However, the current rate is still lower than that of the May 2020 and December 2020 peaks.
Blood, Sweat and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants
Workers in the U.S. meat and poultry industry endure unnecessarily hazardous work conditions, and the companies employing them often use illegal tactics to crush union organizing efforts. In meat and poultry plants across the United States, Human Rights Watch found that many workers face a real danger of losing a limb, or even their lives, in unsafe work conditions.
Child Food Insecurity in Massachusetts
Tables by county and Congressional district,
Current Population Survey, Food Security Supplement
A national survey conducted to obtain information about household food expenditures, food program participation, food sufficiency, ways for coping with food insecurity, and concerns about food security.
Exposed and Ignored: How Pesticides are Endangering Our Nation's Farmworkers
This report exposes the serious health risks faced by thousands of farmworkers each year from pesticide exposure, and the failings of workplace standards to prevent the high rate of pesticide-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths.
Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture
In this 99-page report Human Rights Watch found that child farmworkers risked their safety, health, and education on commercial farms across the United States. For the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 59 children under age 18 who had worked as farmworkers in 14 states in various regions of the United States.
Food for Every Child: The Need for More Supermarkets in Massachusetts
This report by The Food Trust documents the need for more healthy food retail in Massachusetts to ensure that all children and their families live in communities that have access to healthy and affordable food.
House Bill Restricting Free School Meals Option Could Increase Food Insecurity in High-Poverty Neighborhoods
Eliminating community eligibility for schools in high-poverty neighborhoods would likely make it harder for high-poverty schools to feed and educate their students.
Hunger in America Study, 2014
Hunger in America is a series of quadrennial studies that provide comprehensive demographic profiles of people seeking food assistance through the charitable sector and an in-depth analysis of the partner agencies in the Feeding America network that provide this assistance.
Low Wages and Few Benefits Mean Many Restaurant Workers Can't Make Ends Meet
The restaurant industry is a large and fast-growing sector of the U.S. economy. It currently employs 5.5 million women (accounting for 9.9 percent of all private-sector employment among women) and 5.1 million men (accounting for 8.4 percent of private-sector employment among men). This paper examines the restaurant industry and the workers who hold restaurant jobs, including how much they earn, what jobs they do, whether they receive benefits, and whether they and their families are able to make ends meet.
Picking up the NRA's Tab: The Public Cost of Low Wages in the Full-Service Restaurant Industry
Although the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the country, restaurant workers occupy eight of the ten lowest-paid occupations reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics; at least five of these are in full-service. The lowest wage in the country is the federal tipped minimum wage which has been frozen at $2.13 per hour since 1991.
Defining Low-Income, Low-Access Food Areas (Congressional Research Service)
