2015 DSSG Data Fest: Team Feeding America

Summary

In the U.S., 50 million people face food insecurity. Feeding America, a nonprofit, works to end hunger by coordinating with food banks and collecting donations from producers and supermarkets. They aim to provide 8.6 billion meals annually but currently distribute 3.6 billion. With the help of a machine learning system, they're identifying restaurants as potential donors to fill the meal gap. This system prioritizes restaurants based on attributes like ratings and sales, helping Feeding America efficiently build partnerships to end hunger.

Takeaways

• 🇺🇸 In the United States, 50 million people out of 300 million are food insecure.
• 🥺 Food insecurity impacts various demographics including families, low-wage workers, the elderly, and single parents.
• 🗺️ Hunger is a nationwide issue with no county being completely free from it.
• 🤝 The speaker's organization partnered with Feeding America, a national nonprofit working to end hunger.
• 🍽️ Feeding America needs 8.6 billion meals annually to ensure no one goes hungry.
• 📦 They currently provide 3.6 billion meals a year through a network of 200 food banks.
• 🛒 Food donations are collected from big food producers like PepsiCo, Nestle, and supermarket chains such as Walmart and Target.
• 🍴 Restaurants are a potential source of food donations that have not been fully utilized.
• 💡 The speaker's team built a system to identify restaurants likely to donate large amounts of food.
• 📊 The system uses machine learning to analyze data from various sources and rank restaurants based on their potential to donate.
• 📊 A web interface allows food industry professionals to adjust the importance of different attributes to refine the ranking.
• 📋 The system generates a prioritized list of restaurants for Feeding America to contact, which can be downloaded as a CSV.

Q & A

How many people in the United States are food insecure?

50 million people in the United States are food insecure.

What does food insecurity mean in the context of the transcript?

Food insecurity means being unable to provide either enough food or enough nutritious food for oneself over the span of a year.

Which demographics are affected by food insecurity according to the transcript?

Food insecurity affects a wide range of demographics including families with young children, low-wage workers, the elderly, and single parents.

Is there any county in the U.S. completely free from hunger?

No, not even a single county in the U.S. is completely free from hunger.

What is Feeding America and what is their goal?

Feeding America is a national nonprofit working to end hunger in the U.S. Their goal is to provide enough food to ensure that no one goes hungry.

How many meals does Feeding America estimate are needed annually to combat hunger?

Feeding America has identified that 8.6 billion meals a year would be needed to ensure that no one goes hungry.

What is the current annual meal provision by Feeding America through their network?

Feeding America is currently providing 3.6 billion meals a year through their network of 200 food banks.

What are the sources of food donations for Feeding America?

Feeding America collects food donations from big food producers such as PepsiCo and Nestle and supermarket chains like Walmart and Target.

What is the remaining meal gap that Feeding America is trying to cover?

The remaining meal gap that Feeding America is trying to cover is 5 billion meals.

Why are restaurants considered a potential source of food donations?

Restaurants are considered a potential source of food donations because they are an as-yet largely untapped source with millions of restaurants in the country.

What system was built to help Feeding America identify potential restaurant donors?

A system was built that collects information from various sources and uses machine learning to categorize each restaurant based on attributes indicative of potential donations.

How can a food industry professional use the system to prioritize restaurants for contact?

A food industry professional can use a web interface to set weights on different attributes and produce a score for each restaurant, which can then be used to create a prioritized list of restaurants to contact.

In what format can the prioritized list of restaurants be downloaded for distribution?

The prioritized list of restaurants can be downloaded as a CSV file for easy distribution.