WEBVTT

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hello and welcome to this edition of the

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Community and University podcast.

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I'm your host Jeff Franklin.

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Today, I'm joined by Dr. Mahmoudi.

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Dr. Mahmoudi is an assistant professor for the

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Michigan State University School of Academics.

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Her co-learning plan for this project year

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addresses food waste and accessibility, specifically related to

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supply chain management.

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How are you, Dr. Mahmoudi?

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Thank you very much.

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I'm well.

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I'm doing well.

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How are you?

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I'm great.

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Thank you for asking.

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So, Dr. Mahmoudi, if you don't mind, can

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you share a little bit, like a brief

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overview of what your project will cover?

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Sure, absolutely.

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First, thank you very much for inviting me

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to this podcast.

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We're happy to have you.

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Thank you.

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So, the whole idea of this project is

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to improve the accessibility of people in need

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to food in the whole state of Michigan.

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So, as you know, currently, food banks in

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Michigan are struggling with distributing the food among

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people in need due to the current novel

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coronavirus outbreak.

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So, the issue is that there are several

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issues.

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We talked about this topic with food banks

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very recently.

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The first issue is that food banks generally

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rely on volunteer labors.

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So, the fear of the coronavirus outbreak has

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caused that the number of volunteers is going

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to decrease, right?

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And the other issue is that the schools

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are closed right now due to this issue.

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And so, the food banks are going to

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have a struggle to distribute the food among

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public schools, and they want to minimize the

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contact.

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So, they have decided to distribute the food

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through home deliveries instead of general delivery of

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the food every day by schools.

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And the last issue is that they want

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to minimize the contact, and they are thinking

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that how they reduce the frequency of deliveries.

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They have decided to put the food and

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fresh fruits and vegetables in boxes for 10

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days for the students, and they reduce the

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frequency of these deliveries, but they want to

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do home deliveries in this case.

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So, it's very, very critical to think about

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this supply chain and how we can improve

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the accessibility of people in need, especially for

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Michigan that we have Upper Peninsula that is

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a very large and wide region and quite

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inaccessible because we only have one highway that

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connects the whole Michigan to Upper Peninsula.

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So, it's very critical to think about it.

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And the whole idea of this project is

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that we would like to create a kind

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of analytical framework to coordinate different actors of

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the supply chain.

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So, if you would like to know more

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about the actors of the supply chain, the

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first actor is food donors.

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Food donors can be USDA, United States Department

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of Agriculture, or it can be a farm,

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can be a kitchen, or it can be

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a major retailer, such as Walmart, Kroger, Target.

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And then food donors call that we have

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food and the food banks can send their

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own trucks to pick up the food from

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their warehouses, or sometimes they send it directly

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to the food banks' warehouses.

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And then when the food banks receive the

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food, they have very quickly decide about the

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quality of the food, if it is acceptable

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or not.

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Because most of the time when the food

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is sent through by major retailers, they are

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close to their expiration date.

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So, that's why it's very critical to decide

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fast.

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They have to send it to the composting

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center or they have to send it to

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their clients or people in need.

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Sometimes in between, they send the food to

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food recovery agencies.

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Food recovery agencies can be kitchens and community

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kitchens, or it can be pantries or churches.

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So, they will disseminate and distribute the food

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among people.

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It's very, very important to coordinate different sectors,

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considering different constraints that they have in their

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supply chain.

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The first constraint that they have is about

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monetary budget.

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They have specific money and funds, and they

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have to assign for their paid staff and

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for their own facility, storage, trucks, truck drivers,

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and everything.

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The second constraint that they have is about

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time.

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Time is very critical.

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Once they receive the food, they have to

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decide it fast because the food is going

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to be spoiled very fast.

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Some of the foods are fresh fruits or

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fresh vegetables.

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The third constraint is about environmental constraints.

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When the weather is quite cold or the

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humidity is high, the food is going to

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be spoiled very fast.

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So, it affects the quality of food a

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lot.

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And the last constraint is about societal constraints.

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We have a specific population in Michigan that,

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for example, have a specific preferred food or

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diet, and they do not use a specific

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food or, for example, meat or something like

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that.

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So, we have to decide where to send

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the food so that it would be usable

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for the people.

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These are the constraints that we have to

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consider in our model such that we make

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the food more and more accessible to people.

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If you would like, I can talk about

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the motivation of this project further.

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Yeah, you could do that for sure.

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I wanted to first ask you, you mentioned

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that a lot of your project relies on

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communication with food banks.

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And because of the coronavirus, food banks are

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worried about volunteer accessibility or availability.

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Have they given you any ideas as to

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how community members can still help them out

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right now given the constraints of the virus?

