Your zip code shouldn’t determine your lifespan

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Dion Dawson |

TED Fellows Films 2025

• April 2025

What if ending food insecurity meant ditching charity models that haven’t been updated since the 1960s? Dion Dawson, TED Fellow and founder of Dion’s Chicago Dream, shares how he turned a spontaneous idea for giving back to his community into a thriving social enterprise, delivering top-quality produce to thousands of Chicago households every week and reaching a million dollars in revenue in just 18 months. He’s proving that it’s possible to replace the outdated food pantry model with a data-driven system that delivers high-quality food — so your zip code doesn’t decide how long you live.