29 June 2020
According to the USDA, in the United States, food waste is estimated at about 30-40% of the food supply. Just in 2010, over 100 billion pounds of food was wasted and food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills. This food waste not only has direct financial impacts of over $150B but also affects the families that could have been fed with the food and the lost labor that goes into ensuring the food is processed, stored, transported and unfortunately discarded.
Food loss can occur due to a variety of reasons and at various stages in the food production cycle. It is an unfortunate reality that various organizations, start-ups and individuals have been trying to solve for years. And now in the coronavirus era, these organizations have found it even harder to rally support and volunteers who are concerned about health and exposure.
The hardest hit organizations are local food pantries and emergency feeding services like food banks that have seen donations and volunteers disappear at the same time demand for food assistance is skyrocketing. Aside from economic concerns, many reliable sources of food, such as college cafeterias serving students on mealplans are also closed.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of food pantries and food donations is increasing as millions are stuck at home and have been either laid off or furloughed. These food pantries or food shelves frequently are the only quality food source for many in food deserts; areas where quality supermarkets or grocery are not nearby.
Cogmint is here to help food pantries across the country operate and serve their communities in a more effective manner. There are thousands of food pantries across the country, however, getting food donations to them is hard as not all of them are still active. Furthermore, it can often be time consuming to reach and coordinate with these food pantries in order to donate food.
Doing good doesn’t have to be so hard, and Cogmint is making it easier. We are working actively to verify whether food pantries are still operating while also understanding and analyzing what resources they have. We are actively building an internal phonebook of the contact information of food pantries that are still operating and still take donations. This set of contact information will be used to fuel a public-facing directory of food bank and food pantry information.
Currently, there is more food available than food pantries and we want to make sure that the food is not wasted. We actively work to verify these food pantries and then send food donations their way so they can serve the communities in their network. More information on this pilot is here.
We are looking for individuals to call and verify the numbers of food pantries across the United States. If you’re a student or someone with a little bit of free time every week, make sure to sign up through cogmint.com in order to call food pantries and help with the food waste crisis. This is a great way to engage in some volunteerism without risking your health.
Individuals will be paid per call they make so this is not only a way to help food pantries across the country but also a way to make some quick money. If you’re passionate about ending food waste, sign up today!
Cogmint is a human-friendly way to crowdsource and complete tasks. We work closely with social-impact organizations, social impact professionals, volunteers and those interested in serving their communities. Our projects can be completed conveniently from home, and there is no ongoing commitment. Must be located in the US. If you are interested in volunteering with us, sign up today: https://cogmint.com/signup