Feeding America, a Chicago-based nationwide network of food banks, ensures food gets to 46 million hungry people through 60,000 food pantries and meal programs throughout the country. And for many families, hunger is a chronic problem coupled with diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, which are exacerbated by diets high in fat, sugar and processed foods.
So over the past few years, Feeding America has put additional emphasis on supplying their network of food banks with fresh produce from donors such as the US commodities program, farmers, food manufacturers and grocery store retailers.
A worthy cause, but not one without challenges: "It’s much easier to move a can of tomatoes than fresh tomatoes," explained Ross Fraser, director of media relations at Feeding America."Part of the challenge for us is when we get our hands on produce… how can we move it through the system as quickly as possible?"
The answer? Produce Matchmaker, a web app created by local development shop Alligatortek that was able to cut the coordination of produce donations down from a couple of days to a real-time process that can be completed in just a few minutes.
Previously the process for donating fresh produce was manual. Donors would put their available produce on an online spreadsheet, then food banks would bid on the food and find out twice per day if they won that donation. Afterwards they would calculate the cost and coordinate the delivery.
With Produce Matchmaker, that process is now available in real-time, 24 hours per day. Donors post the type of produce and amount available to the online platform, and food banks can communicate directly with donors to purchase the produce and coordinate delivery.
"That much of an improvement, means that much more produce will be fresh and available," said Dan Cash, director of application development at Alligatortek. "You’re not going to have as much spoilage while it’s sitting in a warehouse waiting."
Moving the process to an automated online platform has allowed for improved accountability and accuracy, Fraser added.
You’re not going to have as much spoilage while it’s sitting in a warehouse waiting
It's also increased the amount of produce donations that Feeding America can coordinate. Produce Matchmaker was launched last summer, and in the last fiscal year (which ended June 30) Feeding America facilitated the donation of 128 million pounds of fresh produce through the platform. That's about 10 percent of their overall produce donation (which increased to 1.25 billion pounds this past year), an increase of 9 percent over last year.
In October they're rolling out a variety of updates to expand the scope of the tech, including a "demand" feature where members can indicate areas of need. They're also soon expanding to cover perishables beyond produce from retailers, such as yogurt.
