Service Insights

About Service Insights

The Kansas Food Bank, working together with Feeding America, has begun a data collection modernization project called Service Insights. The objective of this new initiative is to standardize collection of data about the neighbors our partner agencies serve to improve the quality of service we provide, to learn about the driving factors bringing Kansans to our partners in need of help, and to power our efforts moving forward to advocate for and bring additional resources to the fight to end hunger here in Kansas.

In the past, Feeding America and the Kansas Food Bank conducted every four years a national hunger study, which involved interviewing clients at agencies all over the country, including Kansas. This research provided the most in-depth look into hunger and food insecurity available, but the information quickly became old in-between studies and the effort to conduct the study every four years was very expensive. Looking for a better solution that would increase how often data could be collected and analyzed while ultimately reducing cost and improving the amount and quality of the data has helped lead to the Service Insights initiative.

Major Benefits

Local and National insights about the people we serve. Prior data was available at the county level, but data and insights from the new system will be hyper-local, down to the ZIP code level. This will allow individual agencies to have a strong understanding about the impact they are having in their local community instead of having to infer from county-level or state-level data, help illuminate the challenges our network faces meeting the need locally, and allow us to target services and interventions to high need populations in a timely fashion. The needs in one community, or even one part of a larger community, may be different from those of the county as a whole, and having deeper and more timely insights will help us better serve those in need.
This data supports advocacy, funding, and improved resource allocation. These insights can help agencies and the food bank access funding, advocate for the needs of our communities, and acquire and allocate resources more efficiently.
It’s fast and easy to use! The system is easy to use, both for the neighbors we serve and the agencies and their amazing volunteers, improving the quality and speed of service and enabling new levels of service in the future to bring even more resources to those in need.
It’s private and secure! The system, it’s database, and users follow industry standard practices to ensure personal information is private and secure. Neighbors’ right to privacy or choice for anonymity is respected at every interaction. The system itself is designed from the ground up with a thoughtful neighbor-first approach. Nobody wants their personal data compromised, and people in need are no different. Access to the system is regulated and controlled with a multi-tiered approach to security limiting who has access to sensitive information. Reports generated by the system are anonymous and show only aggregate statistical data about our communities, not individuals.

Deep Dive

Read more about Feeding America’s approach to data collection and analysis in their profile on the Tableau website (Tableau is the reporting system that is built into the SI-MC system) which gives a great overview of the approach and goals of this and other systems they have been working to develop over the past couple of years.