Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin recently launched a new resource for hunger-related data in southwestern Wisconsin.
The data, based on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap research, which compares 2023 estimates (released May of 2025) to 2022 estimates, shows:
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The number of people considered food insecure in Second Harvest’s 16-county service area rose by 13%.
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Nearly 147,000 people, including almost 40,000 children, face hunger in southwestern Wisconsin;
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One in nine people of all ages in southwestern Wisconsin are considered food insecure;
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One in seven children under 18 in southwestern Wisconsin are considered food insecure;
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The average family of four considered food insecure in southwestern Wisconsin has a food budget shortfall of nearly $2,800 per year;
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Hunger disproportionally affects communities of color in southwestern Wisconsin;
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One in three people in the Black community are food insecure;
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One in four people in the Hispanic community are food insecure; and
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One in 11 people in the white community are food insecure.
Individual county-level data is available for Adams, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Juneau, LaFayette, Monroe, Richland, Rock, Sauk and Vernon counties.
The new resource also identifies the amount of food Second Harvest and its network of food and resource providers infuse into each county to support the goal of nutrition security and food equity. For more information, click here.
