Where YouTube Meets the Farm

Food banks and charities in London are partnering with the web platform FaceDonate so they can distribute grocery funds to those in need using facial recognition on their phones. The technology allows charities to ensure the money is spent on food and that only those eligible are spending it.

CorpsAfrica gathers volunteers to train community members on how to construct and maintain a kitchen garden, full of a variety of vegetables, to provide families with nutritious food. Volunteers conduct door-to-door education campaigns and offer support to those starting their gardens. As of May 2020, the organization had helped create 760 kitchen gardens in an effort to fight malnutrition-related diseases and boost food security in the region.

To help students access the resources they need while schools are closed due to the coronavirus, administrators in China are utilizing "a national cloud learning platform," as well as broadcast television. While both supplement online lessons, the e-learning approach equips students with tools to learn 12 different subjects.

Far from its location in Boston, Southern New Hampshire University is offering refugees at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya a shot at getting an education. SNHU offers associate's and bachelor’s online degree programs in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Lebanon. A degree could be life changing, given that only 1 percent of refugees have access to higher education. The online program is “self-paced, offered in English, and costs less.” So far, 84 have enrolled and 24 have graduated.

Many families in rural New Mexico still do not have high speed internet access at home. In Farmington, the public school district, a local college, and nonprofits are working to close the gap in the digital divide for students by addressing access to technology and the internet.

The Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America never spread to Africa, due to the continent's varied climate, degraded soil and lack of infrastructure. Now, scientists look to develop a high grossing wheat seed to bring a new green revolution to Africa. The seeds are extremely promising, but there are still some challenges to getting farmers to implement the seeds.

While not without challenges, Starlink, a satellite technology company, played a pivotal role in bringing internet service to rural communities around the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Community members, the Cuba Independent School District, tribal councils, and Starlink worked together to install widespread internet connectivity, which has improved academic performance for their rural students.

Nonprofits are spreading knowledge of breadfruit trees to communities facing food insecurity around the world because it is a reliable, resilient crop that produces abundant yields. Local farmers are taking an agroecology approach to planting the trees — which produce a nutritious, potato-like fruit — with other mixed crops so the plants can benefit from each other.

To swiftly address the dearth of equitable internet connectivity exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Las Cruces Public Schools collaborated with a variety of funding, research, and outreach partners to bring nearly all of its 24,000 students online in their homes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shift to remote learning, districts issued wireless hot spots to students as a cost-effective solution to help those living in homes without internet access their school work. While hot spots helped a large number of students, a present digital divide — specifically in rural areas — has made connecting harder for others, but government funding is ramping up to expand broadband access.