Leveraging Data to Target Areas Facing Food Insecurity

By investing in the ability of the organizations we support to develop and use data, Capital One aims to help build their capacity to enact social change.

In 2022, a team of Capital One associates composed of business analysts and data scientists volunteered to assist Feed More, a Richmond-based food bank that collects, prepares and distributes food to those in need across Central Virginia. The collaboration focused on exploring data sets that could better predict food insecurity at a zip code level.

In 2022 alone, Feed More distributed 36 million pounds of food, prepared and delivered a half million meals and touched over 40,000 households across 29 counties and five cities.

Capital One associates, working alongside Feed More built a model that better assesses food insecurity based on a variety of data sets (many of which were under leveraged in national meal-gap models). Feed More now has the tools and visualization techniques to better understand geo-specific client need. These advancements are reshaping their operational strategy, advancing their understanding of food insecurity and helping them serve more individuals struggling with hunger.

“It was amazing to work with Capital One — great people with diverse experience, inspired by a common purpose. What we learned was extensive, and the resulting model was beyond what we could’ve imagined," says Sarah Gravitt-Baese, Chief Marketing Officer at Feed More. "We’re validating it across our service area but it’s already evolving our understanding of client need and the effectiveness of our distribution network.”