Some Solutions That Already Exist
After identifying the problem (food insecurity), we researched existing solutions. While researching, we discovered three effective solutions: food drive, money drives, and community refrigerators.
Food Drives
Food drives, which are most commonly held in late fall and winter (the holiday season), are usually where someone or a group of people put bins around a school or workplace to collect canned food. This food is then donated to a food bank or food pantry that gives the food to people in need. This solution is effective because it directly gives food to the disadvantaged.
Money Drives
A money drive is very similar to a food drive. Usually, someone will set up a place (online or in person) that people can donate money to. That money is then given to an organization like food banks or food pantries. While interviewing two experts (Roger Castle and David May from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank) our team was told that just one dollar can make up to four meals. This information suggests that money drives can be as or more helpful than food drives.
Community Refrigerators
Community refrigerators are fridges that are put in supermarkets and community spaces, where anybody can leave their excess food. People who are food insecure can then get the food out of the fridge and eat it. This way, people who are food insecure can get food for free, and it helps to reduce food waste. This system is mostly implemented in London, where there are almost 50 refrigerators. In the United Kingdom their are laws in place that make sure there are no liability issues, which makes this solution possible.
Food drives, which are most commonly held in late fall and winter (the holiday season), are usually where someone or a group of people put bins around a school or workplace to collect canned food. This food is then donated to a food bank or food pantry that gives the food to people in need. This solution is effective because it directly gives food to the disadvantaged.
Money Drives
A money drive is very similar to a food drive. Usually, someone will set up a place (online or in person) that people can donate money to. That money is then given to an organization like food banks or food pantries. While interviewing two experts (Roger Castle and David May from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank) our team was told that just one dollar can make up to four meals. This information suggests that money drives can be as or more helpful than food drives.
Community Refrigerators
Community refrigerators are fridges that are put in supermarkets and community spaces, where anybody can leave their excess food. People who are food insecure can then get the food out of the fridge and eat it. This way, people who are food insecure can get food for free, and it helps to reduce food waste. This system is mostly implemented in London, where there are almost 50 refrigerators. In the United Kingdom their are laws in place that make sure there are no liability issues, which makes this solution possible.
Three Ways We Donate
After researching the existing solutions to our problem, we came up with three ways to help those who suffer from food insecurity:
Food Drive
The first part of our solution is to conduct a food drive at Brawerman East Elementary School (Talia's previous school). We will partner with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Our goal is to get 100 cans donated.
GoFundMe (Money Drive)
The second part of our solution is to start and manage a GoFundMe, raising money for Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which is a part of Feeding America. Los Angeles Regional Food Bank will then use this money to buy food to donate to people in need. While doing research, we found that $1 is equal to four meals, which means that a money drive can be very helpful. Our goal is to raise $1,000, which translates to about 4,000 meals.
Donating Excess Food
The third part to our solution is to donate excess food from our school pavilion to MealConnect. Even though Windward is very careful in its food waste, it still has food left over. We thought that by donating the packaged food that is safe to eat, we would be reducing food waste at our school while also helping people in need.
Food Drive
The first part of our solution is to conduct a food drive at Brawerman East Elementary School (Talia's previous school). We will partner with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Our goal is to get 100 cans donated.
GoFundMe (Money Drive)
The second part of our solution is to start and manage a GoFundMe, raising money for Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which is a part of Feeding America. Los Angeles Regional Food Bank will then use this money to buy food to donate to people in need. While doing research, we found that $1 is equal to four meals, which means that a money drive can be very helpful. Our goal is to raise $1,000, which translates to about 4,000 meals.
Donating Excess Food
The third part to our solution is to donate excess food from our school pavilion to MealConnect. Even though Windward is very careful in its food waste, it still has food left over. We thought that by donating the packaged food that is safe to eat, we would be reducing food waste at our school while also helping people in need.
Our Original Timeline
For the Food Drive:
1. Schedule food drive at Brawerman for February 18-21
2. Speak at Brawerman about food drive on February 18
4. Pick up bin on Friday, February 21
5. Donate the food to Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on March 13
6. Collect the data
For the Money Drive:
1. Create a GoFundMe
2. Create social media accounts to advertise
3. Collect money from February 20 - March 15
4. See how much was given
5. Donate to Meal Connect
6. Collect the data
Collecting From the Pavilion:
1. Gather data about which foods can or cannot be donated
2. Create a plan to donate continuously
3. Collect the data
1. Schedule food drive at Brawerman for February 18-21
2. Speak at Brawerman about food drive on February 18
- Tell students about the project
- Put an advertisement in the school newspaper
4. Pick up bin on Friday, February 21
5. Donate the food to Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on March 13
6. Collect the data
For the Money Drive:
1. Create a GoFundMe
2. Create social media accounts to advertise
3. Collect money from February 20 - March 15
4. See how much was given
5. Donate to Meal Connect
6. Collect the data
Collecting From the Pavilion:
1. Gather data about which foods can or cannot be donated
2. Create a plan to donate continuously
3. Collect the data
Ideal Community Partners & How We Will Collect Data
Our Ideal Community Partners:
Our Method of Collecting Data:
Pre-Data:
Before we started the project there were a number of things that we needed to find out, such as what types of donations are the most helpful, what a reasonable goal is, and what can be donated from the pavilion. In order to find out what types of donations are the most helpful, we interviewed food banks. We asked them if monetary donations were better or worse than actual canned food. In order to figure out what a reasonable goal was, we looked at the food banks' website and saw what helps. We looked at how much one dollar does, how much one can of food does, etc. The last thing that we needed to do was talk to Khan (the head pavilion staff) to find out how much food was made, how much food was bought by the students/teachers, how much was leftover, and how much was thrown away.
