Mutual aid groups rushed to the rescue during COVID-19

Food waste costs billions of dollars a year and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. French government just passed a law banning grocery stores from destroying or throwing away unsold food, and instead directing it to those in need.

Padua Project is an innovative program that has a goal of getting poor people out of poverty in three years with a job, three months’ savings and off government assistance. Its unusual success involved a collaboration with other social services organizations. Overcoming the big challenge of this collaboration is an important learning tool to scale similar initiatives.

World Concern, a Seattle-based Christian humanitarian group, provides people around the world with vouchers they can use in select markets, rather than the traditional emergency food aid of rice and other grains. In Dhobley, Somalia, the solution of vouchers quickens the process of receiving the food and contributes to the local economy.

Even with all available help, New Yorkers miss about 100 million meals each year - food stamps are not enough. But some New York food banks allow for the homeless to choose their own food products, making healthy choices easier.

Food access for low-income Americans is still a challenge across the country. Campus Kitchen Project, a national community service project that operates at 53 colleges, leverages the readily-available manpower and compassion of university and high school students to help provide meals to those in need.

New Jersey was one of seven states chosen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to participate in a pilot program for SNAP recipients, where eligible participants can use food stamps for grocery purchases online for the first time.

New Jersey looks for those solutions being implemented successfully in other regions around the country to fight hunger in food deserts and poor neighborhoods, assessing what can be replicated in their local communities to address these issues.

Hunger is a hidden crisis in the U.S., and in places like Rio Arriba County, New Mexico - a food desert and poverty-stricken community - a few dedicated food pantries are all that stands between thousands of people and going hungry. A longstanding relationship with Farmers Markets authorized to use SNAP benefits has also allowed farmers to donate overstocked produce to those in need - though the greater battle against the poverty that causes hunger is yet to be won.

Instead of following the traditional corporate model of financial philanthropy, Toyota gave its engineers to the Food Bank for New York City: trained in "kaizen" (Japanese for “continuous improvement). The engineers analyzed and improved the Food Bank's distribution systems, greatly increasing the Bank's efficiency and effectiveness in its anti-hunger efforts. By sharing the business model which made its own business thrive, Toyota's partnership with the city demonstrates how public-private collaboration provides a self-reliant, sustainable solution.

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.