Racial Segregation and Food Insecurity: Examining Disparities in Black-White Food Insecurity across U.S. Cities and Counties

• In Event: 30252 - Racialized Health Injustice

Abstract

Food insecurity, the inability to consistently acquire adequate food due to financial or resource constraints, remains a persistent issue in the United States. While prior research has focused on individual- and household-level determinants of food insecurity, emerging scholarship highlights the role of neighborhood and community contexts. One crucial but understudied factor is racial residential segregation, a key structural driver of racial disparities in health and socioeconomic outcomes. Black Americans experience food insecurity at significantly higher rates than White Americans, but little research has examined how segregation shapes these disparities. This study investigates the association between racial residential segregation and food insecurity across U.S. cities and counties. Using restricted-access data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2015-2021), merged with the American Community Survey, USDA Food Access Atlas, and racial segregation indices, we analyze a sample of 17,446 individuals nested within 208 metropolitan areas and 544 counties. We use mixed-effects logistic regression models to assess how racial segregation is associated with food insecurity for Black and White households and whether this relationship varies by socioeconomic status and geographic region. Preliminary results indicate that higher levels of racial segregation are associated with increased food insecurity for Black households, while the relationship is not significant for White households. Additionally, Black-White disparities in food insecurity widen as segregation increases. These findings persist across multiple measures of segregation (dissimilarity and exposure indices) and geographic levels (metropolitan and county). This study contributes to research on food insecurity, neighborhood effects, and racial inequality by identifying segregation as a structural driver of food insecurity disparities. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for designing policies aimed at reducing racial inequities in food insecurity and health outcomes in the United States.

Authors

• Noah Gibson, Duke University

• Norbert Wilson, Duke University