FEEDING (AND DRIVING) THE POOR
Last year, Food Rescue Hero (FRH) realized that its platform, which over five years had diverted more than 12 million pounds of food from waste bins to empty stomachs, could also be deployed to transport people. Now, in addition to delivering nutritious fresh food, the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit will begin responding to transit deserts by getting low-income people to medical appointments, jobs—and voting booths. “It’s like we started out as Uber Eats and now are going to become Uber,” says founder and CEO Leah Lizarondo. Having already built “a true crowdsourced transport network” (more than 10,000 volunteers making more than 90,000 trips in five cities), the organization is using a grant from the Department of Energy to fund expansion into transportation as FRH moves into six more cities, including Vancouver and Los Angeles. An upgraded app connects drivers, trained in food safety, to food donators (grocery stores, restaurants) and organizations where people often need transportation (shelters, pantries), and FRH adopted new no-contact protocols to continue operating during the coronavirus crisis, stepping up door-to-door deliveries.
people worldwide lack internet access, mostly in rural, remote areas, where wireless infrastructure is too costly to install. Carlsbad, California–based broadband company Viasat is using satellite-connected Wi-fi hot spots to change that. Last year, the company launched its first community Wi-fi service in more than 3,000 locations across Mexico, putting over 1.8 million people within a 5-to-10-minute walk of a hot spot. While many of these people already had smartphones, their limited cell service did not allow for anything beyond phone calls. Viasat charges users as little as 50 cents for an hour of broadband internet, enabling people to Skype with relatives, check weather forecasts, or do homework. “They want to do a lot of the things other people want to do,” says Viasat cofounder and CEO Mark Dankberg— listen to music, browse social media, or watch videos. Viasat recently expanded its community internet to Brazil and is now turning to Africa, where it plans to power Wifi with solar energy. “A big part of what makes this work is being able to give high connection speeds at really low cost and with very low electrical power,” Dankberg says.