Hunger: Not Impossible

Named by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top 50 World’s Greatest Leaders, a Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award recipient and listed as one of the world’s most influential creative people by The Creativity 50’s, Mick Ebeling sparked a movement of pragmatic, inspirational innovation. As a career producer and filmmaker and now founder and CEO of Not Impossible, Ebeling harvests the power of technology and story to change the world.

Ebeling founded Not Impossible, a social innovation lab and production company, on the premise that nothing is impossible. His mantra “commit, then figure it out” allows him to convene disparate teams of hackers, doers, makers and thinkers to create devices that better the world.

Named one of Wired’s ‘Agents of Change’, a Tribeca Disruptor innovation winner, and fellow with The Nantucket Project, Ebeling is on a mission to provide “Technology for the Sake of Humanity.”

Hunger: Not Impossible (HNI) is on a mission to create a world where no one worries about where their next meal will come from. In the wealthiest country in the world, 37 million Americans struggle with hunger every day, yet the United States produces more food than is needed for domestic consumption. HNI uses text messaging to connect people experiencing food insecurity with fresh, nutritious to-go meals provided by nearby restaurants. While unemployment rises and restaurants struggle, the need to feed underserved families and keep the food-service industry in operation is more important than ever. In the face of an international pandemic, the mission of Hunger: Not Impossible becomes more critical by the day. Providing low-friction, stigma-free access to nutritious meals to low income families while supporting local restaurants, has the potential to drive both health and economic outcomes that address systemic issues associated with our most vulnerable communities.

Over 37 million people in the US struggle with hunger. In households with children under 18, food insecurity has increased 130% from 2018 to today. Existing solutions to the hunger crisis rely on archaic, inefficient and, in many situations, impractical approaches. Food banks have limited hours of operation and locations, rely on an army of volunteers, and require significant overhead costs. One food bank we spoke to requires 150,000 volunteer hours per year to meet demand. When boxes of food are provided, it assumes the recipient has access to a kitchen or microwave, not considering a growing number of people who live in their car. Moreover, our society stigmatizes those who use social and charitable services. Many people we have spoken to are not comfortable going to food pantries and soup kitchens. Food insecurity is a complex problem affecting people above and below the poverty line who don’t have the resources to meet their basic needs. While people work to solve the overlapping issues that contribute to food insecurity and poverty, people are hungry every day. With over 96% of American owning a cell phone, it’s time we leverage technology to change the way the underserved access food.

HNI is a text-based service that connects people in need of food with prepaid, nutritious, to-go meals from nearby restaurants. HNI empowers community organizations’ efforts to feed individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. HNI works with these trusted organizations to identify participants and enroll them into the program through a single text message. 

How it works:

• An individual enrolls in HNI via a community partner.
• Participant texts “Hungry” to HNI text service whenever they want to order a meal.
• The HNI platform responds via text with a choice of nearby restaurants and available menu items.
• Order is confirmed by the restaurant. 
• Participant picks up their meal, just like any other customer who has ordered food to go. For free.

We’ve integrated with Postmates’ restaurant ordering systems for a seamless experience for the participant, to ensure that from the restaurant’s point of view the order looks like any other pickup order, providing a stigma-free interaction.

HNI’s programmatic approach includes the technology platform and customer service required to deliver a seamless solution to both program participants and community organization stakeholders. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HNI has deployed this service in 6 US cities and continues to expand their reach.  

We have active programs and partnerships with local and national community based organizations (CBOs) whose mission is to serve at-risk populations, including the Boys and Girls Club, Foster Nation, Year Up and the City of Santa Monica. 

The communities currently being served are:

1. At risk college aged young adults who have aged out of the foster care system and are on their own. They are in school, many have jobs and some are trying to support a family. Many live in their cars or couch surf. For them, HNI is a daily reliable hot meal they did not have before this program.  
2. Low income families who are working multiple jobs but often do not have enough money to provide adequate meals for everyone in their family on a consistent basis. HNI is supplemental service to address this gap.

HNI’s Impact Specialists communicate with participants daily to ensure access to each and every meal. We actively request feedback from participants and CBOs to continually improve the program to meet the shifting unmet needs of those we serve. Built to scale, our pilot programs have enabled us to stress-test the platform and develop according to users’ needs.

No matter how gnarly, niche, or systemic the problem, we believe changing the world starts with identifying the absurd, the thing you look at and say “That’s not right. It shouldn't be that way.” Then making a commitment to find and build a solution. HNI was born from this purpose-driven problem solving mindset and developed by focusing on the needs of an individual group, working with people on the ground, and iterating until a viable, scalable solution emerged. We are at a tipping point to go from helping a few hundred people to helping hundreds of thousands and eventually millions.

