Is this the food pantry of the future? SC residents in need can order meals through app

Mobile apps, such as Blue Apron to UberEATS, help thousands of Americans find and order food everyday. Following in their footsteps, a nonprofit hopes its app will do the same but for individuals and families facing hunger and have nowhere else to turn.

The “Fed 40” app was quietly launched in South Carolina last week by the nonprofit organization Feeding Children Everywhere — a charity out of Florida that has distributed more than 71 million meals to people in the U.S. and around the world.

The app, which is available through the App Store and Google Play, allows any user to request food for up to 40 meals by submitting a short form. Then, usually one business day later, a package arrives at the person’s doorstep.

“I think that model (of feeding the hungry through food pantries) is going to go away completely in the next few years,” said Dave Green, CEO of Feeding Children Everywhere. “Companies like Amazon and Blue Apron that intersect technology and an efficient supply chain system are mastering this space.

“But the humanitarian sector is no different. We have to replicate what the for-profit world is doing, because there shouldn’t be anyone in the U.S. who had to go a day without food. We have all the food, it’s just about getting it to those people in need efficiently,” he said.

Since 2013, food security increased by 13 percent in South Carolina, ranking the state fifth-lowest in the nation for food security of individuals age 60 and older. During the same time, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program reach decreased 20 percent for that age bracket, according to a recently released study.

“We’ve created a crisis of accessibility,” Green said about how many people lack transportation or time to get off work and travel to a food pantry that maintains limited hours.

In addition to alleviating concerns of transportation and open hours, Green said the Fed 40 model of feeding those facing food insecurity also restores dignity in the process.

The box, which does not have a label indicating it’s from a food assistance program, includes enough vegan, non-GMO red lentil jambalaya to create 40 meals.

“It gives them another option to stretch their food further,” Green said.

Fed 40 was launched in November as a case study in Florida. After confirming that those people in need did, in fact, have the technology to request a package of food using the app or website, the nonprofit expanded the program to more states, Green said.

The app can be downloaded anywhere, but the organization is currently only shipping meals to Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Organizers expect to expand and ship meals nationwide by the end of 2018.

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Is this the food pantry of the future? SC residents in need can order meals through app."