Table of Contents
High Level Description
There is economic injustice in society, as demonstrated by food waste in America. About one- third of all food produced worldwide, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems (Food Waste: The Facts, 4/19), Subsequently, many individuals and their families are unable to feed themselves properly because of low income. This leaves many seeking asylum in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and community beneficiaries, which often cannot supply enough food for quantities of impoverished Americans due to product funding.
Problem of Interest
Grocery stores and eateries often let food go to waste at the end of the day. Initially, U.S. law declaring food that has already been served final and unable to donate incentivizes withholding. However, corporate companies evade expensive lawsuits when they choose not to donate unused food. Projected to remain this way, large companies thus are not our focus: we want to reach out smaller, community-based groups.
Local, family-owned, and independent businesses manifest a specific imbalance in society by choosing to withhold donations because they are protected by Good Samaritan Laws in donating unused food (Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, 4/19). If they were to be informed of their rights and potential to help the community, the benefit to both parties (donor business and recipient people) would be substantial. Another further connection between help environments (shelters, kitchens, ect.) and charities (those who provide to help environments) will lead to more productive service for the homeless community.
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How is this an information problem?
This issue is driven by an information system that lacks connections. Most small food businesses (local, family-owned, independent) are uninformed on their options to donate food legally and safely. Consequently, charity organizations are uninformed and unserved by businesses which would choose to participate if they were more informed of protective rights.
At the same time, help environments may be unaware of arising charities which operate to serve unfed and impoverished people. Expanding technology, such as apps & websites for charitable organizations, is also a missed opportunity for these uninformed help environments. As a result, the food received by those in need is asymptotically far lower than it should be because of lack of information between organizations.
Competitive Analysis
We researched external teams which could be more successful not just by incorporating our ideas, but because of our ideas. In other words, the vast majority of what we found pertains to groups which we include in our model. For example, the app Copia (Copia, www.gocopia.com 4/19) is a direct technological link between eateries and entities, such as companies. However, their business model is limited by its architecture.
Copia accepts applications for donation and reception of food through their app, which severely limits access for those without technology- the poor who actually need the food. This makes Copia a solely business-facing app. Similarly, organization NAEIR is a business-facing donation hub for office supplies, books, ect. in which the proceeds do not encompass basic human needs, such as food.
Proceeds from NAEIR also target new or small businesses themselves instead of people (NAEIR… Empowering Generosity, 4/19). We were also informed by our Section AAT.A. of a third similar group, “135 Degrees Fahrenheit,” but were unable to find substantial information on it, other than its linear donations of only perishable food to charity.
