When the Apollo program ended, the factories that assembled the Saturn V rockets were shut down. Molds and vehicles were destroyed. The engineers and scientists moved onto other jobs. Â
We lost the ability to go to the moon.
With the end of the Cold War came a desire to fix the earth on solid ground before setting our sights on the stars again.
The atmosphere at the Rocket Space co-working offices on the 12th floor of Bush Street is quiet and peaceful, much like being in the stratosphere. The buzz of activity and meetings no longer persists, and startups are packing away the engines of their entrepreneurial rocket ships into plain boxes. At least their pilots have the satisfaction of knowing that they are closer to the stars than when they started.
The office on 225 Bush Street is located in the Standard Oil building, the tallest building in California in 1922. This was a time when the United States had only recently allowed women to vote, and a time when the field of rocketry was still developing.
Nowadays, oil is no longer a symbol of success, but a reminder of the energy crisis and the limited supply of fossil fuels. San Franciscans don’t want to go to the moon as much as they want to fix problems on the soil, such as homelessness, hunger, and climate change.
Despite its name, Rocket Space focuses on inner space rather than outer space. Notable past inhabitants of their co-working offices include the likes of Spotify and Uber. These days, the fuel that boosts promising startups past the competition is publicity.
For the past few months, Rocket Space has been the home to Feeding Forward's team. During the past few months, our publicity rocketship has taken flight in a way we could not have predicted: Feeding Forward has made it on CNET, Yahoo, Reddit's front page, Al Jazeera, NY Daily News and People.com; business requests and warm wishes have been pouring in from all corners of the world. During our time at Rocket Space, we have fed over 25,000 meals to shelters and other in need recipients in the Bay Area, and for that, we are all so grateful.
Alleviating domestic problems such as food waste and food insecurity can seem like rocket science sometimes, but it becomes a lot easier through altruism and co-operation (get it?!). It may have gotten harder to get to the moon, but it's become easier than ever to feed people in the 21st century, especially with technology, publicity, and a little dash of charity.
To Rocket Space, Neospeech, and our other incredibly generous partners, we offer our most sincere thanks.
And with that, Feeding Forward is ready to blast off!
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
origamiaround
vaporwave
pixelskylines
areudirty