Community fridge.docx

To: Dr. Glen Taylor
From: Prachi Raichura,
Subject: Business Gov. Society
Date: 6/6/2016
Class: 1 yr. MBA -Oakland
"Community Refrigerator" Project – Business, Government and Society

Table of contents:
Introduction – Hunger
Food Wastage
Stake holders
Local situation on Food wastage and Hunger in Society
Government
Businesses
Possible solution –" Community refrigerator"
Insurance, Grants , permissions needed
Investments needed
Location
Risks and drawbacks
Scalability and Conclusion
Introduction:
"A man turned himself into the police even before committing the crime, and the reason made the officer so sad and sympathetic, that the officers gave the man, some money and released him. The man has a family to feed, and no money, desperate he walked into Walmart with the intention to steal some food.' The local tabloid headline reported a grim reality. The reason that, he had gone to a department store to steal food, was simple and one of the core reasons why Crime starts – Hunger. Of the many other complicated needs, a man creates for himself, and spends rest of his life, chasing and to fulfilling, one of the legit ones and uncontrollable ones is – Hunger.



Hunger is not a farfetched phenomenon in developing nations alone, it looms in our vicinity. The American families grapple with grim prospects of hunger and starvation on a scale as well. The test city of 'Oakland' and 'Bay Area', one of the most affluent areas, have a high rate of people below the poverty line. They then depend on food stamps, and some resort to crimes.

Hunger - Largest Cause of Fatalities
The US allocates 0.1% of its budget toward hunger.
Yet the largest cause of death, more than any other fatality is due to hunger-related issues.

Households with incomes below the Federal poverty line-$22,113 for a family of four in 2010-(40.2 percent).
Households with children, headed by a single woman (35.1 percent).
Households with children, headed by a single man (25.4 percent).
Black households (25.1 percent).
Hispanic households (26.2 percent).
Overall, households with children had nearly twice the rate of food insecurity (20.2 percent) as those without children (11.7 percent).
Hunger being a big issue, we can see that this is the prime problem. It is a serious issue the society needs to address.
Hunger in the United States
More than four years after the onset of the financial and economic crisis, hunger remains high in the United States.
The financial and economic crisis that erupted in 2008 caused a dramatic increase in hunger in the United States. This high level of hunger continues in 2012, according to the latest government report. As hunger and poverty are related, food insecurity and poverty are not the same. Unemployment is a stronger predictor of food insecurity rather than poverty.
Poverty

In 2010, 49.1 million people (16.0 percent) were in poverty.
In 2010, 9.2. Million families (11.7 percent) were in poverty.
In 2012, 16.4 million children (22.0 percent) under the age of 18 are in poverty.
Food Insecurity

In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure homes 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children.
In 2010, 14.5 percent of households (17.2 million households) were food insecure.
In 2010, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, (20.2 percent) households with children compared to (11.7 percent) of households without children.
In 2010, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.2 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (35.1 percent) or single men (25.4 percent).

Food Wastage:

Other side of the spectrum, there is the food wastage, another big problem, and the food wasted at restaurants is especially huge. The food industry is troubled with the costs of recycling wasted food, expired food and rejected but edible food. There is a clear disconnect between these three, and there can and should be a way we can connect these dots and create a synergistic link to helping people, stop food wastage , reducing food recycling and waste removal cost for businesses and reducing crimes that stem out of this main aspect of poverty called – Hunger.
1. Food wastage in Restaurant industry – There is very high food wastage in the restaurants, and there are strict guidelines that require perfectly edible food to be thrown if not consumed within certain hours. In McDonalds, if you order a burger and they process wrong one, the staff has to mandatorily 'Trash' it. Perfectly edible food gets thrown away. The hungry die of hunger and the restaurants, in order to completely avoid any legal liabilities, trash away perfectly edible food.
2. Food wastage in Homes – Similar situation and dilemma is seen with middle and high socio economic classes. The households are health and lifestyle conscious and the portion control is at a hilt over ordering, under consumption. The cakes, cookies, and many other items, which are perfectly edible are now trashed away, to avoid calories gain. This in turn leads to lot of wastages. The people are looking for avenues to be able to donate, the half used or slightly expired or even perfect condition food. They seem to have no avenues, besides the usual food banks, which again have high regulations and are far away from the local cities they dwell in.
3. Food wasted in Grocery stores and Retail – It is seen, that a lot of food also gets wasted in retail and grocery stores. The strict regulations, on 'expiry' date and the consequent action, if expired food is kept leads to legal action on the Grocery chains. The legal action, on the grocery stores for keeping expired food, on the aisles adds up to 'Million dollar law suits'. The safe action for the stores is to then throw away the perfectly edible food. They would not want to invest more manpower or cost to channel it to the needy.

