NYC Coalition Against Hunger: Mapping Project
Business
This case study describes a unique mapping project now being undertaken by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for New York's more than 1,100 charitable soup kitchens and food pantries. Most social service agencies exist in a culture of scarcity, unable to invest resources in anything beyond coping with immediate needs. This project, the first of its kind in the nation, demonstrates a complementary use of ArcGIS, ArcWeb Services, and the Google Maps API allowing such agencies to utilize online mapping systems in order to network, recruit volunteers, and see themselves as part of a larger movement. Simultaneously, these maps serve as both a public disclosure of need and a gap analysis, encouraging targeted charity and volunteerism while sparking the political will to confront the size and complexity of the hunger problem. Currently, this project is in the beginning stages - users may look up emergency feeding programs by zipcode, or see a map of the entire city. In the near future, static GIS maps highlighting specific neighborhoods and themes will be created, and layers consisting of various food access streams (farmers' markets, CSAs, community gardens) will be incorporated into the interactive mapping system.
Community
NetSquaredCaseStudies
This is a visualization of the non-profit and supporting organizations using the web in innovative ways who have been profiled in the Net Squared case studies. (http://netsquared.org/catlist/list/1)
Please click on the titles of the organizations to visit their case studies on Net Squared.
Note that these are the locations of the groups' headquarters, and not neccesarily where they do their work. A map of areas these groups work in would likely look very different.