Families living in poverty in the United States rely on earnings, federal government programmes, the emergency food system (EFS) and a variety of informal networks to get adequate nutrition. The EFS is a large network of emergency food operations (EFOs) that serve as a supplement both for people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and for those requiring food aid who do not qualify for government assistance. The static view of the distribution of EFOs across 11 counties in south-central Indiana typically employed by policymakers and non-governmental organizations shows this largely rural area to be well covered. However, when examined by the time of day and day of month that EFOs in the region operate, coverage proves illusory. Here, we map and analyse the spatiotemporal availability of services offered by these EFOs and develop measures of availability of EFOs, dependent on EFO open hours, service area limitations and numbers of food-insecure individuals. This allows policymakers and non-governmental organizations to better gauge the adequacy of the EFS within a given region.

美国生活贫困的家庭依靠收入，联邦政府计划，紧急食品系统（EFS）和各种非正式网络来获取充足的营养。EFS是一个庞大的紧急食品运营网络（EFO），可作为获得补充营养援助计划利益的人们以及那些不符合政府援助资格的需要粮食援助的人们的补充。决策者和非政府组织通常雇用的印第安纳州中南部11个县的EFO分布的静态视图表明，这个农村地区大部分都得到了很好的覆盖。但是，按该地区EFO的每日时间和每月的时间进行检查时，覆盖范围被证明是虚幻的。这里，我们对这些EFO提供的服务的时空可用性进行映射和分析，并根据EFO的开放时间，服务区域限制和粮食不安全人员的数量，制定EFO可用性的度量。这使决策者和非政府组织可以更好地衡量给定区域内EFS的充足性。