❮ Projects page Share Our Strength

Spatial Analysis Project:

Share Our Strength would like to work with a fellow to help more kids in Texas and in Illinois receive a nutritious breakfast during the school day and a healthy meal in the summertime by identifying target areas for program outreach. Locally, Share Our Strength works with key state-based partners in Texas and Illinois to support effective administration and implementation of the school breakfast and summer meals nutrition programs. In both Texas and Illinois, Share Our Strength is helping state-based partners to increase targeted outreach for school breakfast and summer meals to low-income Hispanic families. A fellow would work with Share Our Strength to spatial analyze disparities in access to school breakfast and summer meals programs for Hispanic families in Texas and Illinois and to identify areas for increased efforts to improve program access and participation. From this project, Share Our Strength would like to be able to create a process of analysis to identify targeted areas for school breakfast outreach and summer meals site development that could be replicable in other states.

Data available:

We acquire the following datasets from the respective sources listed below:

Cook County, Illinois

• TIGER/Line® Shapefiles of Cook County and related Census Block Groups
• School District Boundaries
• School District data on free and reduced price meal eligibility
• Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for School Districts
• Estimate of people age 0-17 in poverty
• Estimated percent of people age 0-17 in poverty
• Demographic data on Hispanic or Latino Origin
• 2013 Summer Meals Sites
• Schools participating in SFSP/SSO
• Public places: libraries, parks, HUD developments

Texas

• TIGER/Line® Shapefiles of State Legislative Districts: Upper Chamber and Census Block Groups
• School District Boundaries
• School District data on free and reduced price meal eligibility
• Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for School Districts
• Estimate of people age 0-17 in poverty
• Estimated percent of people age 0-17 in poverty
• Demographic data on Hispanic or Latino Origin
• Public places: libraries, parks, HUD units

We will also need to acquire the following datasets prior to initiation of the project:

• Area eligibility by block group from USDA Food and Nutrition Services
• Direct certification rates by school district and school. By May 2014, states are required to release data on schools and districts eligible for the community eligibility provision for school breakfast.
• Summer meals sites
• Housing and Urban Development sites

Maps and Reports that will be created:

We anticipate that the fellow will create a series of descriptive and analytical maps showing the current distribution of school breakfast and summer meals programs and child participation, as well as identified areas for targeted outreach for program implementation and improved participation. The maps will highlight the distribution of low-income, Hispanic children ages 5-17. For Texas, the maps will display descriptive data and the analysis by state senate districts. For Illinois, the maps will display data for Cook County by school district and Census block groups. Ultimately, we would like to have a list or map of schools, school districts, neighborhoods or areas to focus additional resources for outreach in order to improve participation in school breakfast and summer meals.

How the maps and reports will be used:

The maps and reports produced by the fellow will be used by No Kid Hungry campaign partners to target their outreach efforts and to ensure that their efforts in these areas are sensitive to cultural and linguistic differences. It will provide state-based partners a list of areas in which to utilize specific strategies devised to be inclusive of Hispanic families. Share Our Strength will use these maps and reports to help garner political support from key state decision makers or local decision makers to support school breakfast and summer meal programs in key regions.