What Causes Hunger in My State? The Effects of Different Variables on Food Insecurity in North Carolina

Hunger is a huge issue in today's society. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, the issue is how it's distributed. Using many demographical data sets for each county in my state, such as the number of food stamp recipients, number of supermarkets, populations of different races, etc., I wanted to see what demographical data can be an accurate indicator of food insecurity in North Carolina. I used linear regressions to do this and found that most of the variables I looked at were pretty accurate predictors of food insecurity, with the exception of a few. I really enjoyed this project and was very interested in the results that I got and how they could be used to improve our infrastructure and curb societal problems such as food insecurity. After I presented my project at the math fair, The F.A.R.M. Cafe, a local restaurant focused on providing meals to anyone who needs one, reached out asking if they could display my project and invited me for an interview. They talked to me about their mission and asked me questions about my project. It was a lovely experience that took me past the premise of my project and I'm very glad I got the chance to do something like that.