--- title: Bento: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 description: Find out why Bento is one of the best inventions of 2021 canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-10T11:08:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:55:30.473Z og:title: Bento: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:description: Find out why Bento made this year's list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28c19ea4c5803605/698a1e8c16d884b121c39ef4/best-inventions-2021-Bento-App-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Bento: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bento: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 twitter:description: Find out why Bento made this year's list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28c19ea4c5803605/698a1e8c16d884b121c39ef4/best-inventions-2021-Bento-App-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 10, 2021 # Help for the Hungry Bento by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  When Mick Ebeling set out to tackle the food-insecurity crisis that affects 1 in 8 Americans, he envisioned something useful and convenient that could also protect users’ dignity. The answer: cell phones—more specifically, a text-messaging service called [Bento](https://gobento.com/) that partners with local organizations and government agencies to enroll people in need of food assistance. Once signed up, users can text “order” to a number associated with the service. They can then select a no-cost meal from nearby participating restaurants, which process Bento orders as they would any other—allowing users to pick up their meals without drawing attention to their situation. Bento has provided 150,000 healthy meals since its launch in March 2020, Ebeling says. _—Guadalupe Gonzalez_ **Correction, November 12** _The original version of this story misstated the word users text to request a meal. It is “order,” not “hungry.”_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/"},"headline":"Help for the Hungry","datePublished":"2021-11-10T11:08:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:55:30.473Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28c19ea4c5803605/698a1e8c16d884b121c39ef4/best-inventions-2021-Bento-App-03.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28c19ea4c5803605/698a1e8c16d884b121c39ef4/best-inventions-2021-Bento-App-03.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113113/bento-app/","name":"Help for the Hungry"}}]}] ```