Dr. Craig Gundersen is one of the country’s leading food security researchers. He is the Snee Family Endowed Chair and a professor in the Department of Economics at Baylor University. Before coming to Baylor, he was ACES Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, held positions Iowa State University and USDA, and created Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap project.
How did you first become interested in food insecurity?
Craig Gundersen: I attended the University of Notre Dame, became very interested in Catholic social teaching, and decided to work on topics related to poverty. Between college and graduate school, I lived and worked at Casa Juan Diego, a Catholic Worker house in Houston and Matamoros, Mexico.
I carried out my graduate work at the University of California, Riverside. My dissertation was on housing poverty using direct indicators of well-being. At the same time as my graduation, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was developing a new food security measure, and they needed someone with a background in measuring direct indicators of well-being. I was hired there and worked as a researcher on food insecurity and food assistance programs from 1996 to 2003, when I went to Iowa State University.
You are the creator of Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap. Can you explain what this is and why you created it?
Gundersen: Map the Meal Gap provides information on food insecurity at a more granular level of geography than is available in nationally representative datasets, namely, for counties, congressional districts, ZIP codes, and census tracts. This allows those interested in alleviating food insecurity to garner a better sense of the extent of food insecurity within their communities.
Map the Meal Gap was developed in 2011 due to a data lacuna. While there are large-scale data collection efforts like the Current Population Survey (CPS) — and some of these are large enough to generate state-level estimates of food insecurity, and for some large metro area — we don’t know the extent of food insecurity in the vast majority of locations across the United States. This was challenging for food banks and other local entities who wanted to understand and identify areas with especially high rates of food insecurity.
In response, I established a two-step estimation procedure using data from publicly available datasets that serves as the basis for Map the Meal Gap.
Is there food insecurity on campus at Baylor?
Gundersen: In comparison to the general population, the proportion of Baylor students who are suffering from food insecurity or are at risk of food insecurity is very low. I don’t mean to diminish the challenges those students face, but there are maybe three to five percent who are food-insecure, and perhaps the same amount who are at risk of being food-insecure. From my perspective, that’s really low compared to other groups across the nation, including, for example, those with disabilities. The good news is that Baylor does a lot to help students who are at risk of food insecurity, and they should be commended for those efforts.
Read more: Baylor’s Role In the Ongoing Battle Against Food Insecurity
Who are especially vulnerable to food insecurity in the U.S.?
Gundersen: About one in seven Americans is food insecure. It’s a serious problem. We have to think about how many people may be briefly food-insecure or at risk of it when food prices rise or during a recession. However, a more critical question is who is at much greater risk of food insecurity, even during times of low food prices and a strong economy? I always emphasize four groups: those with disabilities, especially mental health disabilities; those suffering from addictions; those who are lonely; and those who have been recently incarcerated.
We have to begin thinking about what can be done to help those groups at much higher risk of food insecurity, because oftentimes, just giving more money for food or more food doesn’t solve the problem. There are deeper issues we need to address.
At Baylor, our call is to help those whom others may ignore. Through its alums, students, and friends across the country we can leverage our churches and Christian organizations to implement innovative interventions to alleviate food insecurity among the most vulnerable.
Much of your research over the past 30 years has concentrated on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Do you think it’s a good program?
Gundersen: Yes, it is a very successful program. It aims to reduce food insecurity, and study after study demonstrates that it succeeds. While not all government programs work, SNAP decidedly does and should serve as a model for other assistance programs.
When the recent government shutdown shut off SNAP benefits, it drew a lot of attention to its positive role in alleviating food insecurity. And that was a good thing. I tell people that both Democratic and Republican administrations have done good and bad things for SNAP. Still, overall, it’s received a lot of bipartisan support, and we need to be talking about this a bit more.
SNAP is a critical component of our efforts to reduce food insecurity in the United States, and without this program, food insecurity rates would be substantially higher. But we also need to emphasize two other key macro determinants of food insecurity.
First, we need our economy to really grow, grow, and grow some more, as it’s the only way people can have the resources to be food secure. To do so, efforts at both the national and state levels are important. In terms of states, Texas serves as a model for growth, which is one of the reasons its population growth has been so high, especially compared to less successful states.
Second, we need to keep food prices low. When food prices increase, there are corresponding increases in food insecurity. To give you an example, the spike in food insecurity in 2022 and 2023 was almost entirely due to higher food prices. The most important thing we can do to keep food prices low is to allow markets across the agricultural supply chain to be free of regulatory and other hindrances that drive up prices and, consequently, especially hurt lower-income Americans. This is another thing that Texas is especially good at and can serve as a model for the rest of the country.
Are there other ways food-insecure folks can get help?
Gundersen: There are a lot of local programs through our churches, through other organizations that can really help out people at the regional level. There are hundreds of examples of initiatives out there, and they’re much more tailored to help people with their individual needs.
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What is your current focus?
Gundersen: My research continues to concentrate on the causes and consequences of food insecurity and on the evaluation of food assistance programs with an emphasis on SNAP and charitable food assistance programs.
One area that I’m most excited about right now is working with the Laboratory for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame. The goal of LEO is to evaluate charitable organizations and the activities they undertake to help vulnerable people. There are a lot of great programs out there, but they haven’t been evaluated.
Two projects we’re working on are with the Houston Food Bank and St. Mary’s Food Bank. One challenge is that people come to a food pantry to get free food, visit once or twice, and then do not return. Now, some people don’t come back because they no longer need assistance, but others may still need it. We’re testing whether text messaging, and in particular more tailored messages to individuals, can help ensure that vulnerable Americans receive the help they need.