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Is there anything that people can still do

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to volunteer for these food banks?

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Or is it just kind of a waiting

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game?

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Yeah.

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So, as you may know, we have seven

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food banks in Michigan.

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Some of them, for example, the one that

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we have in Grand Rapids, serve more than

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40 out of 80 counties of Michigan.

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And they really want to minimize the contact

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once, you know, and they really want to

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have a kind of safe situation for this

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specific problem.

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So, they rely on the volunteers with specific

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conditions, and they have their own restrictions and

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regulations.

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But they are worried that most of the

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retired population, people that have been retired recently,

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they are volunteers for these food banks.

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And they really want to involve them as

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long as they do not have any specific,

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you know, issue about this case.

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So, they are really willing to get help

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from the people.

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So, you mentioned you wanted to talk about

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your motivations for this project.

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We would absolutely love to hear about them.

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If not, you started on this sort of

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line of thinking.

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So, the motivation of this project started even

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before the case of coronavirus outbreak.

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So, we were thinking about the food-based

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issue.

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So, as you may know, more than 40

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% of the food is wasted every year

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in the United States.

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While, for example, one in seven Americans in

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the state of Michigan still struggle to put

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enough food on the table.

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And it's a huge number, I think.

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And apart from this specific issue, the resource

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cost is huge.

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For example, about 20% of greenhouse gases

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comes from meat production.

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So, if you waste the meat, it's a

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huge cost of resources.

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Or, for example, you take over 10 gallons

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of water to produce a single slice of

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bread.

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So, it's very critical to think about how

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we can minimize food waste, use the excess

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food that we receive from major retailers, and

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fight hunger.

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So, it was some sort of coincidence that

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we faced novel coronavirus outbreak and we faced

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another issue about accessibility of people in food

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banks that forced us to focus more and

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more on this particular supply chain system.

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So, that's the case.

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What are the end goals of the project?

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Like, what do you hope to achieve?

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So, the goal is that we would like

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to address the issues that exist in food

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banks.

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One of the issues in food banks of

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the state of Michigan is that it's about

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their own network design.

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So, generally, they have not been distributed perfectly.

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So, we are thinking about how we can

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improve the coordination of different sectors of food

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banks and food recovery agencies.

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This is the first goal.

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The second goal is that they are really

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willing to know how to improve their home

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deliveries in the case that they have some

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food, but they have lots of clients distributed

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in a city, and they would like to

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know how they dispatch their trucks, how to

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ask their drivers to make these routes possible.

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So, in that case, we are going to

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develop in the second phase of this research,

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we would like to develop a kind of

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software prototype for them to help them to

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route and schedule their trucks for such unique

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and specific circumstances for home deliveries and distribution

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of the food.

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Had the novel coronavirus never happened, how would

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your project have changed or not changed?

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What is changing now because of the virus

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that you wouldn't have maybe looked at had

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the virus never happened?

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So, that's a very clever and good question.

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Before the coronavirus happened, they distributed the food

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among schools.

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So, it was much easier for them to

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deliver the food to a specific hub, and

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then they disseminated and distributed the food among

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the students who rely on this food.

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But right now, it's more critical because it's

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a home delivery, delivered one by one family,

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and this project is going to be more

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and more important because they want to see

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how they can utilize their limited resources.

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Their drivers that are working voluntarily need to

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be safe.

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So, they have very limited resources, tighter resources,

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but they need more delivery, more, I mean,

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home deliveries in this case.

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Before that, they have just some seniors or

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some people that do not have access to

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come to their warehouses to get the food,

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but right now, they have to drive up

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to deliver the food.

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So, that's the big question.

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Thank you.

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I think that's all I have for you.

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Do you have any other things you would

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like to talk about?

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No, I'm just willing that our team at

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MSU could help them to improve their system

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as much as possible due to the current

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circumstances that has happened for the whole United

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States, especially for Michigan, that have populations that

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need this.

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Yep.

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Awesome.

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I don't disagree.

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Thank you so much, Dr. Mahmoudi, for joining

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us on the Community and University Podcast.

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Once again, I'm Jeff Franklin, and I just

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wanted to remind everyone that as of right

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now, the Innovate Michigan Summit will still be

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happening on September 3rd of this year, so

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you can register for that on the REIcenter

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.org website and get all the information that

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you might need about that summit.

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Dr. Mahmoudi will be presenting there, as well

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as a host of other inventors and other

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speakers about projects, the Learning Funds and Innovation

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Fellows, other cool stuff.

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So, we hope to see you there, and

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once again, thank you so much, Dr. Mahmoudi.

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I hope you enjoyed your time on the

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show.

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You too.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.