Chautauqua County Food Donation Hub Samantha rubino Urp 569 Project 3 spring 2017

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Methods 4. Findings Food Waste Reduction & Reclamation Research Questions & Measurable Objectives 2. Background Literature Review 3. Methods Geocoding Point Density Merging, Buffer, Select by Location 4. Findings 5. Future Considerations

Introduction Chautauqua County

Introduction Chautauqua County

Introduction Food Waste Reduction & Reclamation Chautauqua County Rural Ministry’s Gleaning Project Surplus, waste, and hunger Gleaning= the second harvest of the field after the farmer sells what they could to the market Highlights Rescued 725,000 pounds of food since 2000 Retrieve food from farms, supermarkets, restaurants, etc. Distributes food to their own programs, other community organizations, and through a meal packaging program Challenges Lack of adequate infrastructure/facilities Creates time constraints and lessens their ability to increase their intake of donations Geographic scope Primarily focuses on the Northern half of the County Opportunities Donation Hub= increase the amount of food that is donated to those in need, as well as further reduce the wasting of food Could mean the expansion of an existing food bank or the building of a new structure Food Waste Reduction & Reclamation

Introduction Research Questions & Objectives 1. What is the current distribution of food banks in relation to the locations that they collect donations from? i.e. How many miles are current food banks typically away from sources of food donations? Sources of food donation: farms, farmers markets, restaurants, and super markets and grocery stores 2. How does the proximity to major roadways and public transportation affect the distribution of food banks and pantries? i.e. How many miles are food banks typically away from public transportation routes? 3. What is the current distribution of food banks in relation to low-income communities? i.e. Individuals receiving SNAP benefits and households without a private vehicle Research Questions & Objectives

Background Literature Review Food waste & Donation Documents The EPA’s Sustainable Management of Food & Food Recovery Hierarchy The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act “Rural Hunger Solutions” by the Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture Literature Review

Methods Data Collection & GIS Analysis Collected addresses and turned them into CSV files Food Banks and Food Pantries- Food Bank of WNY, FoodPantries.org Farms & Farmers Markets- Tour Chautauqua, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s “Chautauqua Grown” Geocoding Geocoded the street shapefile and matched the CSV addresses Point Density Calculates a magnitude-per-unit area from point features that fall within a neighborhood around each cell Merging, Buffer, Select by Location Took all of the “food donators” and merged them so that they were one point layer- for easier comparison to the Food Banks Created 5- and 2-mile buffers around the Food Banks Selected by location the “food donators” that were within the buffer Selected by location for which food bank-buffers intersected with public transportation routes Data Collection & GIS Analysis

Sources of Donated Food

Sources of Donated Food

Food Donation Recipients

Opportunities for Connection

Patterns of Development

Findings: Pattern of Distribution Concentration along the shore of Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua Clusters in Dunkirk and Jamestown Pattern around the highways and public transportation routes If these institutions are already clustered around highways and transit routes, is transportation really the issue? Just because they are located there does not mean the transportation is of good quality

How to select a site?

Findings: Analysis of Buffer 5-Mile Buffer Sources of donatable food= 2,179 to 2,040 locations Non-agricultural vacant land= 16,806 to 16,155 parcels 2-Mile Buffer Sources of donatable food= 2,179 to 736 locations Non-agricultural vacant land= 16,806 to 10,431 parcels

Selected by location of the buffers to only select those within two miles of the public transit route, which decreased the number of food donators from 736 to 415

Future Considerations You can’t always look for something to be wrong There are some things that a map can’t explain Going to conduct further spatial analysis to decide on a three top choices for the food donation & processing hub Hot Spot Analysis and/or a Suitability Analysis Would be interesting to further study: Which area is currently donating the most food Which areas have potential to donate more food Lessons learned & Ideas for the Future

Sources EPA. Sustainable Food Management. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable- management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics. Nations U. Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable Available at: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/. Chautauqua County Rural Ministry (2016). About Gleaning. http://gleaningproject.blogspot.com/p/gleaning.html US Congress (1996): Public Law 104–210. https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ210/PLAW- 104publ210.pdf