Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPIs) are among the fastest growing racial and ethnic groups in the US. While the model minority myth paints a rosy picture of economic success among AA and NHPIs, a closer look reveals that AA and NHPI ethnic subgroups struggle with poverty and food insecurity at vastly different rates.
A note on language: Throughout this post, we use “AA and NHPI” to refer to people of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander descent, making a distinction between AAs and NHPIs to acknowledge how histories of immigration and colonization inform subgroups’ economic well-being and to disrupt the conflation of their experiences. For example, the experiences of NHPIs indigenous to their homelands differs from the experiences of immigrants who came to the US as refugees or as a result of highly selective immigration policies.
Many families experiencing food insecurity use charitable food to meet their food needs, especially when supports like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fall short. However, we found some charitable food programs may not provide culturally appropriate, accessible information or foods, meaning some families’ needs are left unmet.
To address key barriers to charitable food, DoorDash partnered with more than 300 nonprofit antihunger organizations to deliver free groceries directly to families in need through its initiative, Project DASH. Our recent evaluation of Project DASH provided insights into how home delivery of charitable food may alleviate key food-access barriers, but several challenges remain for AA and NHPI families. Policymakers and practitioners can also consider additional steps to equitably expand food access.
Why do some AA and NHPI families experience unmet food needs?
Much of the available data on AA and NHPI food insecurity are aggregated across AA and NHPI ethnic groups, masking significant subgroup variability that can leave specific populations with elevated food needs invisible and unserved.
For example, in a study of Asian Americans in California, food insecurity ranged (PDF) from 25 percent for Korean adults to nearly 40 percent for Filipino adults. In California, more than one in five NHPI adults experience food insecurity, though even less disaggregated data are available for specific NHPI communities. Very low food security, in which people experience disruptions in meals and reduced food intake, revealed sharper disparities among Asian American populations, with Japanese and Filipino adults experiencing very low food security at more than four times the rate (PDF) of Chinese adults. Even among Chinese Americans, a subgroup with high median incomes, many families struggle with meeting their basic needs.
AA and NHPI families face unique barriers to charitable food access
For AA and NHPI families experiencing hunger, charitable food programs can help meet needs that may be underserved by existing public nutrition supports (PDF). But still, these families may experience three unique barriers in accessing charitable food resources:
- Some food sites are far from where AA and NHPI families live
In communities like Arlington, Virginia, AA and NHPI families experiencing poverty have to travel farther to access free grocery and meal sites than Black and Latinx households experiencing poverty (groups who also disproportionately experience food insecurity stemming from structural racism). These challenges may be more pronounced for older AA and NHPI people, who may have trouble traveling to sites in person because of mobility constraints and persistent travel barriers, such as regular access to cars or public transportation.
Given these challenges, initiatives like Project DASH can be a critical way to connect AA and NHPI families with the food they need to live an active and healthy life. Nearly three-quarters of the AA and NHPI families Project DASH served reported that their local food bank was too challenging to get to—suggesting that home delivery may be an innovative strategy to alleviate geographical proximity challenges in food access.
- AA and NHPI families receive minimal information about charitable food in languages they can understand
Many AA and NHPI families we interviewed and surveyed reported that information about free groceries and meals—including home delivery options—was not in a language they understood, which limited their access to critical food supports and increased their stress when they did. When key information about charitable food sites was not provided in a language accessible to AA and NHPI families, some reported needing to rely on family or friends to connect them with services or struggling to access them at all. AA and NHPI families often can’t access culturally appropriate foods from charitable food sites
Evidence shows having access to culturally appropriate foods not only benefits people’s health but also cultivates belonging because of the inextricable link between food and culture.
However, many foods offered at free grocery and meal sites aren’t the traditional foods AA and NHPI families are accustomed to, know how to prepare, and feel culturally connected to. More than one in three AA and NHPI families surveyed reported they rarely or never receive charitable food that represents their culture, making it challenging for them to eat the foods that nourish their cultural connections.
“[I’m] trying to change my taste, but it’s hard not to eat Korean food.”
—Project DASH participant
When these foods are not available from charitable sources, participants must secure them at grocery stores, which may leave fewer dollars for purchasing other needed foods—as charitable food is only supplementary for many families. In other cases, people turned to family and friends but couldn’t always rely on them if they were experiencing financial hardship too. Others had no social network to lean on at all.
How to improve food access and security for AA and NHPI families
Insights from Project DASH demonstrate that home delivery can help connect AA and NHPI families with charitable food, especially older adults and adults with mobility constraints. However, barriers remain for this population in terms of ensuring programs are accessible language-wise and offer culturally appropriate foods. To address these challenges, federal and state policymakers and practitioners can consider the following actions:
- Supporting broader data collection on AA and NHPI families’ food security, SNAP access barriers, and access to food to understand these populations’ unique needs and develop programs to address them.
- Increasing flexibilities in the Emergency Food Assistance Program—which funds nearly 20 percent (PDF) of food distributed by charitable feeding organizations—to enable funds to be used to purchase culturally appropriate foods for AA and NHPI families.
- Providing guidance for the SNAP application process in multiple languages so AA and NHPI families with limited English proficiency can easily access information about how to access these core food resources.
- Allowing SNAP benefits to be used for grocery delivery fees so SNAP enrollees who face substantial transportation and health barriers can use their benefits effectively.
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