Non Technical Summary
During natural disasters such as the recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck Florida, food pantries serve as critical front-line response centers, already established in and trusted by vulnerable communities. However, coordinating emergency food distribution is extremely challenging - pantries struggle to communicate their rapidly changing needs, and emergency disaster coordinators do not have any infrastructure to connect with food charities to learn about the challenges of the emergency. After the disaster, emergency managers struggle to get limited resources to the right places at the right time. This project addresses these challenges by developing and deploying a system that helps food pantries easily report their situation during disasters and helps emergency coordinators better organize food and supply deliveries based on those reports. The system turns incoming messages from pantries into clear, organized information about who needs what and helps plan how to deliver available supplies. We will work directly with Florida food pantries and community health workers to create and test this system, ensuring it meets real-world needs. If successful, this project will help ensure that children, families, and vulnerable populations maintain access to food during disasters by enabling faster, more coordinated emergency response with planning and set-up taking place before any emergency hits. The tools and methods developed will have continuing value as communities face an increasing likelihood of compound disasters that strain food security systems.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
704	7299	2020	100%

Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
7299 - Research equipment and methods, general/other;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;

Goals / Objectives
This project directly responds to the compound natural disasters of hurricanes Helene and Milton, which struck Florida within two weeks of each other in September and October 2024. The primary goal is to develop and deploy an AI-powered emergency response and resource allocation system that transforms informal food charity status reports into actionable data for disaster response coordination where nothing like this currently exists. The system will also optimize resource distribution through intelligent logistics planning and build long-term resilience through comprehensive training programs.Objectives1. Create an AI-powered emergency response system for processing food charity status reports (3-month deliverable) a. Implement emergency notification system for affected regions b. Develop an AI pipeline to convert unstructured charity responses into structured data c. Create a prioritization algorithm to rank needs based on urgency and impact d. Provide emergency coordinators with a real-time dashboard of charity status and needs2. Develop an AI-driven resource allocation and logistics system for emergency food distribution (12-month deliverable) a. Implement algorithms to aggregate and prioritize charity needs across affected regions b. Develop a manifest generation system that optimizes truck loading based on facility constraints c. Create a coordinated, constraint-aware distribution network3. Develop and implement Community Health Worker (CHW) training programs and evaluation (3-month and 12-month deliverables), empowering them to optimize community distribution efforts. a. Create culturally appropriate, multilingual crisis messaging b. Conduct pre-crisis and post-crisis evaluations of food charity preparedness c. Perform ongoing formative and summative evaluations d. Deliver comprehensive training materials, training, and distribution results

Project Methods
Our methodology combines direct system deployment and training efforts to transform emergency response by food charities and strengthen their disaster response coordination with emergency management agencies.The project employs three interconnected efforts to create change.System Deployment and Testing1. Initial deployment of emergency response system to Florida food pantries at month 32. Real-world testing using actual status reports from hurricane recovery3. Integration and pilot testing of resource allocation system with disaster recovery coordinators4. Iterative refinement based on pantry staff and coordinator feedback5. Hands-on system training for emergency coordinatorsEducational and Training Programs1. CHW-led development of emergency response and crisis messaging materials.2. Development of culturally appropriate, multilingual communications for food distribution sites.3. Creation of training content for both pantry staff and emergency coordinators.Community Engagement1. Regular collaboration with pantry directors through an advisory board.2. Community health worker-facilitated communication between technical teams and communities.3. Development of operational procedures that align technical capabilities with community needs and practices.We will evaluate these efforts through the following methods.Pre/Post Assessments1.Community Health Worker training and facilitation2.Food pantry preparedness and infrastructure capabilities3.Staff knowledge of emergency procedures4.Communication effectiveness across language barriersTechnical Performance Evaluation1. Processing speed and accuracy metrics2. A/B testing comparing dashboard effectiveness against manual review3. Critical information identification and prioritization assessment4. Information compression and aggregation quality measurements5. System adaptation to new message types6. Structured expert review of system outputsResource Optimization Assessment1. Distribution efficiency metrics2. Deployment scenario testing with documented hurricane recovery needs3. Situation awareness accuracy measurements