What if Lyft Eradicated Child Hunger in the U.S.?
Have you ever seen a hungry child? Not the one you see on TV, standing in a kitchen yelling “L’eggo my eggo!” at their family, but the one that you might see walking down your block from the school bus stop, a few steps behind the others kids likely due to low or no energy because she has barely eaten a square meal in days, with no idea of what or when she will eat next.
Unfortunately they don’t wear huge signs around their necks saying “I’M HUNGRY, PLEASE FEED ME!”, but in America 1 in 6 children may not know where they will get their next meal from. That’s approximately 13 million kids that will go hungry, not have enough energy to learn and develop the way they need to, and potentially turn to a life of crime if this uncertainty becomes a daily reality for them.
Does hunger exist in the U.S. because we don’t produce enough food? No. We produce more than enough food for our people and could in fact grow more. Is it because we don’t have enough support in place for those families that are in most need? No. The Federal government provides ample assistance, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which supports more than 42 million people, and growing.
Then why, Why, WHY are children still going hungry?
It’s not just one reason, but a culmination of factors, with lack of access being the main one:
- Food deserts, loosely defined as an area where there is no car or grocery store within 1 mile, are scattered all across the country
- Children are unable to take advantage of supplemental feeding programs due to the requirement of travel to designated sites
- Geographically restricted and costly public transit further impoverish the working poor across the nation
How can Lyft Help?
With additions like mixed transportation trip planning in their app, Lyft has already started working with regional public transit agencies to make it easier for commuters to bridge the ‘first & last mile’ in their journey to and from public stations.
But there is a lot more that can be done.
Lyft has partnered with Hertz and Flexdrive to bring an additional option for would-be drivers. Lyft Express Drive is a weekly car rental program that can put a driver on the road for a rental rate of $180-$250/week, and a refundable deposit of $250.
Using Express Drive, what if Lyft were to…
- Create driver programs specifically servicing low income areas to bridge transportation needs like shuttling hungry kids to and from supplemental feeding sites/programs (think child care car services like Zum & Kango).
EXTRA CREDIT: Turn this into a driver ‘carpool’ program for the working poor who are walking miles and miles to reach their jobs due to increasing costs of public transit.
- Use their super popular Round Up & Donate program to allow the Lyft rider community to help eligible new drivers pay for the refundable $250 deposit, which they likely won’t be able to afford, and help supplement the weekly rental costs
- Partner with local grocers and restaurants to create a program similar to UberEats, with the drivers delivering food that would instead be wasted (i.e. expired food or “ugly” produce) to food banks or a system of families in need
EXTRA CREDIT: With autonomous cars arriving on the scene, we just need to stretch our thinking a tad bit more to re-imagine this delivery service as a fully automated system: grocery stores, and restaurants are fully connected with the cars through a neural network so that real-time signals communicating alerts for food availability, families/organization requiring help, and car availability can be seamlessly transmitted within the system.
Doing good for the sake of doing good, is all good and fine…BUT
What’s in it for Lyft?
- Revenue Growth: more drivers on the roads mean more riders using their service means more revenue for the company
- Market Share Growth: creating higher awareness of their new Express Drive program to bring in more Lyft drivers, especially in places like Texas where public transportation is lacking significantly and ridesharing hasn’t yet gained steam
- Increased Brand Favorability: the strategic use of feel-good stories to further their “good guy” narrative
- Lead Societal Change: supercharging their economic impact across the nation
What if Lyft did eradicate child hunger in the U.S.?
Wouldn’t that be something
By day, I help world-renowned marketers make sense of the data at their fingertips. By night, I’m deep in thought about all that happens in my inner and outer world, attempting to connect all the dots and find ways to make this a better place for all. All day, every day, I’m a mother to an amazing little human being.
Follow me on Instagram @aishahiqbal, to see this world through mine and my daughter’s eyes.
