WIGIS food mapping project: update and volunteers opportunities

[Betsy Breyer]

Hi WIGIS,
I wanted to give you all an update on the Grocery CART (Consumer
Affordability Research Team) project. Grocery CART is a community
research project to map out food accessibility for the Portland
region. We have managed to compile price data for well over 100
grocery stores in the Portland metro area! Thanks to everyone who
helped out with data collection. For some background on this project,
check out www.grocerycartpdx.org

We at Grocery CART are working with Portland Community Reinvestment
Initiative (PCRI) as we embark on a new phase in the project: farmers
market surveys. We are planning to survey Portland farmers markets the
week of Sept 11-17. The survey involves visiting a farmers market,
speaking briefly with vendors, collecting some price info, then going
to a nearby supermarket to collect some produce prices there as well
(sure, we most likely have data for that store, but want to make sure
seasonality doesn't bias our data).

This is a fun project that directly benefits PCRI's efforts to improve
healthy food accessibility to low-income Portlanders. We'd love your
help. We'll be making lots of maps with the data you collect. Do some
good and get your shopping done at the same time!

If you'd like to volunteer to survey a farmers market, we are hosting
volunteer orientations on Wednesday, Sept 7 and 8. Please RSVP to
foodmap...@gmail.com and let us know which of the sessions you
want to attend. We'll get you set up to head out to survey the
following week.

Volunteer Orientations:
Wednesday, September 7th, 4pm at the PCRI Office, 6329 NE Martin
Luther King Jr Blvd, 97211
Thursday, September 8th, 6:30pm at Southeast Grind coffee house, 1223
SE Powell Blvd, 97202

Please email with any questions. We're looking forward to hearing from
you!

Betsy Breyer
Grocery CART PDX coordinator
foodmap...@gmail.com
www.grocerycartpdx.org


What is Grocery CART?
The Grocery CART project emerged from initial meetings between WIGIS
members and Portland State University students, as well as survey work
done by Christina Friedle's Portland Community College students in
conjunction with Adriana Voss- Andreae of PCRI, who designed the
original grocery survey as well as the upcoming farmers market survey.