HNI was born out of exploratory conversations with at-risk kids at Safe Place for Youth, an organization providing care and support to youth experiencing homelessness, based in Venice, CA. We asked the kids, “What is most important to you?” We expected the answer to be food, water and shelter. But their answer was their cell phone. Our follow-up questions were aimed at better understanding their relationship to their cell phones and the potential access that it could provide. They told us stories of traveling by bus or walking miles to places they could get food. When they didn’t have the means or energy to get to those food-providing services, they talked about fruit trees in the neighborhood. The conversations demystified what homelessness looks like and it became clear to us that a solution for the kids at Safe Place for Youth needed to leverage what they valued most (cell phones) to connect them with food nearby. 

There are certain unalienable rights we have as humans. Access to food is one of them. A few years ago, while rushing to a meeting, I made eye-contact with a homeless man in need of food. I didn’t stop; I was already late. But 2 blocks later, I couldn’t get his face out of my mind. I turned around, bought a $50 gift card at a Prete-a-Manger and walked back. But he was no longer there. I felt guilty and remorseful that I hadn't acted right away. That it took 2 blocks to realize that it was more important to feed a person than be on time for a meeting. I vowed to never just walk by again. I carried that gift card in my wallet for years as a reminder to help feed someone whenever possible. When the kids at Safe Place for Youth told us their tales of hunger, I needed to act.

It’s absurd that in this abundant country and globalized world, the basic needs of survival aren’t being met. When we break the cycle of hunger, imagine what we could accomplish. On that stable foundation, we can build a better, just, equal world.

The Not Impossible design thinking approach allows us to approach a problem, an absurdity, without ego. We bring together the brightest minds, designers, and innovators to form a passionate creative team to dream up practical solutions to some of humanity’s greatest unmet needs, build it, test it, then scale it. We utilize experts’ insights without getting bogged down in the prejudices and past failures that experts or academics might have. This “limitless naïveté” allows us to explore fresh pathways without the burden of thinking something is impossible. 

This unconventional approach brought to life highly acclaimed initiatives -- the EyeWriter, Project Daniel, Don’s Voice and most recently Music: Not Impossible -- that brought the ability to draw back to a paraplegic street artist, 3D-printed arms to Sudanese amputees, a ‘voice’ to an ALS patient who hadn’t spoken in 15 years, and wearables that let deaf and hearing people alike feel music in a “surround body” experience. Now we’re taking the same approach to tackle hunger.

Our initial plan was to test the HNI platform in a single 30-day pilot for 30 people in Huston. Then COVID-19 hit. Schools started closing and unemployment skyrocketed. We knew our solution could meet the immediate needs of many, but the infrastructure was incomplete. We accelerated our plans anyway, rolling out pilots in 4 more cities immediately. We committed to a start date and we stuck to it....even though the auto-texting capabilities didn’t yet communicate with the backend system that automated the ordering process. We worked around the clock manually entering in orders, mimicking the automated ordering capability for 2 weeks until the technology was finished. We did in 3 weeks what was originally planned to take 4 months. 

We never forget the humanity of the people we are trying to help and because of them we are relentless. We got push back from disbelieving people but for us the stakes are too high to not try. We fail, fail, fail until we succeed. Every 4-6 weeks we iterate the product and the service to better meet the needs of those we are serving. It’s a constant wheel that is always turning. And it’s working. 

In 2013 I read about Daniel, a 14-year-old Sudanese boy who lost both arms after a routine bombing attack. When he awoke after surgery, Daniel said he would rather die than be a burden to his family. No child should ever have to think that. I committed to helping Daniel live as independently as possible.

I gathered a group of innovators in my home to create a viable prosthetic limb solution for Daniel. After 2 weeks of intense work, we failed to create a working prototype. Not accepting defeat, I went home with the South African 3D printing expert for a crash course in 3D printing and African. After a whirlwind master class, I landed in Sudan with a couple 3D printers, thousands of feet of plastic, and a lot of uncertainty.

After much difficulty reaching the Nuba Mountains, we set up shop. With significant trial and error, we created an arm Daniel could use to feed himself and grasp objects. With the goal accomplished, we wanted to empower the community. By the time we left, a team of Sudanese villagers, many of whom had never before seen the technology, were running a fully functional 3D printing prosthetics lab.

HNI is a technology platform and program that connects disparate parts of a complex ecosystem in a way that does not require any part of the value-chain to change existing behavior in order to achieve the program’s desired outcomes. 

1. Participants don’t need to visit a website or download a mobile app to be part of the program. Simply by texting with the phone they already use, they are able to order meals seamlessly. 
2. Through our integration with Postmates, restaurants receive orders from HNI to their current point of sale, just like any other Postmates order.
3. Program managers at each CBO now have a scalable text message relationship with the population they are trying to engage. With a dashboard that gives them real time data on the population they are serving, they are now able to be more proactive and use their resources more effectively and efficiently to ensure that their population is getting the services that they need to achieve their goals.

