News & Events
Aug 13, 2025
In one of the most moving and mission-driven conversations of Sway Minds 2024, Soledad O’Brien sat down with Adam Dole, Co-Founder of Bento, for a fireside chat that went beyond tech and capital, and straight to the heart of systemic change.
The discussion, “Nourishing Change: How Tech and Policy Can Eradicate Food Insecurity,” explored how digital innovation can help solve one of America’s most persistent yet solvable problems: hunger.
A Crisis in Plain Sight
Dole began by framing the paradox: 50 million Americans experience food insecurity, including students, veterans, working parents, and seniors, many hidden in plain sight. Drawing from his experience at Mayo Clinic and his work as a former Presidential Innovation Fellow, Dole emphasized that this isn’t a supply problem, it’s an infrastructure problem.
“We’re not short on food,” Dole said. “We’re short on systems that connect people to food, quickly, privately, and with dignity.”
Bento: A New Delivery Model for Social Impact
At its core, Bento is a technology platform that enables healthcare providers, nonprofits, and local governments to seamlessly deliver meals to people in need, without vouchers, pantries, or paperwork. Through HIPAA-compliant integrations and a plug-and-play interface, Bento connects beneficiaries to nearby food vendors in real time, allowing for choice, convenience, and respect.
This isn’t charity tech, it’s systems design with empathy at scale.
Soledad O’Brien, whose documentary work on hunger in America gave her a unique vantage point, pressed Dole on the nuances of building a venture-backed company with a moral imperative. He was candid: it’s not always easy, but it's necessary.
“We built Bento like a product, not a program,” he explained. “Because if you want adoption at scale, you need to build with the user in mind, whether that user is a patient, a policymaker, or a person experiencing food insecurity.”
The Role of Policy and Private Capital
The conversation turned to policy, where Dole outlined how Bento is designed to complement and modernize existing systems like SNAP, Medicaid, and WIC, not replace them. With shifting federal budgets and rising awareness among states and health plans, public-private coordination is becoming essential.
“Good policy accelerates good product,” Dole noted. “But the reverse is also true, tech done right can inform better policy.”
For impact investors, the session was a case study in building sustainable, scalable solutions in the social innovation space. Bento isn’t just delivering meals, it’s building trust, infrastructure, and a replicable model for outcomes-based food access.
Nourishing Change delivered a hopeful, actionable message: food insecurity is not an intractable problem. With the right combination of technology, empathy, and strategic execution, we can design systems that meet people where they are, and move beyond stopgap solutions toward lasting dignity.
Access Begins with an Invitation
Sway Minds is not your typical tech summit. It’s an invitation-only gathering of bold thinkers, category-defining founders, visionary investors, and cultural leaders, curated for those shaping what’s next. From private screenings and closed-door conversations to the after-hours connections that drive real momentum, Sway Minds 2025 is where access meets intention. If you're ready to be in the room where it happens, apply to join us.
