# Your zip code shouldn’t determine your lifespan

- Institution: TED
- Department: TED Fellows Films 2025
- Speaker: Dion Dawson
- Year: 2025
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Medicine and health, Earth and environment, Business and management
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/dion_dawson_your_zip_code_shouldn_t_determine_your_lifespan)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

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 He’s proving that it’s possible to replace the outdated food pantry model with a data-driven system that delivers high-quality food — so your zip code doesn’t decide how long you live.

## Lectures

1. [Your zip code shouldn’t determine your lifespan](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/dion_dawson_your_zip_code_shouldn_t_determine_your_lifespan/4ead9a7ad559), 6 min (TED's player)