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Between January and mid-October 2025, local 211 helplines received calls from people looking for food pantries community remained stable at about 1,000 calls per day.
but like government shutdown Entering its fourth week in late October, states began warning residents that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefitssometimes known as ration cardWill probably be affected. About 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits each month.
Over the next several days, calls to 211 from people seeking food pantries doubled to more than 2,200 per day. Then on October 26, the Trump administration announced that SNAP benefits would not be received in November as scheduled. The next day, food pantry calls increased to 3,324. The next day, calls reached 3,870. Till Wednesday it was 4,214.
we are public health Scientist Specializing in health communication and unmet social needs. We and our partners have been working closely with the 211 network of helplines across the United States for 18 years.
Barring disasters, a sudden increase of this magnitude in requests for food or any other necessity is rare in the 211s, and may indicate both public concern and need, as happened in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is 211?
Like 911 for emergencies, 211 is a national three-digit dialing code, launched in 2000, that connects callers to information specialists at the nearest local 211 helpline. Those specialists listen to callers’ needs and provide them with referrals to health and social service providers near them who may be able to help.
Each call to 211 is classified according to the caller’s need, such as shelter, rent, utilities or food – each of which has its own code.
The hotline does not solve these problems for callers, but 211 information specialists use the latest local information available to direct callers to service agencies that are most likely to have the resources to help.
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The 211 Network is the closest thing America has to a real-time monitoring system of the needs of low-income Americans.
There are approximately 200 state and local 211s in the US, and on an average day they collectively field between 35,000 and 40,000 requests for help. Each request is coded using an assortment of over 10,000 requirement types, is time- and date-stamped, and linked to the caller’s ZIP code. except for phone call Received by their helplines, 211s is fast tracking the requests received online through their websites. 211s’ national network covers all 50 states and 99% of the US population.
It is encouraging for us that with each passing year of giving talks and lectures about 211, more and more audience members raise their hands when asked if they have ever heard of 211. But it is far from 100%. If you’re one of those people with their hands down, here’s what you need to know.
gaining local insight
Our team aims to deploy the latest methods of data science, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to detect critical need trends sooner and at a more local level, increasing the speed and efficiency of getting local community members the help they need.
Our research describes the needs of callers reaching 211, the community’s ability to respond to callers’ needs, 211’s ability to rapidly detect changes in community needs, and the benefits of integrating health referrals into 211.
When we saw food requests spike in late October, we reached out to local leaders at 211 call centers to find out what they were hearing from callers.
Robin Pokozski, vice president of 211 and community partnerships at United Way of Greater St. Louis, explained that with all the uncertainty around SNAP benefits, callers were initially “anticipating” a need for the food pantry. Tiffany Olson, who directs essential services at Crisis Connections and its 211 call center in Washington state, shared that even callers who rely heavily on their SNAP benefits sometimes need to use food banks to supplement.
Callers are aware that relying solely on food banks may not be enough to fully meet their food needs. They realize that food pantries and food banks will be overburdened if SNAP benefits are unavailable.
The impact of 211 data is increasing
The wealth of daily data on the needs of American callers to 211 at the ZIP code level is unparalleled. Yet for years it was virtually invisible to anyone who did not work the 211 hotline.
Even for those working and volunteering within the 211 system, formal reporting on the needs of callers within the community was minimal, such as a one-page annual summary.
This changed in 2013.
Working with 211s across the country, our team created 211 Counts, a collection of user-friendly, public-facing data dashboards for Local 211s across the US.
The dashboard allows users to explore the top needs in their community, see which neighborhoods are most impacted, and understand how needs are changing over time. Data can be sorted by legislative districts, school districts, and counties to make the findings more relevant to different audiences.
About the authors
Matthew W. Kreuter Kahn is the Family Professor of Public Health and Rachel Garg is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. This article is republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. read the original article,
Data is updated on 211 requests each night. Now in its 12th year, 211 Counts includes data from more than 90 million requests from 211 callers in all or parts of 44 states. The local dashboard has been viewed millions of times.
211 as an early warning system
This is not the first time that data collected through the 211 hotline has shown early signs of trouble for some Americans. A few weeks ago, we found that calls from people looking for help making car payments have been rising steadily for the past five months, with daily calls in October growing at nearly double the rate compared to May 2025.
Previously, the 2022s were 211 months ahead in news reporting in looking at public crises involving baby formula shortages, the 2016 Flint water crisis, and the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.
When requests for major needs such as food increase three to four times overnight, every local 211 is likely to register this sudden change.
But when less frequent needs, like car payment assistance, add up slowly, with additional calls here and there over several months, it’s unlikely any local 211 hotline will pay attention.
That’s when the benefits of big data are greatest. Combining the needs of 211 callers across the country reveals patterns that might otherwise have been missed. New data science tools are rapidly improving the speed and accuracy of detecting minor changes. When community and national leaders are made aware of potentially increasing threats, those threats can be more closely monitored and responses prepared.
It’s easy to overlook the fact that every data point is a hungry child or worried parent.
Hotlines and food banks and food pantries need support to feed people during this time. But most local safety net systems struggle to meet the needs of their communities at all times. Data documenting the magnitude of need will not fix the lack of local assistance, but it can help guide communities in allocating limited resources.