These conditions leads them to waste the food, and trash it. No avenues to be able to recycle it, even if they would like to.
Stake holders:
Three prime stake holders listed below:
1). Government – As they direct funds, pay for food stamps and help hungry and homeless. In this era of both soaring budget deficits and escalating poverty, there is a great need for the federal government to ensure it is spending its resources as wisely and effectively as possible on the needs of those Americans who require a helping hand during hard times. This objective fits within the mission of the Center for American Progress's Doing What Works project, which was inaugurated by CAP earlier this year to ensure that each dollar government spends advances ambitious and carefully selected progressive goals.
There is no question that government must address the most basic of human needs—hunger and nutrition. Some federal programs focused on these needs are already very cost effective, among them the SNAP (formerly Food Stamp) and school meals programs, but they could be run even more efficiently.
These and other federal food programs are critical to millions of low-income Americans who are in crisis because of longstanding structural problems with the U.S. economy alongside existing holes in the nutrition and antipoverty safety nets. Both sets of problems are now exacerbated by the devastating consequences of the Great Recession. As recently as 2008 (before the worst of the economic downturn), 49.1 million Americans, including 16.6 million children, lived in households that suffered from food insecurity or hunger—unable to fully afford the food their families needed. This number exceeded the combined populations of the states of Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Wisconsin.
Combating hunger and food insecurity is an important goal in itself. But it is also a sound investment. Voluminous data proves that hungry children learn less effectively, hungry workers work less productively, and food insecurity costs the nation tens of billions of dollars annually in health care costs. A 2007 study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that domestic hunger and food insecurity cost the American economy $90 billion annually. Given the massive increase in food insecurity since then, this paper calculates that the cost of domestic hunger to our economy now likely exceeds $124 billion. The price we pay for food insecurity in children alone is at least $28 billion.
Make no mistake, the federal nutrition safety net has saved countless lives and provided much-needed assistance to millions. Its creation and expansion in the 1960s and 1970s all but wiped out severe hunger in America. This same safety net greatly reduced the suffering caused by the Great Recession and other events such as Hurricane Katrina.
But it is also clear that the safety net is in desperate need of reform. The current safety net is a confusing array of programs, with 15 different nutrition assistance programs run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture alone, each of which have different eligibility requirements, application procedures, and physical locations that people must visit to apply. This system requires far-reaching bureaucracies and vast mountains of paperwork to administer, discouraging many low-income Americans from seeking the benefits they are entitled to, and costing the government billions of dollars in unnecessary administrative costs. Meanwhile, antifraud measures, inspired more by misguided fears than actual evidence of widespread cheating, cost the government more to implement than they save.

2). Restaurants and Grocery stores – They pay for additional garbage and recycle, and mandatorily throw away edible food because of restrictions from FDA. Stores like Trader Joe, Lucky, and Walmart, Costco do not have the kitchen, and edible food units like Safeway and they end up wasting recently expired breads, Produce, and more. Food waste in the foodservice industry is one of the most recognizable areas of food waste in America. All of us who dine out have internally debated the pros and cons of doggy-bagging leftovers, and the majority of Americans share the guilty experience of ordering the waiter to take the extra food away, knowing it was destined for the dumpster. 

As Americans, we frequently seek out establishments that offer more for our money, as well as enjoying the abundance of buffets and cafeteria-style eating, all of which innately generate large amounts of food waste. The United States also cultivates a thriving fast food industry, and the consequences of producing cheap, ready-to-go food are careless food waste policies. 