Project Data:
After the food drive, we had to count how many cans of we collected. Before we donate, we also looked at how much money we collected. After donating, we asked the food banks how much we helped. For example: How many families did we help feed? How many people did we help feed? How many meals did we help buy? All of these things showed us how much we helped the problem.
- Meal Connect (Feeding America)
- Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
Our Method of Collecting Data:
Pre-Data:
Before we started the project there were a number of things that we needed to find out, such as what types of donations are the most helpful, what a reasonable goal is, and what can be donated from the pavilion. In order to find out what types of donations are the most helpful, we interviewed food banks. We asked them if monetary donations were better or worse than actual canned food. In order to figure out what a reasonable goal was, we looked at the food banks' website and saw what helps. We looked at how much one dollar does, how much one can of food does, etc. The last thing that we needed to do was talk to Khan (the head pavilion staff) to find out how much food was made, how much food was bought by the students/teachers, how much was leftover, and how much was thrown away.
Project Data:
After the food drive, we had to count how many cans of we collected. Before we donate, we also looked at how much money we collected. After donating, we asked the food banks how much we helped. For example: How many families did we help feed? How many people did we help feed? How many meals did we help buy? All of these things showed us how much we helped the problem.
The Evolution of Our Solution
We started this project with the idea to do a food drive at Windward. We thought that if we could encourage young people to make more of a difference in the Los Angeles community with food insecurity, they would become more aware and try harder to solve this cause. We wanted to give food to food banks who distribute to pantries all over LA. This way, we could give more food to people who need it after the times that they normally receive the most food (most food drives are before or during November and December). We then met with people at our school to talk about scheduling this food drive. Unfortunately, after making plans and numerous meetings, we were unable to do this at Windward school. However, we adapted and found new ways to hold a food drive, by doing one at Brawerman East, Talia Zipkin’s previous school. Talia spoke there on Tuesday, February 18th, to talk to them about this issue and about why we were doing a food drive.
We thought of the idea for a GoFundMe next. GoFundMe is a website that is used to raise money for individuals and organizations. The purpose of using GoFundMe for this project is to raise money for this problem, because we have found that $1 can pay for four meals. We giving this money to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, a food bank that feeds that hungry all over Los Angeles. Using the amount of money we raise, we can give hundreds of meals to hungry people in Los Angeles.
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We also thought of the idea to volunteer when we were researching food banks and pantries. We thought that it would be a good idea to familiarize ourselves with the places which the hungry go to get food, in order to fully comprehend the situation that people go through, and to understand how food pantries work. Unfortunately, because of our age, we were unable to volunteer, for liability reasons and because of “heavy lifting” as they called it. However, Charlotte was able to take a tour with the director of Saint Augustine S.A.V.E.S. food pantry and learn how they operate.
This was very useful, because Charlotte learned many facts and situations that Saint Augustine goes through. Saint Augustine gets food from the Westside food bank, but has to pay for the food, at a discounted price. This was not listed on the Westside food bank website. She also learned that the food pantry receives food from three Trader Joe’s locations in Culver City. The pantry also sells flowers to people in order to have enough money to keep the lights on. They get these flowers from Trader Joe’s, along with the food. Saint Augustine also gives clothes to homeless people in need. This pantry also told me that the items that they need most are paper bags, because they use those bags to give food to people who are eligible for food. They also have requirements for who is eligible to receive food from the food pantry, one of which has a requirement for your annual income, in which a single person in a household must have an annual income of at least $29,000. The food pantry also told her that by law, they can only give the food that is donated to the homeless that come to the food bank.
The last part of the solution that we developed was donating excess food from the Pavilion to Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. This way, we can donate more food to Los Angles Regional Food Bank, while also reducing the amount of food at our school that is wasted.
We were unable to complete this portion of our project, due to the harsh schedules of pavilion representatives and the liability issues. We also had trouble contacting MealConnect and Feeding America, as they both told us to contact our local food bank, the Los Angeles Regional who responded by telling us to contact MealConnect. We made numerous phone calls, contacting many people in each place to attempt to start our solution. We also met with a Windward representative to talk about the problems with our project. We were reasonably told that we would have to get a contract saying that Windward is not liable for any problems that may occur from the food. The representative also mentioned that we would need to check that they picked up, and that we would need to see who would be able to get the food together each day. Our team then found that MealConnect does not operate in Los Angeles, and only operates in Northern California.