Welcome to the stage, my friend.

What is going on, people? What's up? Dana, what's going on? Congrats.

Really, really excited to be here.

Happy afternoon.

You know, I've been in and out, heard there's been a lot of fun, a lot of lessons learned, a lot of admitting of failures because we-- I know anybody on here who's been trying to figure out how to kind of pivot and re-strategize on the go as much as we do these days.

I know, you know, it feels like a, a marathon at times, but let's get grounded really quick.

I'm Deon Dawson.

Mm-hmm.

And now, 2025 TED Fellow Deon Dawson.

[gentle music] If you look historically at food responses, the pantry model has been unchanged since the 1950s.

Everywhere in places that looked like mine, it was inefficient.

It didn't champion quality or the end user experience, and it just bothered me.

I'm Deon Dawson, uh, founder and chief dreamer of Deon's Chicago Dream.

We're a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on providing access to healthy food consistently, making sure that your zip code does not determine how long you live.

We deliver a ten-pound box of fresh fruits and vegetables to more than forty-three hundred households in the Chicagoland region per week.

It's coming up.

[gentle music] If you look historically at food responses, the pantry model has been unchanged since the 1950s.

Everywhere in places that looked like mine, it was inefficient, it didn't champion quality or the end user experience, and it just bothered me.

I'm Deon Dawson, uh, founder and chief dreamer of Deon's Chicago Dream.

We're a nonprofit social enterprise that focuses on providing access to healthy food consistently, making sure that your zip code does not determine how long you live.

We deliver a 10-pound box of fresh fruits and vegetables to more than 4,300 households in the Chicagoland region per week.

It could be everything from a pineapple to different types of apples, citruses, Swiss chard, spinach, pomegranates.

... and kind of how you've looked at that game board and said, "Hey, here's how we're gonna utilize this towards the end result that we want for our users and clients."