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HungerMaps.org / NYC Coalition Against Hunger - DonateNow Submission

HungerMaps.org / NYC Coalition Against Hunger - DonateNow Submission

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The Idea:

What will change in the world because this Project happens?

1.3 million New Yorkers face hunger and food insecurity. This project will combine the nationally-recognized map-making software of HungerMaps.org with New York City's most comprehensive database of over 1,200 soup kitchens and food pantries and the Donate Now API to increase the capacity of hunger response in NYC.

As a result, users will be able to use an existing Google Maps interface lauded by TechSoup to locate and donate to emergency food providers in their neighborhood. This grassroots fundraising strategy will both address the under-capacity of many NYC soup kitchens and food pantries to feed a growing number of clients and personalize the monumental scale of hunger in NYC, allowing donors to target their contributions at the local level.

HungerMaps.org is the nation’s first GIS mashup to support anti-hunger advocacy and service provision, transforming local data into a national portrait of needs and resources as the basis for direct action. At the heart of HungerMaps is a free, user-friendly GIS mapping interface that enables registered users to upload local data and create interactive, online maps on-the-fly.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) represents the more than 1,200 nonprofit soup kitchens and food pantries in New York City and the more than one million low-income New Yorkers who are forced to use them. The Coalition works to meet the immediate food needs of low-income New Yorkers and enact innovative solutions to help them move "beyond the soup kitchen" to self-sufficiency.

What information will people interact with to make this change?

Users will interact with a comprehensive database of the more than 1,200 soup kitchens and food pantries in New York maintained by NYCCAH staff members spread throughout the city and updated via live interaction with open source Sugar CRM software. This database is the only source of information updated daily to reflect the fast-changing environment of charitable hunger response in NYC.

The database is visually presented using the Google Maps API, allowing users to search for local emergency food programs via zipcode, borough and keyword. Results are presented in both map and text-list format. The inclusion of the Donate Now API will allow users to click on existing text results and pop-up balloons to donate to specific agencies, directing them to a database-generated donation page tailored to the agency in question.

What else have you done in this Cause Area?

HungerMaps has received recognition in the NP Times, Today’s Dietician, the newsletter of World Hunger Year, and Google Maps Mania while working with agencies like NYCCAH, the Seattle Public Utilities and the South Texas Food Bank.

NYCCAH is an award-winning organization that has provided technical assistance to and advocacy on behalf of the hungry for over 20 years. NYCCAH’s executive director, Joel Berg, is a nationally-recognized leader in the fields of hunger and food insecurity.