Consumption
Dane County residents are passionate and intentional about their food choices. In a time when affordability is on the minds of most Americans, that choice is heavily driven by cost. Seventy-eight percent of consumer survey respondents identified affordability as a primary consideration when buying food. For respondents who reported experiencing food insecurity, this jumped to 90%. Meal planning, cooking from scratch, and navigating a fragmented local food system all require investments of time that compete with work, caregiving, and the other demands of daily life.
Dane County Consumption at a Glance
| Total County Population | 588,347 |
| Food Insecurity Rate (2024) | 10.7% |
| Average Monthly FoodShare Participation (2025) | 44,874 |
| % of Food Scraps in Total Dane County Landfill Material | 20.7% |
Health was another commonly cited influence on the relationship with food, with 88.2% of respondents valuing healthy eating. However, this again intersected with affordability—a recurring theme was the frustration of wanting to eat well and locally but finding that the food system makes it unnecessarily difficult and expensive to do so. Of food-insecure respondents to the consumer survey:
- 52% indicated that healthy foods are too expensive
- 35.2% reported eating healthy foods “sometimes” or “never” compared to 10.7% of food-secure respondents
- 18.3% reported a “hard” or “very hard” time accessing healthy foods compared to just 1.3% of food-secure respondents
Cultural connection was also important. Family recipes, cultural traditions, and the shared experience of a good meal was as important to community engagement respondents as health and nutrition. When asked what food reminds them of home, individuals named chicken and rice, beans, pasta, soul food, curry, tacos, egg rolls, goulash, and dozens of other dishes, a portrait of a community with diverse food identities. Unfortunately, a shortage of culturally relevant food options and a lack of language-appropriate outreach for nutrition programs can lead to food access that differs based on zip code and neighborhood boundaries.
The desire for local, healthy, and culturally connected food translates into consumer behavior that is stratified by income. Based on survey data, 74% of households earning $100,000–$150,000 indicated a preference for farmers’ markets, compared to just 20% of those earning under $20,000. Meanwhile, 38% of households earning under $20,000 and 26% of those earning $20,000–$34,999 were more likely to rely on dollar stores, gas stations, and convenience stores as food sources while those preferences didn’t register among any individuals in the highest income brackets. Grocery retail was the great equalizer: 97% of survey respondents indicated that grocery stores are a preferred shopping destination, with locations like Woodman’s or Aldi’s being destinations that support shoppers at all income levels.
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is the most devastating food system inefficiency, reflecting consumers who find it financially difficult to participate in the typical food access pathways. In 2024, 10.7% of Dane County residents—over 60,000 individuals—struggled to access consistent nutrition. Critically, 42% of the food-insecure population earns too much to qualify for federal benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as FoodShare in Wisconsin), leaving them in a chronic state of instability without a clear safety net. While food insecurity data is no longer being published by the federal government, emergency food partners point to a clear and continuous rise in need since 2022; Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin reports a doubling of demand at its member agencies in that time period.
The populations at the greatest risk are also those that are most under-served by the current system. Historically, food insecurity across all households in Dane County has held below state and national averages, however Dane County has greater racial and ethnic disparities with more Black and Hispanic/Latino households struggling to have enough food than their national counterparts. Households with a person with a disability, single mothers, children, seniors, full-time college students, veterans, and people with limited English proficiency also face heightened vulnerability to food insecurity. i
The expiration of pandemic-era universally free school meals and enhanced SNAP benefits in 2022 eliminated support precisely when inflation began to make food more expensive. In 2025, additional program and eligibility changes to nutrition assistance programs like SNAP and other benefit programs like Medicaid have created new challenges for household financial security that will lead to more food insecure households in the long run.
Institutional Buyers
In recent years, local institutions have played an increasing role in the evolution of the local food movement. This represents a different type of consumer: the businesses and organizations that buy large volumes of food have the buying power to create stable market opportunities that can sustain mid-to-large-scale agricultural operations. Collaborations such as the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative and Foodshed Partnership are helping bridge the gap between small farms and these wholesale buyers.
