Overview

FoodShed Boston is an interactive geospatial analytics platform that maps Boston’s food ecosystem across neighborhoods. The goal was to unify fragmented public datasets into a single, actionable view of food infrastructure, demographics, and equity gaps.

Boston’s food data exists across disconnected maps and portals. We built a layered foodshed explorer that helps policymakers, residents, and organizers understand where food access works and where it fails.

The Problem

Boston lacks a unified view of how food infrastructure intersects with community demographics.
Data lives in silos (Census, Boston Open Data, food asset datasets), making coordinated food justice action difficult.

What We Built

• Smart search by neighborhood or food type
• Radius-based foodshed filtering
• Poverty and demographic overlays
• Real-time counts of food access points
• Integrated multi-layer visualization across 25 neighborhoods

Demo

Technical Architecture

Frontend: React, Vite, Leaflet, Recharts
Backend: Flask, Python, PyMongo
Database: MongoDB (NoSQL)
Data Processing: Pandas, GeoPandas, spatial joins
APIs: Google Maps API, U.S. Census API, Gemini API

We engineered a full-stack geospatial system integrating 8+ public datasets and enabling real-time neighborhood-level food equity analysis.

Data Sources

• U.S. Census Bureau (ACS)
• Boston Open Data Portal
• Climate Ready Boston – Social Vulnerability Index
• USDA Food Access Atlas
• ArcGIS StoryMaps references

(All data sourced from verified public datasets)

Impact

• Covers 25 Boston neighborhoods
• Integrates 5 cross-linked data layers
• Enables radius-based regional foodshed analysis
• Designed as a 100% open-access tool

By making invisible infrastructure visible, the platform supports data-driven food justice decisions.