Projects

During the COVID-19 pandemic, food pantries across Chicago had to close their doors, creating a critical gap in support. I was working in the nonprofit space at the time and decided to respond to this crisis. 

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My first step was understanding the nuances of the various stakeholders. These included leaders in the food insecurity space, food distribution experts, volunteer managers, and food recipients. This discovery process allowed me to conceptualize each group's problems and find common trends. I learned that maintaining a safe environment for volunteers and recipients was the major roadblock to operating. 
 

Next, I assembled a team and brainstormed potential solutions, ranking each option based on the effort required vs. its likely impact. From this process, my team found that a drive-through distribution would maximize overall safety and reach. This solution was our first iteration at a solution.

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After soliciting donations, we held our prototype pop-up a few weeks later and provided groceries to about 200 families. While we saw some initial success, the real benefit came from the feedback we compiled. After completion, I scheduled a team meeting to discuss potential changes we could make to our process.

 

Over the next year, we followed this cycle of testing/evaluation to optimize our goal of safe distribution. Ultimately, we safely distributed over 100 tons of groceries to over 4600 needy families, made possible through generous donors, the City of Chicago, Feeding America, and brave volunteers. 

 

This experience taught me the value of looking at situations from a “problem to be solved” perspective; one must truly understand the challenge before attempting a solution. I also found that the initial prototype doesn’t have to be perfect; it only has to meet the basic requirements of the mission. Finally, I learned the importance of iteration. Every subsequent food drive was a learning opportunity.