Alameda County, CA (2023)
Food Resource Map + Farmer’s Market Tours
I created the Alameda County Food Resource Map because food is a human right.
Deciphering the hours and locations of food pantries, EBT card discounts, food-related job opportunities, and town fridges requires time and navigational capital. During my AmeriCorps service at 18 Reasons, a community cooking school, I created a food resource map that provides centralized information about eligibility, location, and hours. The map makes accessing affordable, healthy food easier for people who are seeking peace of mind about feeding themselves and their loved ones. These people include:
Seniors who have gone to the food pantry based on an outdated website, only to realize that it’s permanently closed
Undocumented immigrants who do not have a driver’s license and need to know which town fridges are in walking or public transit distance
Families who wants to feed their children fresh produce and wishes farmer’s markets were more affordable for people who use EBT cards
People struggle to access food because of defunct phone numbers and outdated information about opening hours. By driving across Alameda County and connecting with food workers and organizations, I collected and organized 36 resources:
10 food banks
2 job training programs
9 grocery stores and farmer’s markets with EBT discounts
11 town fridges
4 senior community centers and meal services
I also designed a Cooking Matters at the Farmer’s Market series. On one hour market tours, EBT card users learned how to access discounts on produce, meal prep on a budget, and to identify sources of protein or whole grains. The series initiated a new partnership with Heart of the City Farmer’s Market, a decades old, historically black farmer’s market in downtown San Francisco. The market distributes $4 million in food assistance every year, making it the nation’s largest farmers market EBT program.
One tour, for instance, included newcomers from the Middle East who were taking cooking classes in translation as part of their welcome to San Francisco. Intergenerational groups of mothers, elders, and children marveled at mulberries samples, compared strategies for feeding their kids produce-rich meals, and learned how to compare unit prices at multiple tomato stands.
