UConn Study: Food Security in Durham and Middlefield

Durham ranks among the top 20 towns in a new study by the University of Connecticut that measures "food security."

The report, “2012 Community Food Security in Connecticut: An Evaluation and Ranking of 169 Towns,” measures each town according to how easily its residents can access healthy, affordable foods.

Durham ranks 17th out of Connecticut’s 169 towns, while Middlefield ranks 44th.

According to the data compiled by the UConn researchers, Weston is 
the most food secure town in Connecticut and Hartford is the least food secure.

Towns with easy access to farmer’s markets and other sources of healthy foods rank higher in food security than communities where residents must travel far from home to find healthy food sources, according to the study.

The study (available in the attached PDF) also took into account the diversity and proximity of all retail food options for residents and the accessibility of food assistance programs in each town.

“Most residents in Connecticut have consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living,” the study states. “Yet each year there are households that experience limited access to food due to a lack of money or other resources." 

The study shows that both Durham and Middlefield rank in the lower-third of towns in food retail and food assistance programs, although larger towns typically offer more assistance and have a great number of stores.

Between 2008 and 2010, 12.7 percent of residents in Connecticut were living in food insecure households (38 percent of which were living in ‘households with very low food insecurity.’)

Approximately one in seven Connecticut households reported there had been times in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy food that they needed.”

Other factors the study took into account when determining a community’s “food security” included:

• Poverty and unemployment rates in each town
  
• Whether households in each town had access to a vehicle
  
• The education level of a town’s residents