This project seeks to address hunger relief in the US by maximizing equitable access to safe food, while considering the food preferences of food-insecure households, and simultaneously addressing redistribution of usable food that would otherwise be wasted. In the US, 10.5% of the households were food insecure in 2019, and that number increased by 29% in 2020 with the spread of COVID-19, according to the Feeding America Covid-19 impact assessment. Yet, it is estimated that 30–40% of food supply is wasted in the US. Working with two food banks in North Carolina and one in Alabama, each serving a range of counties—together with their associated networks of food-insecure households, food-secure households, other nonprofit organizations, and local businesses such as growers, supermarkets, restaurants, and other businesses in the service regions—the project team of academic and community partners will co-develop a community-based socially intelligent nonprofit food rescue and distribution infrastructure and platform to use community resources to equitably serve food-insecure households.

This project unites three aims to develop a socially intelligent nonprofit food rescue and distribution infrastructure to equitably serve food-insecure households by continually learning their preferences with feedback to upstream stages of the supply chain. Aim 1, Smart Sociotechnical Information Capturer and Predictor: Understand the behavior of donors, beneficiaries, and volunteers by creating a socially intelligent infrastructure that records data in real-time and learns evolving stakeholders' and end users' needs, preferences, and utilization over time. Aim 2, Tactical Supply Chain Planner: Design and optimize the community food sharing network in response to stakeholder behaviors by constructing a technology and data-driven supply chain framework that adapts to evolving stakeholder behaviors to best serve the hunger needs of food-insecure households within the community. Aim 3, Real-Time, Logistics Operations Optimizer: Satisfy beneficiary needs through communal self-renewal by connecting food-insecure households to community-based supply options in real-time, and optimizing real-time pickup and delivery logistics while adhering to food safety time windows. The proposed infrastructure will facilitate more effective food distribution aimed at reducing hunger while simultaneously enhancing sustainability.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.