Last month, Feeding America released its annual Map the Meal Gap report, which provides food-insecurity data for food banks across the nation. The overall food-insecurity rate in Foodlink’s 10-county service area rose from 12% in 2022, to 12.8% in 2023, according to the report.
Following the initial data release, Foodlink requested additional information about food insecurity within its service area. Key takeaways from the supplemental data release includes:
- The City of Rochester’s overall food-insecurity rate is 21.5%.
- Of the major municipalities across the state (pop. = 100,000+), Syracuse ranks just ahead of Rochester as the city with the highest food insecurity rate at 21.7%. Buffalo ranks third (20.7%), Albany fourth (19.9%), New York City fifth (17.8%) and Yonkers sixth (16.5%).
- Smaller municipalities with high food-insecurity rates (20%+) within Foodlink’s 10-county service area include:
- Friendship (Allegany County): 24.5%
- Albion (Orleans County): 21.8%
- Clyde (Wayne County): 20.9%
- Lyons (Wayne County): 20.1%
- Wellsville (Allegany County): 20%
- The Rochester City School District food-insecurity rate mirrors the city rate at 21.5%, and ranks 7th in the state. Syracuse ranks 6th and Buffalo ranks 11th. Binghamton is first overall at 22.9%.
- Foodlink’s Advocacy Committee does plenty of outreach to its local delegation that covers Rochester and its suburban communities. The food-insecurity rates for those districts are listed below:
- Senate 55th (Sen. Samra Brouk): 13.3%
- Senate 56th (Sen. Jeremy Cooney): 15.5%
- Assembly 134th (Assemblymember Josh Jensen): 11.7%
- Assembly 135th (Assemblymember Jen Lunsford): 9.2%
- Assembly 136th (Assemblymember Sarah Clark): 13.8%
- Assembly 137th (Assemblymember Demond Meeks): 21.9%
- Assembly 138th (Assemblymember Harry Bronson): 14.4%
