We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are
channels made for sharing. --Billy Graham
How One Woman's Food Redistribution App is Feeding Thousands
--by Cat
Johnson, syndicated from shareable.net,
May 22, 2016
Komal
Ahmad was a student at UC Berkeley when she experienced a life-changing moment.
She had just returned from summer training for the U.S. Navy when she met a
homeless veteran on the sidewalk. He hadn’t eaten in three days.
Yet,
across the street, thousands of pounds of uneaten food was being thrown away by
her school. This was unacceptable to Ahmad, so she did something about it.
“Those
who have and are wasting and those who need and are starving — and they’re both
living quite literally right across the street from each other,” she told
the New
York Times. “That’s just ridiculous.”
Ahmad
started experimenting with ways that technology could help redistribute uneaten
food to those who need it. Her first project was Feeding Forward, a local
partnership with UC Berkeley’s cafeteria. It grew into Copia, a food redistribution app that has
given away an estimated 600,000 pounds of food to 720,000 people in the Bay
Area. During the Super Bowl, Copia organized numerous pickups from events and
parties that fed over 41,000 people with food that otherwise would have gone to
waste.
The
app enables companies with excess food to hail Copia drivers who pick it up and
deliver it to local nonprofits. It’s an efficient, tech-enabled way to solve
what Ahmad has called the “most unnecessary problem of our time.”
“Everyone
wins,” Ahmad told the Times.
“We win because we’re feeding hundreds of thousands of people – including
veterans, especially, and children and women. And corporations get to reduce the
amount of food that they’re wasting. They reduce disposal costs. They get to
feed people directly in their community, which is awesome. And we also help our
environment.”
Syndicated
with permission from Shareable -- an online magazine that tells the story of
sharing that covers people, places, and projects bringing a shareable world to
life. The
author, Cat Johnson, is a freelance writer focused on community, the commons,
sharing, collaboration and music. Publications include Utne Reader, GOOD, Yes!
Magazine, Shareable, Triple Pundit and Lifehacker.
Be The Change: How can you give out of your abundance to help
others in need?
Sourced From www.dailygood.org
