CIVIC-PG Track B: A Collect-Relay-Deliver Model for Creating Food-Secure Aging Communities

The objective of this Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) project is to support research on developing, piloting, and evaluating CORELADE, a novel home delivery model that COllects, RELAys, and DElivers surplus food to food-insecure aging communities through nonprofit organizations. By 2050, 20% (or 84 million) of the U.S. population will reach the age of 65. As the number of seniors grows, so does the need for food security. The number of food-insecure seniors rose from 4.9 million in 2016 to 5.2 million in 2020 and continues to grow. One solution is to provide home delivery through non-profit organizations. However, while commercial home delivery models have witnessed great success, they do not translate well to the nonprofit sector as volunteers typically find home delivery tasks — the time and costs involved — very demanding. Thus, there is an urgent need to make non-profit organizations’ home delivery models better aligned with capabilities and motivations of volunteer workforce, ensuring that the system is efficient, equitable, and financially sustainable. CORELADE aims to substantially increase seniors’ access to healthy food in the pilot communities, thus improving their quality of life and community wellbeing. CORELADE research will leverage complementary capabilities of nonprofit organizations’ vehicle fleets and volunteers' personal vehicles for food collection and delivery, with the intent of utilizing strategically located relay stations to reduce the logistical burdens. It draws on theories and methods from behavioral psychology, optimization and data analytics, computing, and community engagement to optimize food collection and delivery plans, thereby minimizing the efforts associated with home delivery. As a result, CORELADE hopes to motivate volunteers to take on home delivery tasks, extend the scope of non-profit home delivery initiatives, and ultimately create food-secure communities for senior population. This project involves academic researchers from Drexel University, Sharing Excess (a non-profit organization Based in Philadelphia, dedicated to ending food insecurity) and two organizations serving aging communities in the Philadelphia region (University Square Apartments and ElderNet). It is expected that CORELADE not only improves Sharing Excess’s operations but also serves as a scalable model for communities across the country. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.