SXSW ideation: Ending hunger

The great irony of SXSW Interactive is most of its panels are one-way affairs with gurus broadcasting their business acumen at the audience. Which is why we found Scott Henderson's We Can End This workshop on hunger relief fascinating. He asked his audience to roll up their sleeves and brainstorm ideas.

We sat through Hendo's morning session with social strategist Geoff Livingston, Humongo agency's Darryl Ohrt, Kyla Fullenwider of sponsor PepsiCo, product strategist Anne Mai Bertelsen, and others. Some, like Livingston, suggested using new social media tools to connect donators with food banks in local communities. We suggested another path -- decrease the waste in our food system to fund hunger relief.

Billions of dollars now going in the trash

The United States, you see, tosses out 40-50% of food ready for harvest, and of the food we buy, half of that comes from restaurants outside the home. Americans spend $149 billion annually on casual dining and coffeeshops; increasing the efficiency of that market even slightly would free up billions to fill empty stomachs. To connect these dots, we'd simply (a) reduce restaurant food waste and use the economic savings to (b) fund hunger relief. The program could work like emissions trading for air pollution abatement:

1. Create a cap-and-trade system for food waste. A central body (government or national food association) would set total target limits on food waste, and issue credits allowing companies a certain level.
2. Measure food waste in restaurants -- packaging, portions, food not consumed.
3. Restaurants that cannot reduce food waste would trade (buy) allowances.
4. Restaurants that do reduce waste would trade (sell) allowances.
5. This economic system would provide strong incentives for restaurants to reduce food waste -- spurring marketing innovations such as menu items with smaller portions, similar to today's "heart healthy" choices.
6. A commission structure could be set on market trading -- a “tax” on each trade -- to be used to fund hunger relief programs.
7. The high visibility of national restaurant chains promoting reduced waste/hunger relief would build consumer awareness as well -- perhaps making the cause as popular as recycling, which has become the standard human behavior to reduce trash.

It's just one idea, inspired by a truly interactive SXSW panel. SXSW organizers, we'd like to see more such real engagement next year. Learn more at We Can End This or submit your ideas at Goodzuma with the user name and password "SXSW." And Scotty: Nicely done.

Image: Guuleed