Like many cities, Los Angeles has its share of food desertsneighborhoods where affordable fresh produce is scarce.Meanwhile, food is the largest single source of waste in California, comprising 15.5% of the states waste stream, according tothe California Integrated Waste Management Board.The winners of Urban SOS: Fair Sharea competition that asks undergraduate studentsto find solutions to cities' most urgent issueshope to addressthis problem.Students atWashington University in St. Louis created the winning proposal, which wouldturn LA post offices and their distribution networks into a food delivery system.Their submission, called"First Class Meal,"would send postal service trucks topick up food donations from grocery stores, agencies, or individuals along theirregular routes. The trucks would either deliver the free food to specified households or bring it back to the post office for later delivery or pick-up. While mostof the city's post office buildings would continue to process mail, the proposal would turn underutilized areasof the buildingsintofood pantries. People could alsopick up goods at the post offices.All thefood would be reserved for low-income people in Los Angeles. The students are hoping to make "First Class Meal"a reality, and are in talks with the city of Los Angeles and the USPS. They are also working with a few private and public hunger relief agencies to develop a funding model for the system (the students haven't yet figured out whether the model would use taxpayer or private funds).Anu Samarajiva, one of the student designers,tells Business Insider that the modified areas of the post offices would be staffed by volunteers or nonprofit workers (like most food pantries). Selectlocationswould have "food share walls," of refrigerated storage cubbies, which could be easily transferred to similar walls inside the trucks. The cubbiescould also be pulled out of vehiclesto createpop-up markets in neighborhoods.Samarajiva saystheexisting USPS app could be modified to set up and track the food deliveries."Within one postal zip code, a post office and its workers can serve both residents in food deserts and those in areas with high food access, bridging the gap between them,"shesays.SEE ALSO:The Robin Hood Restaurant charges its wealthier customers extra to feed the poorJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Why organic milk lasts longer than regular milk
Click here to read full news..
