Lost in a food desert, There's an app for that

Abstract

Salt Lake County Zip code Map

Our project is about making healthier food options more accessible to everyone.
We can up with this idea when we were taking a biology class at our school. We
were talking about how everyone doesnt have access to healthy food, and that
here in Utah we have a thing called Food Deserts. We then thought: How can
we show these food deserts in Utah and show it in a format that people can
understand while helping people make better food choices? We designed the
application to be able to be used on a very wide variety of devices such as apple
products as well as pcs and even android. With this application being able to run
on all sorts of devices makes it so it is available to everyone and not just a certain
group of people who have iPhones or iPads, or people who just have Android
devices. First, we contacted Professor Lori Kowalski-Jones at the University of
Utah because she had a lot of background information and actually did a study
on food deserts in Utah. She then led us to a resource database called Reference
USA. From there we had to build the application. When thinking of how we
should create this to be able to have the public use it we thought: How can we
make this more accessible to everyone and not just people who have an iPhone?
So we made it so everyone on any device can use this resource that we have
made.

Conclusion
We conclude that there are certain areas in Salt Lake
City that could be classified as food deserts. This is
shown in the areas that do not have pushpins on the
map in the designated zip code therein. Places with
pushpins are not food deserts as there are food
options in that area. This easily shows the areas
which are and are not a food deserts.
This will help us measure the accuracy and
usefulness of our app when the app is published. We
will have the app on the mac for viewing as it will not
be published until further additions.
This new format will be easier for all the public to
view, as it will be accessible on all types of computers
and mobile devices. You can go to the library, get on
a computer, open the app and type in your local zip
code.

Question
Where can I purchase healthier food?

Hypothesis

Only the top five categories overall are shown.

30

Vitamin & Food

Supplements
Grocers-Retail

25

We hypothesize that the heart of Downtown Salt

Lake City will have the best variety of healthy
food, because of how diverse the culture is in
that area.

20
15

To map out local food deserts and to build an

app that will provide helpful information to the
public about there food choices. We will publish
the app on the app store for the public to have
available at their finger tips.

Background Information
2.3 million US citizens are more than 10 miles away from there
nearest supermarket
For the past decade, the average American has driven 6 miles
between their home and their closest grocery store/ supermarket.
Inner cities and rural areas are more likely to be a food desert.
An estimated 13.5 million people in the United States have low
access to a supermarket or large grocery store, with 82 percent
living in urban areas.
Supermarkets and large grocery stores-- food stores with at least
$2 million in annual sales and containing all the major food
departments are used as proxies for sources of healthy and
affordable food

We will publish the app onto the app store. The app
will have all of the state of Utah included.
Create a healthy rating system that can allow users to
rate the food.

Fruits & Vegetables &

Produce-Retail
Convenience Stores

10
5

Design Goal

In the future, we will

Type of Food Stores by Zipcode.

References

Coffee & Tea

Methods
Meet with U of U professor Lori Kowaleski-Jones on
both our current project and on a study she
conducted on urban food deserts
Use Reference USA for zip code data
Set zip code boundaries that need to be included in
the app
Compile the data by zip code into Google Maps
Software
Finalize all data, locations of stores to make sure all is
correct
Create different layers in the Google Map Software
that will show different types of stores and
restaurants.
Publish final product

Materials
Apple Mac Pro
Google Maps Application
Reference USA for the data

The premier source of business and residential

information for reference and research. (n.d.).
Retrieved January 30, 2015, from
http://www.referenceusa.com/ .
Retrieved January 30, 2015, from
https://faculty.utah.edu/u0155464LORI_KOWALESKI-JONES/bibliography/index.hml
"Food Deserts." Food Empowerment Project. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.foodispower.org/food-deserts>.
Food Deserts." Food Deserts. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct.
2014.
<http://www.arcgis.com/apps/Compare/storytelling
_compare/index.html?appid=5428b864d48041d1863
eb91a3e075fd0>.
T. Durniak, Personal interview, January 2 2015 IBM
Watson Solution Architect