Multidimensional Measures of Poverty: The Potential Contribution of Non‐Profit Food Pantry Data to Assess Community Economic Condition

To address the negative consequences of economic hardship, U.S. policymakers and practitioners rely on the official poverty rate in making decisions. Yet does it truly reflect economic condition, especially hardship? In line with an international movement to shift away from income and poverty lines and toward multidimensional measures including material deprivation, would information from community‐based non‐profits such as food pantries, often the first stop for people in need, provide a better understanding of local economic condition? This article presents original data on dramatic growth in demand at community‐level food pantries across North Carolina since the 1990s, and reflects on the resulting different perspective on economic condition. A call for additional research on the use of measures of material deprivation that include the non‐profit sector to reflect economic conditions in the United States is made. 贫困的多维度测量：非营利食品储藏室数据对评估社区经济情况的潜在贡献 摘要 为解决经济困难带来的负面结果，美国政策制定者和从业人员在决策时需要依赖官方贫困率。然而，这能真正反映经济情况，尤其是经济困难吗？为符合国际行动—将收入和贫困线转向包含物质匮乏在内的多维度贫困测量，非营利性社区（例如食品储藏室，它经常是贫困人群的第一救济站）提供的信息会更能反映当地经济情况吗？本文展示了自1990年以来北卡罗来纳州社区级食品储藏室需求急剧上涨的原始数据，同时仔细考虑了不同视角对经济情况的看法。本文呼吁增加一项额外研究，调查多个测量物质匮乏的方式，方式包括使用非营利部门反映经济情况。