I was reading Chicago Social, a magazine about high-end parties and benefits in Chicago and came across an article about students in North Shore Suburbs picking up food and delivering it to people in need. The program is called Food Taxi.
I had the opportunity to talk to Food Taxi Founder and Executive Director Daniel Rissman, who is a New Trier High School student.
How did the idea of Food Taxi begin?
One of my teachers Tom Kucharski had been delivering food to soup kitchens for many years. He often solicited my help as well as other students’ to make these deliveries. My hope was that if I could create a convenient, semi-automated medium which would connect all entities (volunteers, soup kitchens, and businesses) I could help feed thousands of people.
How many drivers do you have and are they all students?
At the moment our volunteer base is limited- around 25 people, the majority of which are not students. My hope is that we can reach and inspire hundreds of volunteers within the next year which would allow us to service multiple routes on a daily basis.
What is a typical shift for a driver?
The shift is very simple; the driver picks up the delivery from the store, loads it into their car, and then drives it to the soup kitchen. All in all, depending on the route it typically takes around 1-1.5 hours.
The program is based in the northern suburbs of Chicago which is a pretty affluent area, how do you dispel the myth that hunger does not exist there?
The current routes are actually delivered to Rogers Park and Uptown, but unfortunately hunger is prevalent in every community. Too be honest, I am still learning about how it directly affects my own.
What personally motivates you to keep this program going on top of your studies?
There are these two major problems in our society- hunger and wasted food. In reality they should not coexist. My motivation is knowing that there is an attainable solution. My work with Food Taxi has allowed me to attack these two problems via an innovative model. I typically spend an hour a day working on Food Taxi. However, at times it is very frustrating because I cannot commit as much time to it as I would like to.
For more information, visit FoodTaxi.org.