Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Food Access Map topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Winnebago Extension unveils statewide food‑access map to help residents find groceries, EBT sites and meal services
Summary
A Winnebago County Extension horticulture educator demonstrated a statewide interactive food‑access map that catalogs supermarkets, specialty stores, farmers markets, EBT‑accepting outlets and hot‑meal sites; staff plan a public launch in April or May and will validate entries with local partners.
Jacob, a Winnebago County horticulture educator, demonstrated a statewide interactive food‑access map during the Extension committee meeting, saying the tool compiles searchable layers for supermarkets, specialty stores, farmers markets, EBT‑accepting locations, food banks and hot‑meal sites and can be filtered by device type.
The map, which Jacob said will be hosted on the Oshkosh/Winnebago Extension website, includes a public submission form and change log for user updates. "There's 5,654 places that we've categorized that offers food access," Jacob said, adding that the map will let users turn layers on and off to avoid clutter, for example excluding convenience stores if they are not helpful to a user.
Why it matters: Extension staff and committee members said the tool could help families, service providers and local governments find fresh food and emergency meal sites quickly, a capability they expect to be especially important amid recent federal SNAP changes. Jacob emphasized the analytic value, saying the dataset will let Extension and public health staff identify food deserts and target interventions.
How it works: Jacob described multiple data layers (supermarkets, specialty stores, CSAs, farm stands, orchards, EBT acceptance and hot‑meal programs) and said EBT acceptance is flagged using a federal database. "There's 2,073 convenience stores that accept EBT," he said, and on his map 3,309 places are currently shown on the EBT layer. He demonstrated device views and a back‑end editing interface for administrators.
Data quality and timeline: Jacob said the collection was built from public listings and web scraping and is currently unverified. "I would like in the next year for us to call them, verify that they're open," he said, describing plans to recruit local admins and possibly interns for validation work. He said he hopes to publish the public‑facing map in April or May to coincide with the summer farmers‑market season.
Limitations: Jacob acknowledged the dataset is not fully validated and asked partners to help confirm hours and services. Committee members suggested media outreach to raise awareness once the map is live.
Next steps: Jacob will meet with Extension communications to finalize publication logistics and staff will explore partnerships for validation and promotion; public health has already used portions of the data for its own maps.
