Future-Proof Progress: Apps to End Hunger
Dear reader,
If you read my previous article, you’d be familiar with my beleaguered relationship with the automotive industry. Years of grinding through a rusted reality. Though, like most other carbon-based lifeforms, I eat for survival. That being said, please categorize any other occasions as merely rumor…since, hypothetically, I’d resist succumbing to what’s been called “emotional eating”. Regardless of whether it was career-related or otherwise…hypothetically. Ahem, moving on.
Although I’ve endured a taxing career, I try to maintain an affectionate (and relatively healthy) relationship with food and the kaleidoscopic healing it can provide. Unfortunately, others aren’t quite so lucky.
The hidden in plain sight, Nobel Prize winning, overachiever:
Let’s dig right in. In 2020, the Nobel Peace Prize winning organization, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), won “app of the year” awards from both Google and Apple for their mobile application ShareTheMeal. In fact, it has accrued quite a few accolades, but it still hasn’t garnered as much mainstream attention as Twitter and TikTok.
The app allows users to donate money to provide food to those in need worldwide (to the tune of over 150 million meals to date). This task has become increasingly challenging since the number of critically hungry people has grown substantially since 2019. Shockingly, between then and 2022 the stats have risen from 135 million individuals to 345 million. For reference, the population of the entire United States is approximately 331 million.
Admittedly, this kind of information can quickly become emotionally overwhelming. So, let’s continue to explore solutions. If there’s anything we can succinctly glean from the app, it’s that clandestine problems can be alleviated with focused pragmatism and tech innovation.
Dashing to the rescue:
In our fast-paced, modern world, charitable giving remains a quizzically taboo subject. It doesn’t really fit in with the robust ambition of entrepreneurship or the randomized hustle and bustle of the social media ecosphere. That said, both offer a lot we can learn from. And considering that some of the world’s most capitalistic nations are also amongst the greatest charitable contributors. Perhaps, there’s no better time.
Upstarts like Doordash, Grubhub and Uber Eats have made quite the splash in this age of increasingly eased, middle-class existence. They effortlessly combined two niche needs. A populace that yearned for the flexibility only the gig economy could provide and those who wanted enhanced culinary convenience. Now, what if it were possible to make objectives like those more inclusive?
Imagine combining the crowdfunding potency of an app like ShareTheMeal with the acrobatic adaptability of mobile food delivery. Enter the food trucks. They could facilitate feeding those in need domestically in order to eventually raise the low-income living standards of entire nations by proxy. Countries that, lest we forget, will have the capacity to help others en masse.
“Unrealistic,” you quip.
Well, you might be surprised.
The heartbeat of a metropolis:
Quietly, in the midst of our century’s greatest period of political turmoil there’s a non-profit, food provider called Seva Truck. The truck delivers donated, vegetarian meals to hundreds of people weekly. It operates within the very stomping grounds of Washington DC’s most powerful and globally influential people. Haven’t heard of it from a famous pundit, celebrity or politician? Well, you know about it now.
Clearly, non-profits like Seva Truck are brilliant. However, not all food trucks utilized for this purpose would have to be singularly devoted to those with low-income to operate. They could be typical, locally owned businesses/trucks that would either qualify (via state programs) or voluntarily participate in providing donated meals. Dishes served in parallel to their customary clientele’s. No paradoxical stigma perceived or inferred.
“Nonsense,” you exclaim. “The homeless are often scattered and unreachable. Without cell phones they’re adrift from society at large. How could they possibly know when and where fleets of food trucks would be nearby? Any proposed app would primarily aid one end, but not the other.
“This simply isn’t scalable,” you ardently insist. “The dots just cannot be connected. AND it’d be financially burdensome for an already strained system!”
Don’t fret, gotcha covered. Oh, by the way, there’s billions of dollars in aid that goes unclaimed here.
Appy now:
In America, since 2008, there’s been the Lifeline Assistance Program. It was created by the federal government and authorized by the FCC. It provides free smartphones, SIM cards, data and minutes to the underprivileged throughout the country. Millions of people either qualify for these devices or have them already. They’ve essentially been deemed a societal necessity due to the considerable decrease of functioning payphones over the past two decades.
Now, the beauty of deploying food trucks is that they can travel from the most diminutive crevices of crowded cities to the isolated outskirts of small towns, if necessary. Obviously, they’re also a benefit to those who may not have adequate transportation.
Despite the inherent viability, it’s important to acknowledge that it isn’t attributable to a new and disruptive, technological revolution. The networks that would enable the trucks and apps have existed for years. Not to mention, it’d even be straightforward to implement through regional governments (if required). States like Texas and California currently have welfare service apps available and in use. Of course, you also mustn’t underestimate the potential influence of the tech industry.
Subverting the rise of the machines:
In the near future, there could even be sustainable, gig economy work provided to the homeless through apps. After all, the country is facing a complex labor shortage and embarrassing infrastructure issues. The end of hunger could be the segue to the end of low-income homelessness…while simultaneously providing a foundation for broader progress. It goes without saying, that if something like this could be accomplished in one country, it’d likely be repeatable across the globe.
Historically, we’ve used similar advancements in technology to make our daily lives easier. Perhaps, now we can evolve that basic desire into our greatest humanitarian triumph. Effectively rewriting our social contract with tech and harnessing it to truly cure mankind’s most corrosive civil ills.
After all, shouldn’t that be the point?
Before we’re all transposed to an apocalyptic, AI-driven event horizon, let’s see what technology can truly do for us. Crowdfunding and charitable food services have repeatedly demonstrated their effectiveness. So, what are we waiting for? Who knows, if we continue to proactively support compassion for humanity as a whole…maybe our imminent, digital overlords will one day do the same.
