Cultivate Food Rescue was one of only four nonprofits worldwide, and the only one in the United States, invited to present its work at Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent conference.
The South Bend nonprofit built a pantry ordering system on Amazon’s cloud that lets partner pantries shop rescued food and schedule pickups more quickly and accurately.
“To have a partner like Amazon or AWS say, hey, you have a really neat, unique idea and share with them what we do as an organization and how we use their platform... It was a pretty unique experience,” Executive Director Jim Conklin said.
He said technology has reshaped Cultivate’s operations, increasing both volume and accuracy. The group has also developed what it calls “hunger intelligence,” a data-driven approach to understanding where food is needed, how to get it there and why families are seeking help.
“We call it hunger intelligence. Where are the people that need the food? Right? How do we get it close to them? And then, why do they need it? What are their backgrounds?” Conklin said.
The partnership with AWS is already being applied across Cultivate’s operations.
