SPATIAL ACCESSIBILITY IN FOOD DESERTS
Open Access
- Author:
- Chellappa, Varun Sudhurshun
- Graduate Program:
- Industrial Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 28, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Soundar Rajan Tirupatikumara, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Conrad S Tucker, Committee Member
Janis P Terpenny, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Data Analytics
Data Mining
Spatial Accessibility
Big Data
Process Improvement - Abstract:
- In recent times, food insecurity has become a pervasive topic in the United States of America. Previous research has indicated the prevalence of food insecurity is high amongst low-income neighborhoods that have poor access or cannot afford enough food in order to avoid hunger, also known as food deserts, and is currently rising amongst children below the age of 18. This is a major concern for non-profit and charitable organizations like food banks, whose main objective is to identify and provide food to people in need. This thesis considers the case study of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank for the purpose of identifying the food deserts in need of the food bank’s resources by using different data analysis and visualization techniques on multiple datasets. Currently, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank operates based on the demand identified by the food agencies present in the different counties, but do not consider the possible factors contributing to the demand. The key factors contributing to the increase in food insecurity are identified and the relationship between these factors are analyzed in this thesis. Furthermore, an implementation plan consisting of the recommendations and future work to be done are also detailed to help the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank target their customers in amore effective way.