Project Lead: Shruthi Chakravarthy
Past Contributions: Sarah Kang, Sim Bose, Sydney Finkelstein, Amita Gowda, Maitri Shah, Courtney McLeod, Cameron Moy, Conor York
Motivation:
Food insecurity is a pressing problem nationally and globally, including in areas in and around Detroit. Urban farms can serve as alternative providers of healthy, local produce in places in which legal and corporate institutions and policy have failed. Many of the farms we researched emphasize the importance of creating a space in which the larger community can gather, contribute to, and benefit from. Creating visualizations of the data collected at these farms can assist in providing physical displays of the work they’re doing. This information can be useful in a multitude of ways: advocating for funding or grants, attracting more community members to farms, etc.
Methods:
We researched and reached out to a number of urban farms in the area. We ended up working with Growing Hope (Ypsilanti) and Pingree Farms (Detroit). We used ArcGIS to create visualizations of the locations of Growing Hope’s Home Vegetable Garden (HVG ) program impact.
We also created a data collection template for Pingree Farms, currently using synthetic data for testing purposes. We set up a shared google drive to automate and digitize data collection and analysis for: food donations to organizations, volunteer information, 4-H student participation and progress. We also are setting up a digital record-keeping system for farm animals
Findings:
Using data provided by Growing Hope, we were able to map the addresses where the HVG program built garden beds and provided planting resources for community members. We also conducted a feature analysis on income, age, and boundary layers for the tracts and counties