Michael-
I like the potential of your idea but I don't think you are reaching your full potential in terms of impact. A couple thoughts/questions to consider:
Churches could be a key constituent and marketing network to build your user base.
How could this be applied to more vulnerable populations? I can see your model being a disruptive innovation to food banks that allows communities to really care for the poor/elderly in their own community.
How are you going to inspire service between strangers and not just a web platform for friends/family to do what they would do anyway? I can see your model being connected to an iphone app such as Extraordinaries, using geo-location to identify a service opportunity in their neighborhood.
You also have a great opportunity to be an education point for public health messages surrounding the birth of a child. How could your model be combined with lactation consultants or other public health providers?
Thanks for the suggestions. Your comment about not reaching the "full potential" is what excites me the most about the project. So far, some highlights of who we have helped include a new mother who had a difficult pregnancy, a family whose infant daughter was having major kidney surgery, a family who recently adopted two children from China, and multiple families who are being treated for cancer. All have told us that they would not have received the outpouring of generosity from their community without mealTrain.com
You do bring up some great ideas and several are in development. The idea about inspiring "service between strangers" has been discussed in many forms. One idea we had was that people could self identify as "super givers" and if a recipient agreed to make their meal train open, these "super givers" would be notified of an opportunity to participate within their communities. There is a big challenge with this idea however, privacy. Being that meal trains contain addresses and phone numbers, we cannot make that information publicly available. We feel it is important (in most cases) that there be some degree of connection between the parties. We also do not know if people would be willing to receive meals in their home from complete strangers. If we can resolve these concerns, we will be able to enhance the degree of separation.
While privacy is also a concern in helping "vulnerable populations", it would be great to partner with an organization like the "Agency on Aging" and find a way to facilitate communities coming to the aid of seniors in their neighborhood.
I love the idea about partnerships to deliver education and information. We have focused most of our efforts on finding partners to help cancer patients. There are significant emotional and psychological impacts of a cancer diagnosis and research has shown that phone calls, visits, and personal messages (and likely meals) improve quality of life and mood indicators. To help this population alone would be a great accomplishment.
Thanks again for the comments.
Michael Laramee
Co-Founder www.mealTrain.com
Comments
Michael-
I like the potential of your idea but I don't think you are reaching your full potential in terms of impact. A couple thoughts/questions to consider:
Churches could be a key constituent and marketing network to build your user base.
How could this be applied to more vulnerable populations? I can see your model being a disruptive innovation to food banks that allows communities to really care for the poor/elderly in their own community.
How are you going to inspire service between strangers and not just a web platform for friends/family to do what they would do anyway? I can see your model being connected to an iphone app such as Extraordinaries, using geo-location to identify a service opportunity in their neighborhood.
You also have a great opportunity to be an education point for public health messages surrounding the birth of a child. How could your model be combined with lactation consultants or other public health providers?
I like the potential, keep going!!
David
Ashoka
Hi David,
Thanks for the suggestions. Your comment about not reaching the "full potential" is what excites me the most about the project. So far, some highlights of who we have helped include a new mother who had a difficult pregnancy, a family whose infant daughter was having major kidney surgery, a family who recently adopted two children from China, and multiple families who are being treated for cancer. All have told us that they would not have received the outpouring of generosity from their community without mealTrain.com
You do bring up some great ideas and several are in development. The idea about inspiring "service between strangers" has been discussed in many forms. One idea we had was that people could self identify as "super givers" and if a recipient agreed to make their meal train open, these "super givers" would be notified of an opportunity to participate within their communities. There is a big challenge with this idea however, privacy. Being that meal trains contain addresses and phone numbers, we cannot make that information publicly available. We feel it is important (in most cases) that there be some degree of connection between the parties. We also do not know if people would be willing to receive meals in their home from complete strangers. If we can resolve these concerns, we will be able to enhance the degree of separation.
While privacy is also a concern in helping "vulnerable populations", it would be great to partner with an organization like the "Agency on Aging" and find a way to facilitate communities coming to the aid of seniors in their neighborhood.
I love the idea about partnerships to deliver education and information. We have focused most of our efforts on finding partners to help cancer patients. There are significant emotional and psychological impacts of a cancer diagnosis and research has shown that phone calls, visits, and personal messages (and likely meals) improve quality of life and mood indicators. To help this population alone would be a great accomplishment.
Thanks again for the comments.
Michael Laramee
Co-Founder
www.mealTrain.com
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