According to a at the University of Arizona, food waste as a percentage of the total food used is 9.55% in fast food establishments and 3.11% in full service restaurants in the United States. That may not seem concerning, but, to put the statistics in perspective, the same study estimated that the total food loss per day amounted to 49,296,540 lbs in all full service restaurants and 85,063,390 lbs in all fast food restaurants. While this is a projected value based on collected data, it gives an idea of the sheer amount of food that is wasted on a daily basis in foodservice.
Restaurants
The sources of food waste in restaurants vary greatly, but, on average, a restaurant can produce 
150,000 lbs of garbage per year. 
Pre-Consumer Waste
There is more to restaurant food waste than merely what the customers choose not to eat—a fact that tends to be ignored outside the restaurant business. The pre-consumer kitchen waste, which could be incorrectly prepared food, spoiled food, trim waste, or simply overproduction, constitutes an estimated 4-10% of purchased food, becoming waste before it ever reaches the table. There are
Means for reducing this portion of food waste, such as donating to a food bank, assessing prep waste to determine poor practices or highly wasteful items, and creative re-use of certain foods (e.g., making day old bread into croutons). These solutions might not be revolutionary, and yet they could make a difference with a bit of effort.
Post-Consumer Waste
Post-consumer plate waste, or the food you neither eat nor doggy bag, can be more complex because, even though Americans are aware of it, the decision not to waste relies heavily on consumer preference. American culture today revolves in many ways around getting more for less money, and food is no exception to this rule. This can lead to wasteful foodservice practices in the effort to entice customers with large, or even "family style," portions. Once that food leaves the kitchen for the table, the consumer decides how much of these oversized portions to eat, and whether or not to take the leftovers home. Post-consumer food cannot be donated to food banks because of health regulations, so plate waste will be thrown away if it is not doggy-bagged, directly given away by the consumer, or composted.
Plate Size
The American phenomenon of super-sizing food is one of the key trends contributing to restaurant waste. However, it isn't only the burgers that have grown bigger in recent years but also the plates and glasses on which the food is served. According to recent research, an optical illusion causes the serving size to appear smaller when more "white space" surrounds the food on the plate. This means that a larger dish can make a serving of food appear much smaller than the same serving of food would appear in a small dish. Putting this knowledge to good use allows restaurants to serve smaller portions on smaller plates, thus creating significantly less kitchen and plate waste, without causing the customer to feel cheated about their serving of food.
Cafeterias and Buffets
These types of dining establishments must constantly provide ready made food throughout the day to customers, and only innovative management and significant effort can prevent food waste from piling up daily. Plate waste is more serious in cafeterias, and especially in buffets, since customers can usually fill various plates, sometimes with the option to refill indefinitely, generating alarming amounts of unrecoverable waste. And, of course, cafeterias and buffets leave large amounts of food sitting out at all times, and, similarly to fast food restaurants, food is only left out for a limited amount of time before it is thrown away. The obvious recourse is to donate leftover food, and, to a certain degree, that is what many establishments choose to do. However, both real and imagined legal concerns from health regulations often prevent cafeterias and buffets from donating, in an effort to avoid any potential lawsuits. In addition, once food is put out, it cannot be donated to a food agency for health reasons. 

3). Society – The hungry people, who are left with no choice but to enter crime world of petty theft or begging for food, starving. The general rise is crime rate, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening. This leads of dislike and anger in the financially challenged who either resort to escapism with substance abuse or they resort to justifying thefts, Vandalism and more with increasing resentment towards the working and affluent class.

Poverty and hunger in America often go hand in hand, but poverty is not the ultimate determinant of food insecurity. People living above the poverty line are often at risk of hunger as well. Research demonstrates that unemployment, rather than poverty, is a better predictor of food insecurity among people living in the United States.
The most recent government statistics on poverty collected show that in 2014,
46.7 million people (15 percent) were in poverty, including 15.5 million (21 percent) children under the age of 18.
48.1 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, including more than 15 million children. 

Stake holders :
Food and agricultural policies help to orient the national, regional and global food systems. They result from the interaction of a set of stakeholders who each seek to defend their interests or those of their allies. The degree of influence of each stakeholder on the resulting policies depends on their capacity to influence as well as on the institutional framework, at national, regional and global level, within which policies are being formulated. 

Local Government
Local police departments
Local Citizens
Local Farmers
Corporations
Tax payers
Retail stores and Grocery store chains
Restaurants
Over all Government of the country
Food stamps and social security offices
Garbage disposal and recycle companies

The Secondary stakeholders involved are:
-The states and their various organizations
-International and regional intergovernmental organizations
-National and international Civil Society (professional organizations - including private sector, NGOs and lobbies) 
-Multinational corporations whose importance has been growing over the last decade.

