Amid rising food insecurity and cuts to public benefits, Philadelphia’s food system remains fragmented. In the city, one in five residents experiences food insecurity, yet most systems still measure success in pounds distributed rather than household stability. Food Connect proposes to transform last-mile food delivery into a real-time learning and intelligence system that learns directly from the households it serves. The Resilient Food Systems Lab will capture household-level data, closing a long-standing gap in the hunger-relief sector to understand not only how food is delivered, but how it impacts stability, health, and upward mobility. If successful, this experiment could shift the field from reactive distribution to proactive understanding; redefining what it means to build food justice from the ground up.
