 Welcome to MIT Supply Chain Frontiers, where we discover the future of global supply chain education research and innovation, brought to you by the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. Today, we'd like to recognize the World Food Program on their recent Nobel Peace Prize for their work in alleviating hunger. On the topic of food security, MIT CTL's Ken Cottrell speaks with Chris Mejia, the director of the MIT Food and Retail Operations Lab, about food deserts and some of the innovative projects that leverage supply chains to combat food insecurity. Take it away, Ken. Welcome, Chris. Hey, Ken. Thank you very much for the invitation. Maybe you could describe food deserts and clarify the terms that we use in association with food deserts. The definition given by the USDA, or the Department of Agriculture, is that these areas are areas in which it's difficult to buy affordable and good quality fresh food due to low income and low access. Basically, you have like three big components, right? So you have accessibility that basically is geographic accessibility to what you want to buy. Availability, that is that somebody is offering this in the store or in the shelves. Third, the affordability that you have enough budget to buy what you want. So what is low income for the USDA? Implies poverty rates over 20% or median family income, less than 80% of the state-wide or the metropolitan areas, median family income. And with regards to low access, that one is easier to understand is whenever households are farther than have a mile or one mile from a source of fresh, nutritious food like a grocery store or a supermarket. So do you think that the COVID-19 pandemic has made this problem worse? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, I need to admit that, yes, the quantity of people suffering chronic hunger has increased around 50 million people in the world. You've given us a great description of the problem. What potential solutions are you focusing on? I have been working with colleagues from Tops University and also the city of Somerville. In Somerville, what we did was to understand if a double up coupon system will help. You know, it's basically to allow people who are receiving the benefits of a SNAP or their programs like WIC to receive more rewards or coupons if they are spending their money in food that is nutritious food like fruits and vegetables, right? On that hand, basically what we're doing is motivating the consumption, pushing people to buy products that are more nutritious for them. Despite the people will buy the product, they won't necessarily eat those products. And unfortunately, this won't cause the benefit that we are expecting on their nutrition, right? So we move into more, let's say, logistics-alike systems like ride-sharing systems, you know? With ride-sharing systems that will, let's say, get you from your home to the nearest or the closest grocery store or supermarket for you to buy your groceries there, your fruits, vegetables and other nutritious food. But one of the issues that it will cause is that it's eroding local economy. Even the pandemic, the other ones who are suffering the most besides the vulnerable population segments are also these micro and small firms' owners, right? So the third one is related to a grocery delivery model. So we are actually looking for some type of orchestrator and a startup that may be interested on developing this food there, you know? Last but not least is what we call the baggy box model that is different to the CSA or the community-supported agriculture because this is hand-picked products directly by the farmers. This will be delivered not directly to the consumer, but to, let's say, conveniently located pickup points like neighborhood markets, nano stores or mom and pop stores. And actually the idea is to create like very food-balanced boxes at an affordable price so that vulnerable population segments can have access to those. They need to just walk a little bit to pick them up instead of us doing all the logistic challenge of transporting them to the doorsteps of the end consumers or the households. Yeah, you know, as you're describing these many variables, it becomes clear, doesn't it, that supply chain management is absolutely critical to the efficiency of these food access models. Maybe you could just talk a little bit more about the role of supply chain management in these solutions. So basically, I think that the role of supply chain management logistics is key here because if you think about how most of the supply chain systems have been configured, most of them are actually pushing inventory-based, right? So you start at some point and you start pushing all that inventory to the next, let's say, stakeholder. So you start in the growers or the farmers and you push this to the processing company or processing plant, then to the DC of that plant, then to the distributor, to the wholesaler or many distributors in between, then to the retailers and then to the end consumers. So the only part where you are, like, motivating the pool strategy is between the retailer and the end consumer or the household, right? So given the high fragmentation that exists in both sides in the streams, the producer side and also the retailer side, especially in emerging markets or the input deserts because actually in food deserts, you will observe a bigger variety of retailers and neighborhood markets as well. So this atomization, let's call it, will create plenty of opportunities. And if we mix that with the multiple customer segments that we can create, well, that's gonna be very complex, right? So basically what we are trying to understand here is a way to reduce the large number of intermediaries and to start reducing as well or shortening the high inventory levels, the high rates of losses and ways that are observed in between these supply chain that is benefiting you to have immediate access to the produce items, especially in supermarkets. The supermarkets have this high variety of products or large variety given that they have a back room where to pick up this, you know? But this is quality and this will cost plenty of food waste as well. And I gather that actually there's a, an early stage project in India that might kind of point the way to how supply chain may become even more important to these food access models. Maybe you could just briefly describe that particular project. There is a public distribution system called a PDS that depends on the government and currently is only promoting the consumption and the availability and accessibility with rice. So the kilo calories are gonna be great but unfortunately other micronutrients are not gonna be reasonably good or at least in the minimum requirements. So I'm talking about like zinc, magnesium, vitamin A, et cetera. So I just started developing a thesis in India together with a talented student and well, basically what we are trying to understand there is how to configure the food combinations inside that grain basket, let's say, to allow the Indians to also thrive and continue growing their micronutrients levels but using different food combinations. And we also want to consider what is being harvested or grown in different districts as well to promote this local to local consumption as I mentioned before. And the best part of it is that this will be promoted together with the government. So we aim also to hopefully bring some other policymaking and potential regulations out of this. Interesting. So you're working with the government now. The government obviously is a very important partner in all this, but just generally speaking, Chris, what kind of partners are you looking for in these various research projects? The vision of the lab is to create effective supply chain strategies to match these dynamic consumption behavior to the different distribution channels to ensure product accessibility, availability and affordability. And what I have seen in different countries is that there is plenty of capacity, idle capacity, and probably if those people or those organizations have an idle capacity in terms of the fleet, in terms of some type of infrastructure, et cetera, if all of us collaborate together, maybe we can go out quicker from the current situation. Are you optimistic that post-pandemic, some of these solutions will actually be implemented and will make a difference? The answer is yes. Given the pilots that I have developed with several colleagues in Latin America and also here in the United States, considering the logistics component in detail. So I'm really confident and optimistic that most of these solutions are implementable. I don't know if they are gonna be successful, otherwise I will be probably billionaire, right? If I predict what is gonna happen. But for sure, this is gonna help us tackling this big issue, for sure. But if we're able to understand the role that each of the supply chain stakeholders might play on this huge, let's say, and complex ecosystem, I think that we will be able to work together and make the world a little bit better and also to combat these terrible and terrific figures that I mentioned to you. Because just to wrap up, currently, the cost of the food malnutrition is huge. It's actually around $5.5 trillion annually. So it's 7.5% of the world's GDP just to give you an idea. So, and actually there are many people suffering malnutrition around almost 3 billion people. So in different, let's say, types of food insecurity, moderate or severe. So we really need to change this, you know? And I really aim to contribute a little bit to make these changes, hopefully. Yes, well, obviously it's a huge problem, a global problem, but it's very encouraging to hear that there are solutions in the pipeline. And I think it's also encouraging to hear that supply chain is gonna have a central role to play in implementing these solutions. Chris, I really appreciate your time, thank you. Thank you, Ken, has been a pleasure to... All right, everyone, thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this edition of MIT Supply Chain Frontiers. My name is Arthur Grau, Communications Officer for the Center. I invite you to visit anytime at ctl.mit.edu or search for MIT Supply Chain Frontiers on your favorite listening platform. Until next time.