Possible solution –" Community refrigerator": A possible solution, for this is to install a community refrigerators. A small fridge, at a convenient location. This will be like a local, easy food bank.
Sturdy transparent fridge
Security camera
Log book to enter food item and expiry
Sticky tags to tag the food ingredients and expiry
Bulletin board next to it, for revenue and advertising.
Electricity socket
Volunteer, to clean and clear the fridge in a timely fashion.

This will ensure, the locals can donate their food responsibly, and the lower income people can then use the food. This idea, as seen post research on this paper, has already been implemented in 2 locations at least. In Spain and in restaurant in India. Both the locations, it has been fairly successful.
Food collection:
Another model, is to collect the excessive food from the restaurants, the retail chains and place it in these food refrigerators or food banks. This again will make it an easier process to be able to build a bridge between the needy and the poviders.
Tax rebate: Research and look into the any laws that will save taxes for the restaurants for supplying food to the needy.
Publicity Tie ups: Look at other options like Publicity tie-ups and marketing advantage for Brands like McDonalds and all, who can donate surplus food and leverage the act with publicity.
Savings : The money currently used, as a fee to pay the garbage facilities for recycling oily food, as it cannot be dumped in regular garbage.
- Subsidies : Tax write offs and subsidies can lead to a good motivation, for the profit seeking corporations to collaborate with the Food recycling NGO's and help donate. Both the individual, restaurants and corporations can show donation quota, and avail some subsidies for their Socio government, good corporate citizen work,
Overall Vision- Two Models:

1.The Community refrigerators
One is a 'Community fridge' meant to be a place to share our surplus food. This will be more of a goodwill donation center, for edible fresh food with a sticky pad telling the food expiry and date of purchase, managed by NGO and is equipped with security camera and advertising board. The advertising board, is where people can advertise their businesses. This revenue, from the bulletin board can help pay the electricity bills.
The idea here to make the 'Surplus' food donation localized, convenient and simple. The norms and rules, and especially the fear of litigation leaves a huge gap, between those who need help and those who want to help. This gap can be bridged by small little effort. There are people willing to donate if the system is simple and easy for, there are people willing to accept that food.
2. Restaurants surplus food pick up driving services
Second Vision, is a transportation service, where we donate the extra food every night from the restaurants to homeless shelter, orphanages. In this model, it is a Business to charity event and we come forward and volunteer to carry that food, every night and bring it to a shelter or orphanage. In this model, there is less liability or chances of error. The following are the possible steps to set up the service:
Approach and sign up with restaurants and Grocery stores
Approach and sign up with Shelters and recovery homes
Schedule a schedule for food evening routine
Incorporate volunteers
Create a convenient schedule to collect all food being donated by restaurants, and deliver it to Shelter.
Handle the liability and insurance options.
Spread the word, and try and get in more local food businesses on board.
CREATE a bridge between the two segments.

Insurance, Grants , permissions needed:
Since the food industry is highly regulated and strict in the US, we will need to ensure we have all the possible permits, grants, permissions and insurance, to be able to run an effort involving food and safety of the consumers. A 'Non Liability waiver', Insurance for NGO and other legal and careful measures will be necessary to ensure there are no legal implications for 'Surplus Food sharing' being done within the community. The police departments, the city officials and a lot more will go into the actual implementation of the NGO.

Location:
A potential start, can be with Bay Area. Cities of Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco can be a great start. We can then scale it to other cities and regions if successful.

Conclusion:
Thus we can see that, A BRIDGE is needed, someone needs to help create a small bridge, between those who want to donate, and feel guilty upon wasting food but see no easy, hassle free means and then of course, there are people scavenging garbage for food, committing crimes and more. The Government, Business and Society, shall all benefit with this small looking step, but in the long run it will lead to a better society, happier government and socially responsible corporates, that can prevent capitalism from the infamous title 'Brutal Capitalism'.


Footnotes:

http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/hunger-and-poverty/?_ga=1.242288005.626237076.1465200431
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/130164.pdf
http://www.mercyairlift.org/foodbank/hunger.html