It has become somewhat of a management mantra: you cannot manage what you do not measure. And, yet, when it comes to the most pressing social problems of our day -- like hunger in America -- we need so much more than measurement. We need smarter, more collaborative data collection that bypasses organizational silos. And, we need to couple that data with creative, compelling info graphics that spur innovation and action. We need a Hunger Data Consortium.
Hunger is on the rise in America despite decades of government programs and private outreach. According to the most recent figures -- which are almost two years old -- over 49 million Americans suffer from food insecurity; 17 million are children -- which prompted President Obama earlier this year to challenge our nation to end childhood hunger by 2015.
To meet this challenge, we need greater awareness, understanding and advocacy of hunger and its implications. And, that requires enhanced collection, organization and utilization of hunger related data in America. While tremendous amounts of data are collected, it is often incomplete, dated and fragmented -- accessible only to researchers and policy makers, not the general public or local hunger advocates.
Benefits of a Hunger Data Consortium
A central, holistic source of data that includes data visualizers as modeled below and is accessible to all can provide important benefits to help solve the problem of hunger in America. 
Benefits like:
Utilizing currently available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the info graphic looks at the rates of obesity, food insecurity, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) participation and poverty in the 50 states. It shows states with high levels of food insecurity also have high rates of obesity. In addition, 14 states have both higher than the national average rate of food insecurity and obesity. It also suggests that the current levels of SNAP participation are not high enough to keep food insecurity or obesity at low levels (see Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Kentucky or Kansas for example)
What Data Can Provoke
While this info graphic doesn't answer all the questions as to why obesity and hunger are linked -- or how strong the links are -- visualizing data like this may help policy makers and researchers see the data in a different light and help provoke new thinking and solutions. For instance:
These types of questions -- and more -- can be asked and answered with better data, analysis and presentation.
It's time we stop hoarding data in silos -- accessible only to a few. We need to create a Hunger Data Consortium and let everyone and anyone -- the government, non-profits, the media and interested individuals -- use it to test hypotheses and create new approaches to ending hunger in America.
Follow Anne Mai Bertelsen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/annemai
Bit small to read in the thumnail
You're right, the national data that's available -- through the Census, USDA & other sources -- is not adequate to measure childhood hunger. We generally only have data at the state level, and rarely at the community level. (Besides the fact that the USDA insists on calling this “food insecurity” or “very low food insecurity” and doesn’t even use the word “hunger!”)
In order to build access for children to the existing federal food programs we will need much better community level (and school district level) data that will allow us to increase participation for kids and their parents in programs that already work, like food stamps, summer meals, and school breakfast.
The challenge is that tracking this data is expensive. Collaboration will be key to getting better data. Perhaps a hunger data consortium would solve these data problems.
-- Pat Nicklin, Managing Director @ Share Our Strength