Track 5 (Food Access & Resource Navigation)
Find food help near you
Some coding helps
The problem
Families who need food help struggle to work out where to go, whether they qualify, and whether they can get there. Opening hours, transport, documents and language all get in the way. The information exists, but it's spread across many agencies.
Who it's for
Families in Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties looking for food help, and the volunteers and caseworkers who help them.
What to build
The minimum is a target, not a rule. Judges score every team with the same five criteria.
Build at minimum
A tool that:
- takes an address or ZIP code and shows nearby food resources (school meal sites, SNAP stores, and WIC offices);
- explains who qualifies, in plain language;
- says how to get there by bus where it can;
- says "I'm not sure" and points to 211 or the provider when it can't answer.
Stretch goals
- Spanish, plus one more language.
- Map areas that are far from food resources and poorly served by buses.
- Filter by opening hours.
The data
Public data only, with no personal information.
| Dataset | What's in it | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| School meal program sites | Texas school nutrition program sites, program year 2025 to 2026. Public (Texas Department of Agriculture). Includes staff contact names. It's public data, but we suggest leaving names out of your tool | Texas Open Data Portal 3qgy-p3sr (opens in a new tab) |
| Child and adult care meal sites | Centers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Public (Texas Department of Agriculture). Includes staff contact names. It's public data, but we suggest leaving names out of your tool | Texas Open Data Portal py3b-tqc9 (opens in a new tab) |
| Stores that take SNAP | Stores that accept SNAP (food stamps). Public (USDA) | USDA SNAP Retailer Locator (opens in a new tab) |
| Food access by area | How far census tracts (small areas of a few thousand people) are from food stores. Public (USDA) | USDA Food Access Research Atlas (opens in a new tab) |
| Households without a car | Vehicles available per household (table B08201). Public (US Census Bureau) | Census table B08201 (opens in a new tab) |
| Bus routes and stops | METRO's GTFS feed (a standard set of files with routes, stops and times). Public, no account needed. METRO's terms require you to credit METRO | Download METRO schedule data (zip, 13 MB) |
| WIC offices | Texas WIC (food help for pregnant women, new moms and young children) office finder. Look up offices near an address. It's a lookup, not a download. Public (Texas WIC) | Texas WIC office finder (opens in a new tab) |
Start here
- No code? Open the meal site lists in Google Sheets, filter them by ZIP code, and show the results in slides or a simple page.
- New to Python? See open a Colab notebook and load a CSV.
Good to know
Ideas to try
Test your tool with lookups like "a family of 4 with no car, Saturday morning" plus an address or ZIP. There's no single right answer. Show what your tool does, and where it isn't sure.
Using the data
- Say where every piece of data came from.
- Credit METRO if you use the bus data.
- Don't put anyone's personal information into your tool or into an AI tool.
- Opening hours and rules change. Tell users to check with the provider.
How it's judged
Same five criteria as every track. How judging works