Food insecurity and hunger are strongly interconnected with poverty and are major concerns across the world. Poverty stems from many interconnected issues and creates what are known as Food Deserts. The challenge then becomes: How do we mitigate the effects of food deserts to achieve food security? This paper proposes a design and a potential solution to address this question of food insecurity with the modification of a traditional aquaponics system that can potentially deliver the same product at a lower cost. Stakeholder input was key to the product design and was captured through a set of carefully conducted interviews. An in-depth literature review also informed the redesign process, and a final, viable product was proposed. Thus far, the proposed aquaponics system has demonstrated to be a promising cost-effective, sustainable, solution that could provide a majority of the food needs for a family.

With unforeseen shocks to supply chains around the world happening as a result of COVID-19, humanitarian aid organizations like Feeding America struggled to keep up with the added demand placed on their warehouses. Many facilities struggled with getting accurate estimates of their capacity, as they fluctuate greatly with demand and supply, and most smaller facilities don’t have ERP systems to track their operations. Through the utilization of a user-friendly spreadsheet program and a basic warehouse diagram, this model offers a simple means of quantitative capacity estimation that is available to foodbanks across the nation.

This paper outlines cumulative research on food deserts in relation to college students; namely, that there are communities classified as food deserts because significant numbers of the population lack access to grocery stores selling fresh produce or other goods normally called “healthy.” These areas are often also food swamps, or areas with intense access to sugar-dense, high-fat foods. Research as a whole suggests that three considerations primarily drive food insecurity for individuals caught in these food deserts: lack of access to a personal vehicle, low income or prohibitively expensive healthy foods, and personal education or culture (Wright et al., 2016). College students both fit into the geographical food deserts and are individuals who tend to have a worrying level of food insecurity (Kim, 2018). It is costly to make adjustments to entire environments to rid communities of food desert characteristics, and it is not always potent enough to end food insecurity or malnutrition; instead, it can be much more effective to focus on individuals within communities and help push cultures into a better direction. This project demonstrates that ASU students are experiencing food dissatisfaction and are in a food desert worthy of attention and action, and that students are motivated to see a solution. The solution that the paper focuses on is a food delivery system of fresh produce and foods for students, which addresses the three drivers of individual food deserts discussed by Wright et al. (2016).