For many Sitkans, reliable access to food is not a given. In the past ten years, some of those challenges have worsened, according to a community food assessment released last month.
“A lot of the same issues are impacting people, but they have been exacerbated over the 10 years,” said Callie Simmons, the project coordinator for the 2024 Sitka Community Food Assessment.
Working with a local steering committee, Simmons modeled the assessment on a 2013 survey conducted through the Sitka Health Summit. Simmons said the data, which includes survey responses from almost 400 Sitkans, highlights a growing need in the community.
In the last decade, the number of people in Sitka who borrow money or food to feed their families each week has nearly doubled. And the number of Sitka students receiving “Blessings in a Backpack,” a national program that sends food home with students on the weekends, increased by about 40 percent.
In addition to high food costs and barriers to hunting or fishing, focus groups cited the statewide food stamps backlog, which delayed food assistance payments for thousands of Alaskans in 2023, and the phase-out of COVID-era relief programs as contributors to food insecurity.
“It feels like it’s almost worse than what it was pre-COVID, just because it’s harder to access a lot of those programs and services, or there’s not the same amount of money available to do food access work,” Simmons said.
Still, it’s not all doom and gloom.
“A lot of people are still receiving fish and game from their friends and family,” Simmons said. “So Sitkans are the same amount of generous, or even more generous, than they were 10 years ago.”
The full report includes policy recommendations, like supporting a community-run food pantry and removing the city sales tax on groceries.
“A lot of people that we spoke to said this is, you know, one of the only places that they’ve lived that there’s a tax on food,” Simmons said. “That’s maybe not an individual action, but more of a city action to take or look into.”
Right now, the list of recommendations is just that – a list. But Simmons hopes the data will provide a starting point for agencies outside of Sitka to better understand the community’s needs.
You can read the full assessment here.