“Having been raised by the foster care system since I was 5 years old, I never really felt valued by anyone. Spending holidays alone because no family wanted me, was very disheartening. To receive meals was truly a blessing, especially when youth such as myself are always overlooked. With your meal support, you have given me courage and ambition to continue with my education. I appreciate you all. I promise that when I have an established career in Electrical Engineering I will do everything in my capabilities to help and support youth just as you did.” - A HNI participant.

A critical design principal for HNI is access to choice. We believe that everyone, no matter what their socio-economic status, deserves choice when it comes to when, where and what they will eat. For that one moment in their day, participants experience dignity and choice, which we have learned stays with them and provides a level of confidence to tackle some of the other aspects of their life that they may be struggling with. 

Outcomes include: Participants worry less about where today’s meal is coming from; less exposure to COVID-19 by not needing to go to higher risk places as often like the grocery store or food bank; improved mental health - feeling cared about by other, motivated to keep going, greater autonomy; more energy and better concentration to complete schoolwork and on the job; lessen need to prioritize paying rent and bills over buying food. Participants feel motivated to give back when they have the means; the program gives participants a reason to get out of the house in the fresh air; have more hope. CBOs are able to focus on other programs for communities they serve.

Long term outcomes: Eradicate hunger in US, then the world, so that no one needs to worry where their next meal will come from.

There are currently 800 people signed up across the 6 pilot programs. Within one year at our current growth rate, we will serve close to 15,000 people. In 5 years we will look towards the millions of food insecure people in the US.

Five years from now, we want to have fed 20 million people, and have measured a positive impact on their nutritional status and overall health and well-being. We are ambitious in our goals because we know people’s lives are at stake. In the past 4 months we’ve been able to grow 100% month over month with very little resources. Our pilot programs have been successful proving grounds to be able to scale to reach our 1 year and 5 year goals and beyond.

As we continue to expand, our solution continues to improve. While we’ve validated our concept and business model with little resources to date and a pro-bono team, we can no longer keep up with the demand for our service. 

Barriers to achieving our 12, 36 and 60 month goals can be defined within the following three categories: 

1. Talent: Ensuring that we have the right people on the team will always be one of the most important aspects of any venture. Ensuring that we build out a full-time team, composed of passionate people who wake up everyday thinking critically about how they will contribute to achieving the HNI mission is the first step. While we have not had any trouble attracting talented people, we have not had the resources required to bring them on in a full time capacity. This has slowed our progress and the impact that we are able to have. 
2. Product: We have a backlog of features identified that will continue to reduce the friction associated with someone getting a healthy meal. Whether it is restaurant menus updating available supply in real-time or ensuring that mobile carrier spam blocking does not inadvertently block program enrollment texts, these features are well defined and would have an immediate impact on our growth and impact. 
3. Program Management: We need to improve the systems and processes that we use to support our community organization customers so that they are able to get the most out of HNI.

1. The first hire we need to make is a full-time Chief Technology Officer. She/he will be responsible for hiring and leading a team of engineers to ensure that the technical architecture will support the rapid scale of Hunger: Not Impossible. In addition, this team will stay two steps ahead of where the product needs to go in order to continue to meet the needs of the population we serve. 
2. Over time, the product will require major feature updates. Examples include: integration of grocery items to be eligible to support government food assistance programs, natural language processing for more seamless text messaging and smart recommendations based on one's personal preferences, allergies and health conditions. 
3. Our vision is to make the experience for Community Organizations to launch a program with HNI as seamless as it is for a participant to order a meal using HNI. This will include more automated on-boarding tools and processes to enable our team to spend more time developing deeper relationships with our partners. 

SalesForce - pro-bono technology resources 

Postmates - integration into their menu systems and point of sale 

Community based organizations: Boys and Girls Club, Foster Nation, Year Up

Local Governments: City of Santa Monica - are all providing HNI to their community

Hunger: Not Impossible is a software and service provided to organizations whose mandate is to feed and care for the populations they serve. These organizations are not limited to Community Based Organizations but also health plans with a focus on social determinants of health, and local, state, and federal governments. HNI’s operational costs are included in the overall cost per meal that is paid for by the organization. 

While we have validated our concept and business model over the last four months, our vision for eradicating food insecurity in the United States is going to require more collaboration from others. The Elevate Prize would not only provide valuable financial resources which would go directly towards addressing a few of our major barriers, but would also provide invaluable mentorship and community connections through a global network of world-class change-makers. Execution is always where the rubber meets the road with unique ideas. Having access to the Elevate Prize community will provide exponential value towards Hunger: Not Impossible achieving its mission. 

We are interested in partnering with three types of organizations: 

1. Community organizations that have a regional or national footprint that serve vulnerable populations at risk of food insecurity. Examples include: YMCA, United Way
2. Healthcare systems and hospitals that serve medicaid patients: Examples include: United Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente 
3. City/State and Federal governments that are responsible for running the Government food assistance programs. Examples include: USDA, SNAP