Every day Rajesh Karmani has to solve a complex logistics puzzle. On one side are more than 100 food donors (restaurants, corporate cafeterias, groceries and catering companies). On the other are 250 nonprofits that need food, including homeless shelters and after-school programs. In the middle is software that does the matching. For every bagel, frozen vegetable, or lasagna there is an answer, generated by a computer and approved by a human.
Every day Rajesh Karmani has to solve a complex logistics puzzle. On one side are more than 100 food donors (restaurants, corporate cafeterias, groceries and catering companies). On the other are 250 nonprofits that need food, including homeless shelters and after-school programs.
In the middle is software that does the matching. For every bagel, frozen vegetable, or lasagna there is an answer, generated by a computer and approved by a human.
Karmani’s Chicago nonprofit Zero Percent is currently servicing an impressive 80 nonprofits a week. Two and half years after it was started, the waste logistics platforms has matched-and-moved 316,400 pounds of food.
The challenge of food waste, says Karmani, is the inconsistency of it. On any given day, he doesn’t know what’s going to be available. He might have too many bananas, but not enough bagels, and so on. That will always create a headache. But the software is learning over time, seeing patterns in what and when certain places donate and when and what certain recipients might want. The system should get more efficient.
Karmani started Zero Percent with his friend, CTO Caleb Phillips. Karmani and Phillips met online when they were working on separate food waste projects in different states. Both were computer science PhDs at the time. In late 2013, they both moved to Chicago and lived hand-to-mouth to start their work.
Read full story at http://www.fastcoexist.com/3058544/two-computer-scientists-are-programming-an-end-to-food-waste-in-chicago.