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

2. 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

3. Introduction
Chautauqua County

4. Introduction
Chautauqua County

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Sources of Donated Food

10. Sources of Donated Food

11. Food Donation Recipients

12. Opportunities for Connection

14. Patterns of Development

15. 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

16. How to select a site?

18. 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 locations
Non-agricultural vacant land= 16,806 to 10,431 parcels

19. 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

21. 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

22. Sources
EPA. Sustainable Food Management. Available at: management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics.
Nations U. Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable Available at:
Chautauqua County Rural Ministry (2016). About Gleaning.
US Congress (1996): Public Law 104– publ210.pdf