School nutrition programs are one place this institutional pipeline is growing. Districts including Madison Metropolitan School District, Monona Grove, Mount Horeb, and more have partnered with organizations like REAP Food Group and Rooted WI to build farm-to-school programs with strong public support. The challenge is acquiring local products during the winter months of the school year, as well as meeting stringent food safety requirements and low budgets for food that schools operate on.
Other community pillars are similarly invested in local food. UW–Madison and UW Health’s Food Is Medicine philosophy has integrated fresh produce into patient recovery and employee wellness programs to support preventive care and improve health outcomes for conditions like metabolic and cardiovascular disease. These institutions further align cafeteria and vending procurement policies with the national principles of the Good Food Purchasing Program. Corporate campuses like Epic Systems and Abbott (formerly Exact Sciences) have signaled steady or increasing interest in local sourcing, creating significant potential demand. Both of those companies have explored their own farming and gardening programs for employees.
Waste & Recovery
Waste occurs at every stage of the supply chain, from field losses and processing byproducts to retailer discards and household food scraps. The scale of food waste is staggering. In 2020 alone, Wisconsin disposed of approximately 615,500 tons of wasted food and 238,500 tons of food scraps in landfills, a volume whose greenhouse gas impact is equivalent to adding approximately 592,000 passenger vehicles to the road for a year. Locally, 20.7% of the material in the Dane County Landfill is organic food scraps with 11.9% is considered “wasted food” and 8.8% non-edible food scraps.
Current composting infrastructure, while growing, does not come close to meeting residential or commercial demand. Both dense urban areas and rural communities remain without accessible options. Previous composting initiatives by the City of Madison and UW–Madison struggled due to challenges with contamination and access to biodigester facilities, leaving a legacy of skepticism about large-scale efforts. Nonetheless, these entities are continuing to refine their approaches with new innovations like food waste kiosks and farmers’ market drop-off points that expand community access to composting.
The logistical challenges of fresh food recovery are immense. Fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy all spoil rapidly unless stored in specific conditions. These products require attention to food safety protocols and intensive coordination for timely delivery. At the same time, the sheer volume of food waste generated by corporate food retail, events, and individual households, continues to outpace the growth of recovery and composting networks, ensuring that progress in diversion remains offset by growth in waste. Through the community engagement process, a number of people identified school food waste as a concern, and more work may need to be done with both school districts and the State of Wisconsin to meet nutrition standards and meal requirements while also reducing unwanted food given to students who will immediately throw it away.
Recent changes to the gleaning networks in Dane County have left local agencies with new responsibilities for food recovery. In response, emergency food organizations have developed coordinated efforts to gather products from farms and businesses. Healthy Food For All, The River Food Pantry, Badger Prairie Needs Network, Wayforward Resources, and Second Harvest, among other organizations, leverage partnerships with major corporations and restaurants to redirect surplus from landfills.
Gleaning – Gathering food that would otherwise be wasted from farms, retailers, and businesses for the purposes of getting it to people who can use it.
Reducing food waste is a priority that resonates deeply with Dane County residents. Fifty-nine percent of consumer survey respondents identified it as one of the most important issues for their community. The upcoming Dane County Sustainability Campus, which will replace the existing landfill, promises to be a transformative hub for connecting waste diversion with large-scale sustainable processing. This facility, combined with Dane County’s potential to host the state’s largest anaerobic digestion and biomass energy facility, could allow the region to convert organic waste into a reliable source of green energy. Other programs like Healthy Food for All and Brainplate Grows partner with local events and restaurants to ensure that surplus food can reach those in need or be diverted to compost. Multi-year partnerships, such as Dane County’s relationship with Purple Cow Organics, provide the stability needed to change community behavior. A growing ecosystem of private composting services like Green Box, Earthstew, and Curbside Composter offer residential and commercial options, and farmers’ market compost drop-off sites have shown increasing utilization every year they have operated.
Each of these initiatives provides an opportunity to close the loop on our food system, turning consumer food waste back into food production as additions to healthy soil.