Austin’s growing poverty sprawl in one animated GIF.

Too many Central Texans are increasingly in need of help to avoid the pangs of hunger.   This recent study shows that people living in poverty in the Austin Metro Area’s have grown 143 percent in the last 11 years.  That’s the second fastest of all metropolitan areas in the country.   It can be hard to imagine that people living in suburban homes may be struggling with having enough healthy food to eat each day.   To help illustrate what this growth looks like, we created this animated GIF of the Urban Institute’s new mapping tool that shows the change in poverty over a span of 30 years, 10 years at a time.

One dot represents 20 people with income below the poverty line. The colors represent the following groups:

 

Increasingly, Austin residents have turned to the outskirts of town to seek affordable housing. Charitable support, mostly concentrated in Austin’s urban core makes it tougher for families living in the outlying areas to get the help they need.  In response the changing needs of our community our programs have changed as well.

By supporting federal programs we’re giving more Central Texans tools to make better, accessible and affordable decisions at mealtime and helping to  reduce the barriers to better health and nutrition no matter where they live or play.

When we started in 1981, we provided 330,000 pounds food in our first year.  Today, we’re distributing 22 million pounds of food, and the need continues to grow.  There’s a lot to do, and there’s a lot we can do to end hunger. Your support makes it possible for us to meet the need today, and be prepared for Central Texas’ growth.