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.