Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food insecurity

Google Launches a Tool to Help Americans Struggling With Food Security

Google launched its new Find Food Support website today, which aims to connect people struggling with food insecurity to resources like food banks, school lunch programs, and food pantries. Google said in a blog post that it worked with No Kid Hungry, FoodFinder, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to capture data on food assistance programs around the country.

Google pointed out in its post today that the COVID-19 pandemic made the problems of hunger and food insecurity worse for many Americans. The number of people without access to “a sufficient quantity of affordable food” rose to 45 million in 2020, a nearly 30 percent increase from 2019.

The company also said that over the last year, Google searches for “food bank near me,” “food stamps application,” “school lunch pick up,” and other similar phrases reached “record highs.” And while anyone could type these terms into a search bar on their own, the Find Food Support tool centralizes all this information and can offer more precise results.

The tool includes a Google Map locator with which a user can find their nearest food bank, school lunch program, or other assistance program. There are currently 90,000 locations across all 50 U.S. states included, with more locations on the way. To find a nearby location, users simply type their address into the search bar and pull up relevant results. 

In addition to the locator, users can also view SNAP benefits in their area, find support for seniors, see state benefit sites, and access assistance hotlines and text lines, among other things. Those that want to donate food, time, and money can also find relevant information via the tool.

The Find Food Support tool follows other efforts in the food industry to connect food insecure individuals with resources. In April of this year, Instacart expanded its EBT SNAP payment integration to three new grocery retailers (though the SNAP payments can only be used for food, not Instacart’s delivery fees). Also in April, the USDA said it is expanding its P-EBT program to cover kids meals for summer months. 

Elevate Farms Gets a $10M Investment to Build Vertical Farms in Remote, Food-Insecure Corners of Canada

Canada-based Elevate Farms has entered into an agreement with North Star Agriculture Corp. for an initial buildout commitment of $10 million (USD) to bring Elevate’s vertical farming technology to isolated parts of Northern Canada. The two companies will develop a series of large-scale automated vertical farming facilities in the Yukon and other Canadian territories. The farms will produce about 1 million pounds of leafy greens per year.

Elevate uses a proprietary vertical farming system that relies on hydroponics, patented LED technology, and automation to grow leafy greens and herbs in climate-controlled environments. Like other vertical farming companies, the company claims its indoor agricultural methods use less resources (e.g., water) and require less human labor, which is in major shortage in the agricultural industry right now.

The company closed a $1.8 million seed round led by Brightspark Ventures in February of this year.

Elevate founder and CEO Amin Jadavji said in this week’s press release that the buildout of these new farming facilities will bring more food security and nutrition to “particularly isolated and vulnerable regions of Canada.”

Food security in Northern Canada is a major issue, as communities tend to be remote and food distribution is more difficult and expensive than it would be in more densely populated regions. There’s also the fact that you can’t grow produce outdoors 24/7 based on the climate of the area. North Star Agriculture Group, which is based in the Yukon city of Whitehorse, has been especially active in raising the volume on the dialogue about food insecurity and looking for ways to bring more agricultural infrastructure to the region.

While leafy greens by themselves can’t save an insecure food system (man cannot live by basil alone), of all the produce types, they tend to be the most delicate and perishable, which makes them a priority when it comes to providing food locally. 

At the same time, vertical farming is at a point where it needs to prove itself in terms of its ability to provide fresh, local food to surrounding communities at affordable prices. To do that, companies will need to be able to scale to the levels of producing millions of heads of lettuce without incurring astronomical expenditures themselves. 

Up to now, most large-scale vertical farming operations are in or nearby large cities and supply grocery stores and specialty food markets. If the partnership between Elevate and North Start Agriculture Corp. proves plentiful (literally and figuratively), it could be the blueprint for a new use case for large-scale vertical farming, and further evolve the technology’s role in the future of the agricultural system.