Justice Kitchen

Justice Kitchen is an open-source platform for creating local directories of Black-owned restaurants or other Black-owned businesses. This readme aims to make it easy to set up a Justice Kitchen site in your own community. Creating your own version of the site is easy, requiring two major steps:

Data Preparation

1. Gathering the data

All the listings in Justice Kitchen are generated from data stored as a JSON file (content.json), which can be easily generated from a Google Sheet. For example, Dallas data is drawn from this spreadsheet. The Codebook tab of the spreadsheet should help explain the format for some of the fields needed.

To collect data within your community, it can be helpful to use a Google Form similar to this one (do not submit responses, thank you).

2. Geocoding locations

Geocoding (turning locations into values of latitude and longitude) can be done many ways. I use a Google Sheets add-on called Geocode by Awesome Table.

3. Exporting the data

To export the spreadsheet data to a JSON, I use a Google Sheets add-on called Export Sheet Data. Download the file and use it to replace content.json.

Site Configuration

Configuring a Justice Kitchen site takes just a few simple steps.

1. Setting up API keys

The platform currently uses two API keys, both contained in index.html: Google Analytics and Google Maps Javascript API.

• You can create a Google Analytics tag using these instructions and replace the dummy tag (see below)).

  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=YOURGOOGLEANALYTICS"></script>
  <script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());
  
    gtag('config', 'YOURGOOGLEANALYTICS');
  </script>
  

• You can get a Google Maps Javascript API key using these instructions and replace the dummy key below. Note: Google offers a $200 credit for trying out this API, but it is not free. If you anticipate a large volume of traffic to your site, include limits to avoid billing surprises.

  <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOURMAPSAPIKEY&callback=initPage&libraries=geometry"></script>
  

2. Changing localized content

Currently, some content in index.html reflects Dallas specifically or credits related to our instance of Justice Kitchen. Replace these to better represent your community.

3. Hosting

Because Justice Kitchen is a static site, it can be hosted on any website hosting platform. I like AWS best because it keeps costs down, but it can be complex for beginners. Here is a tutorial for hosting the site the way I did.

License and Credits

This work is released under the GNU General Public License v2.0. Addendum: uses or derivatives of this code base must be used in support of BIPOC or AAPI communities. If in doubt, ask at @coreyaustinhere.

Original Dallas restaurant data provided by Rosin Saez, Dalila Thomas, Abby Blasingame, and Scott Luther. Strategy by Helina Seyoum, Trey Green, Trent Walters, and Chris Ferrel. Code by Corey Austin.