Nationally, approximately 22% of the LGBTQ+ community is food insecure. In Arizona, the data doesn’t really exist, at least not yet. The Arizona Food Bank Network is currently surveying this population to determine how big a problem hunger is among them.
Terri Shoemaker is executive vice president of the Arizona Food Bank Network.
“We know that hunger is indeed endemic to certain regions and certain groups of people, and we have long heard anecdotes that hunger is a problem, especially in LGBTQ+ communities. ,” Shoemaker said.
So they started learning more.
“And we find that we don’t have a lot of data on Arizona, and not just what hunger looks like in that population, and there’s ongoing research in the form of surveys and focus groups. Arizona. So, what can we ultimately do about it?”
Isabel Loga is the network’s program manager.
She said they are hosting two focus groups, one with people between the ages of 18 and 24 and one with older adults.
“So our seniors found a lot of conversations primarily about balancing food costs and combating that, Social Security, SNAP benefits, etc. A lot of the conversations also extended to health care. ” said Roga. Said.
The investigation will conclude in December, and Loga will issue a report in the new year. To take the survey, visit bit.ly/LGBTQIA2S-Survey.
