1. Spatial Representations of Emergency Food Assistance in the Little Village and Pilsen Communities Bob Gorcik, Stephanie Hughes, Rob Sameh, Dan Steinfels, Mia Robidoux March 9, 2010 Sponsor: Enlace Chicago GEO 242: GIS II with Dr. Julie Hwangi. Project Summary Background and Major Issues Addressed This project was a collaboration between DePaul University GIS students, and our client, Enlace Chicago, which is a not-for-profit organization in Little Village. Enlace Chicago is part of the Hope Response Coalition, which is a network of organizations and churches representing the Pilsen, Little Village, and Bridgeport communities of Chicago. One of the main goals of the Coalition is to establish emergency food providers in Latino communities. Simone Alexander, our contact and representative from Enlace Chicago, expressed some of the concerns regarding emergency food assistance in Little Village and Pilsen and explained what we might be able to do to help. Given a small time frame and limited resources to complete this project, we chose a few topics to focus on from the host of information Simone provided us. We narrowed it down to three main objectives that we felt covered these issues. The first objective was to address the ground coverage of the food providers to be able to determine what areas of Little Village and Pilsen are underserved and therefore, which community members might not have access to food assistance. The second objective was to examine daily food assistance to determine what days of the week are lacking in food assistance options as well as what areas of Little Village and Pilsen are underserved on specific days of the week. The third objective was to display the locations of community gardens within Little Village. Community gardens are not food assistance providers, but rather an alternative option to community members for fresh produce. Many of the residents in Little Village maintain gardens in their own yard space, but for the people that live in apartments or other forms of housing where a garden might not be an option, the community gardens are a useful tool. Simone provided us with datasets consisting of any information about the food assistance providers in Little Village and Pilsen that Enlace collected. This data included food assistance providers in the form of food pantries and shelters, but we focused on pantries for consistency because there were only a few shelters on the list and their operation of food assistance is slightly different than pantries. We then organized the food pantry data so that we could address our objectives in visual format by creating maps using ArcGIS. For all three objectives, we created maps that included some basic geographical elements. These included an outline of the two community areas; a streets file so that it is easier to reference places within the communities by street intersections; and a file that displays the industrial sections of the communities so that it is easier to determine what areas of the communities are residential and would therefore need access to food assistance. To specifically address our first objective, that is, to determine what areas of Little Village and Pilsen are underserved in food assistance, in the map containing the previously stated files we added points that represented the location of every food pantry. We found that there are many pantries that have no limits to what areas of the communities they provide to, and therefore the entire geographic extent of Little Village and Pilsen are technically covered for food assistance. The problem is accessibility – the pantries that have no limits might be too far from where someone lives. Therefore it was important to also map the proximity to each pantry. To do this, we mapped an outline of a half-mile radius around each food pantry to show what areas of the communities are within walking distance to each pantry. To specifically address our second objective, that is, to determine daily food assistance options or lack thereof, we created a map for each day of the week. Each day map included the generalii. elements previously described, as well as, the point locations of only the food pantries that serve on that day. We then chose two of these maps, one with the most pantries serving and one with the least number of pantries serving on that day of the week. These maps are designed to inform food assistance providers about how to better collaborate amongst themselves in order to have an even geographical spread of pantries open on every day of the week. To address our third objective, that is, to display the locations of community gardens, in a map containing the previously described general map elements, we added points that represent the location of every community garden. This mapping of community gardens is to serve as a visualization tool of an alternative food source to food pantries. Results To answer our first objective, from looking at our map, it seems as though most residential areas of Little Village and Pilsen have a food pantry within a half-mile. Although this does not tell us anything about who each pantry accepts or what days they are open. That is why it is also important to examine the results of our second objective. To answer the second objective, from looking at our maps, we see that there is a tremendous lack of food pantries open for service on Tuesdays – there is only one open in Little Village and two open in Pilsen. This means that on Tuesdays, there are very few options for residents seeking food assistance and they will most likely need to travel quite far to find it. In contrast to the Tuesday services, we also found that on Thursdays there is a decent amount of food pantries open in Little Village with four pantries in service, although the service in Pilsen on Thursdays is lacking with only one pantry open. To answer the third objective, from looking at our map, we see that the general spread of community gardens throughout Little Village is adequate. Generally speaking, there is a community garden in every area of the community. Overall, our analysis shows that Little Village and Pilsen are underserved in regards to food assistance, especially when you take into consideration the large populations of these communities and the high poverty rates.iii. Table of Contents Project Summary