FAST is a centralized digital platform that connects health systems, food access organizations, and minority-owned small business to fight food insecurity in Philadelphia.
The Food Access Support Technology (FAST) platform allows health systems to quickly connect food-insecure patients with organizations that can provide meals and delivery tailored to their needs. Organizations across the city can now rapidly coordinate to deliver meals to vulnerable community members. FAST has served more than 10,000 people to date.
Client:
Background
FAST, a project from Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Advancement ↗, emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic when support services were disrupted and food insecurity spiked. In fact, the primary concern of most callers to Penn Medicine’s COVID-19 Special Needs Response team was lack of food. Meanwhile, organizations with food to give faced pandemic-related barriers to delivering it.
FAST bridged that gap. With algorithmic matching and real-time facilitation, a food request can be entered, claimed, and delivered within 48 hours. Previously, this process took weeks and often failed, and health systems could not track whether patients received the food.
Design
In designing this web application, I prioritized clarity and ease of use for people working under pressure, i.e. busy healthcare providers and delivery partners on-the-go.
Alongside our CHEA partners, I worked directly with key stakeholders in the COACH (Collaborative Opportunities to Advance Community Health) workgroup – a coalition of health systems, community-based organizations, and public health workers – to solict feedback on the deisgn and understand the broader ecosystem in which this platform would operate.
Impact
FAST served over 10,000 people in the first four years after its launch. Users from participating organizations have described it as simple to use and have incorporated it into their routine workflows, like adding FAST intake to their standard screening processes.
“The FAST App has been such an amazing resource for Share Food Program’s Home Delivery Program, which serves seniors and people with disabilities all over the Philadelphia region. Through the partnership with the FAST App and its partnership with [delivery service] Black & Mobile, we are able to get out food faster and more consistently than ever before.”
Onika Washington-Johnson, volunteer manager for the Share Food Program