How we know this

Every listing is built from public sources you can open yourself. This page explains where the information comes from, how much to trust it, and what we refuse to guess.

The numbers, as of this build

These counts are computed from the data at build time, not typed in.

Where the information comes from

Sources are ranked in tiers. When a lower tier contradicts a higher one, the higher tier wins and the disagreement is recorded on the listing.

Tier 1

County / food bank / government — 8 sources

Tier 2

Provider — 43 sources

Tier 3

Aggregator or community post — 9 sources

Tier 4

Press — 7 sources

• Tier 1 — Shelby County's own 2025 Food Resource Guide, the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama's live map and its public data feed, 211 Connects Alabama, and state benefit programs.
• Tier 2 — the provider's own website or official Facebook page. Authoritative for that organisation.
• Tier 3 — aggregator directories and community posts. Useful as leads, but they contradicted primary sources on at least four Shelby sites, so a listing that rests only on Tier 3 is marked unverified and hidden by default.
• Tier 4 — press coverage, used mainly to corroborate closures.

Confidence

Corroborated

Two or more independent sources AGREE on the operative facts (schedule and access rules), not merely on the organisation's existence.

Single source

Only one source establishes the operative facts. Others may confirm the organisation exists or where it is.

Sources disagree

Sources actively conflict on an operative fact. Displayable, but the conflict must be surfaced to the user.

Unverified

Supported only by an unaudited aggregator.

“Corroborated” is deliberately strict: two sources have to agree on the operative facts — the schedule and the access rules — not merely that the organisation exists. A confidence re-audit on Tuesday, September 8, 2026 moved several listings down for exactly that reason.

What we refuse to guess

• Unknown is not “no”. If no source says whether ID is required, the listing says “not confirmed — call first”. It never says “no ID required”.
• No invented dates. A pantry that says “every other Tuesday” without a start date, or “monthly” without a rule, gets no projected dates. We show the cadence and tell you to check.
• “Open now” is earned. It appears only for a published time window, from sources that agree, with no appointment, referral or approval in the way. Office hours at an appointment-only agency are never called “open”.
• Retrieved is not verified. Each source shows the date we read it. Nobody has phoned a provider yet; when they do, the listing will say so with the date.
• Facebook is cited carefully. We link the stable page rather than a post permalink that Facebook rotates, we say when a login may be needed, and we flag members-only groups you probably cannot open.
• Closed stays visible. A closed site keeps its page, marked closed, with alternatives — so old bookmarks and search results do not send anyone to a locked door. It leaves every list and the sitemap.

Visitor reports

Anyone can report what they found at a location. Reports are factual signals — were the hours right, was food available, were you asked for paperwork — not star ratings. A volunteer reviews each one; only approved reports are counted, and only as aggregates over the last 90 days with a minimum sample. Names, comments and emails are never published. No report changes a listing automatically: the researcher confirms with the provider, edits the data, and the change goes through the same validation as everything else.

The data itself

The directory is a single reviewed data file kept under version control, with a validator that refuses to publish a listing without a source, an expired one-time event, a “corroborated” label with fewer than two sources, or a disputed label with no recorded conflict. The public site is generated from that file; nothing is stored anywhere else. Coordinates for 17 sites come from the food bank's records; the rest are placed at their town centre and labelled approximate until someone checks them.

Questions about a specific source? Each listing's “How we know this” section links every citation. See also Help and Privacy.