Food waste? There's an app for that.

The White Center Food Bank has transformed its storage space to mimic a normal grocery store setup, complete with shopping carts, volunteer baggers, and stocked shelves. This has made all the difference for some of the one in five Washington state residents who rely on food banks: with the new model, patrons report reduced stigma and shorter lines.

Through creative financing and new technology, a non-profit in San Francisco is making farmers markets more accessible to residents who rely on federal nutrition benefits.

The Restaurant Resiliency Program, which was adapted as a government initiative during COVID, tied up restaurants with charities with the aim of ensuring that vulnerable communities had access to meals while the restaurants were able to keep their business running in those uncertain times. However, when the funding abruptly ended on February 3 without reaching all the beneficiary restaurants, it showed how the much-needed program required better implementation and thought.

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank battled food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic by distributing groceries directly to consumers rather than its previous role of supplying other charities. Ohio National Guard members helped distribute food using a contactless pickup line where they put bags of food in the trunks of cars. Hundreds, sometimes over 1,000 cars were served a day.

To make food and cleaning products more accessible to those experiencing economic hardship, the startup Algramo has installed more than 2,500 automated bulk-dispensing systems throughout Chile where people can purchase an item and come back to refill it using the same container. Instead of competing against other consumer good companies, Algramo works with them to help change their packaging practices to reduce their plastic waste. Algramo is scaling the service to New York City and Indonesia to help cash-strapped and eco-friendly shoppers.

More than a dozen states are participating in a SNAP program, allowing people experiencing economic hardship to purchase food online from retailers. While only certain online retailers allow for food stamp purchases and SNAP users can’t pay for delivery fees with their benefits, more states are piloting the program, which could prove useful for people quarantining from the novel coronavirus.

Thanks to a two-year grant from Colorado’s Health Foundation, several food-centered nonprofit organizations are working to help residents of southwestern Colorado replace high-calorie, low nutrition food with seasonal vegetables. The Garden Project, the Good Food Collective, and the Manna Market deliver food boxes every week to community organizations including senior centers in La Plata and the Women’s Resource Center. Food distributions also take place in undisclosed locations for immigrants.

Philabundance, a nonprofit organization aimed at fighting food insecurity, has a sustainable and creative solution. They launched a line of cheeses, known as Abundantly Good, and proceeds will help pay farmers to turn extra milk into cheese for people grappling with hunger. The process will engage ethically-minded consumers, support local farmers, make use of food waste, help the planet, and provide high-quality food to those who are food insecure. It’s a solution that benefits everyone involved.

While the USPS has seen a drastic decline in revenues and capacity in recent years due to growing competition from the private sector and social changes, First Class Meal is reimagining the role that this institution has to play: improving national access to healthy food. Using the existing USPS app to connect organizations and food banks that struggle to distribute donations, postal drivers out on their normal routes would pick up donations, deliver to food banks or pantries, and store food in post offices with excess capacity.

There is a substantial argument for increased involvement of private companies in venture philanthropy. Unlike large government bodies and NGOs, private companies are more nimble and experienced when it comes to strategies in marketing, R&D, creating pricing structures, and adapting to rapid social change. Three companies in India are seeing real results by serving India's poorest customers with a market-based approach.