Iowa Food Assistance Program Statistics by Month and County
The Food Assistance Program provides Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to buy groceries at supermarkets, grocery stores and some Farmers Markets. This dataset provides data on the number of households, recipients and cash assistance provided through the Food Assistance Program participation in Iowa by month and county starting in January 2011 and updated monthly.
Beginning January 2017, the method used to identify households is based on the following:
If one or more individuals receiving Food Assistance also receives FIP, the household is categorized as FA/FIP.
If no one receives FIP, but at least one individual also receives Medical Assistance, the household is categorized as FA/Medical Assistance.
If no one receives FIP or Medical Assistance, but at least one individual receives Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa or hawk-i benefits, the household is categorized as FA/hawk-i.
If no one receives FIP, Medical Assistance or hawk-i , the household is categorized as FA Only.
Changes have also been made to reflect more accurate identification of individuals. The same categories from above are used in identifying an individual's circumstances. Previously, the household category was assigned to all individuals of the Food Assistance household, regardless of individual status. This change in how individuals are categorized provides a more accurate count of individual categories.
Timing of when the report is run also changed starting January 2017. Reports were previously ran on the 1st, but changed to the 17th to better capture Food Assistance households that received benefits for the prior month. This may give the impression that caseloads have increased when in reality, under the previous approach, cases were missed.
Columns
| Name | Socrata field name | Column name in sgr mount | Data type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary County Long | primary_county_long | primary_county_long | Number | Primary longitude in decimal degrees for the county as provided by U.S. Geological Survey, 19810501, U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. |
| Allotments | allotments | allotments | Number | Amount of food assistance payments made to recipients |
| Recipients | recipients | recipients | Number | Number of recipients participating in the program. Please note that changes have been made to reflect more accurate information about the individuals who receive Food Assistance in Iowa. New methods started in month ending 1/31/2017. |
| County Name | county_name | county_name | Text | County where recipients reside. If county states "DHS", county of residence was not identified. This was first identified for month ending 1/31/2017. |
| Month | month | month | Calendar date | Month ending date for month payments were made |
| CY | cy | cy | Number | Calendar year |
| Primary County Lat | primary_county_lat | primary_county_lat | Number | Primary latitude in decimal degrees for the county as provided by U.S. Geological Survey, 19810501, U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. |
| Households | households | households | Number | Number of households participating in the program. Please note that changes have been made to reflect more accurate information about the households who receive Food Assistance in Iowa. New methods started in month ending 1/31/2017. |
| Primary County Coordinates | primary_county_coordinates | primary_county_coordinates | Point | Coordinates based on Primary County Lat and Primary County Long |
| Service Area | service_area | service_area | Text | DHS service area associated with the recipients |
| US Counties | :@computed_region_e7ym_nrbf | :@computed_region_e7ym_nrbf | Number | |
| Iowa Watersheds (HUC 10) | :@computed_region_i9mz_6gmt | :@computed_region_i9mz_6gmt | Number | |
| Iowa Watershed Sub-Basins (HUC 08) | :@computed_region_wnea_7qqw | :@computed_region_wnea_7qqw | Number | |
| Iowa ZIP Code Tabulation Areas | :@computed_region_3r5t_5243 | :@computed_region_3r5t_5243 | Number |