U.S. Hunger Taps AWS to Scale Its Community Impact and Connect Social Services with Healthcare

ORLANDO, Fla., March 24, 2026 (Newswire.com) - U.S. Hunger (USH), a nonprofit focused on addressing food insecurity and advancing community health, today announced the continued expansion of Full Cart Connect^™, its technology platform powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Full Cart Connect transforms how community-based organizations (CBOs) participate in healthcare. Through coordinated engagement with health plans, USH identifies social needs among members, connects those needs with healthcare partners, and works alongside trusted CBOs to deliver support such as food access and program enrollment.

Built on AWS infrastructure, Full Cart Connect enables USH to securely capture, synchronize, and act on real-world community insights-helping healthcare organizations address the social drivers that influence health outcomes while maintaining trusted relationships within local communities.

Over the past year, USH has worked closely with a major health plan to integrate Full Cart Connect into its care infrastructure, embedding the platform within case management workflows, engagement tools, and community-facing teams. Through this approach, USH has helped transform the traditional role of a CBO-from an outsourced referral partner into an entry point within a health plan's care continuum, enabling more coordinated and effective support for families.

Historically, CBOs operate outside the healthcare care continuum, making it difficult to share information or coordinate care across sectors. Through Full Cart Connect, USH is helping bridge that gap-creating secure pathways for real-time data exchange and enabling CBOs to play a direct role in improving health outcomes. The platform also creates new agency for individuals and families, enabling them to connect social services and healthy steps directly to their care journey.

"Our work starts with community," said Rick Whitted, CEO of USH. "Technology should never replace human connection-it should strengthen it. By building on AWS, we've been able to scale the trust and impact that local organizations provide, allowing us to reach more families while keeping community at the center of the solution."

Through the use of cloud infrastructure and automation, USH has been able to significantly scale its reach while maintaining operational efficiency. Technology has enabled the organization to expand impact without scaling costs at the same rate, allowing small teams to manage larger programs and deliver insights more quickly across partners and communities.

The platform integrates with healthcare systems, case management workflows, and community engagement channels, enabling organizations to coordinate services and insights in near real time.

"Moving our infrastructure to AWS allows us to build a secure, scalable foundation for the work we're doing in communities," said Ezekiel Brooks, Chief Technology Officer at USH. "By using AWS serverless, analytics, and contact center services-including AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon QuickSight - we're able to manage data responsibly, protect privacy, and deliver services faster and more effectively."

USH is also using AWS's advanced capabilities, including Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Comprehend, and Amazon Connect, to enable conversational AI assistants, AI-powered knowledge retrieval, and real-time speech processing to help connect families with food assistance more quickly and efficiently. These tools support multilingual communication, automate data processing, and help analyze community needs at scale. The platform currently supports nine languages and is designed to expand its capabilities as new technologies emerge.

Beyond technology infrastructure, AWS has also provided guidance and support through programs designed to help mission-driven organizations leverage advanced cloud capabilities. These resources have helped USH accelerate development of tools that enable nonprofits and healthcare organizations to collaborate more effectively.

"AWS is proud to provide U.S. Hunger with secure, scalable cloud infrastructure that enables them to bridge healthcare and social services, connecting families with critical resources while keeping community at the center of their mission. We look forward to our continued collaboration and impact," said Rick Buettner, Managing Director of Global Nonprofits at AWS.

By combining community expertise with modern cloud technology, USH is helping create a model for how nonprofits can scale impact while maintaining the trust and relationships that drive meaningful change.

"As we look ahead, our goal is simple," Whitted added. "Use technology responsibly to strengthen communities, connect systems that were never designed to work together, and make it easier for organizations to serve people who need support. We believe community itself is infrastructure for health, and with the right technology, that infrastructure can scale."

For more information about USH and its work to advance community health, visit www.ushunger.org/full-cart/

Media Contact:

Sarah Aranguibel-Dávila
[email protected]
(407) 794-9326

SOURCE: U.S. Hunger

Source: U.S. Hunger