Integrating Food Access with Transit Services in Urban Areas of the Pacific Northwest: The Case of Seattle, Washington

Abstract

This study examined how public transportation can help improve access to emergency food resources and lower the risk of food insecurity in American cities. For a case study of Seattle, Washington, we used the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) to measure the accessibility of food banks and food pantries at the census block group level. We found that approximately 40 percent of neighborhoods in the city of Seattle were within walkable distances or half a mile of the nearest food bank or pantry. However, general access to the food pantry network was highly constrained by pantry operating hours. We found Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons to be popular timeslots, and food banks were rarely open during weekends. Furthermore, transit access to the citywide food pantry network was unevenly distributed in that some neighborhoods associated with larger numbers of food insecure populations were simultaneously those with poor accessibility to emergency food resources. These neighborhoods were primarily located in South Seattle and near the city’s northern edge. The results of regression models further indicated that convenient access to food banks or food pantries remains important for vulnerable communities. Finally, our study suggested that on-demand transit services or additional mobile food pantries would help bring free food to vulnerable communities, especially when regular public transit services are constrained by catastrophic circumstances such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.