A long-haul truck driver recently walked into Tiny Tim’s Toy Foundation in West Jordan, Utah, and asked for a box of toys. Alton Thacker gave him five, each packed with 125 cars.

“He stopped at children's hospitals along his truck route and handed them out," said Thacker, 83, a retired barber who started the toy factory 16 years ago. "And I know he'll be back for more. Seeing all those little smiles is a great motivator.”

The cars — simple wooden toys with a painted smile — are made at the factory and given free to children in need around the globe through charities, churches, children’s hospitals and sometimes truckers who stop by for a box. Thacker’s factory reached a huge milestone this year when he cranked out his 1 millionth toy. He celebrated for a moment and then got back to work.

A car built from a block of scrap wood is a simple thing, he said, but the impact is immense. He said all kids react the same when they get the toy — whether they’re in a children’s hospital, a restaurant, a tough neighborhood close to home or a developing country. The cars have been delivered to children in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Ghana, Thailand, Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

The idea to use Hawaii’s invasive species for food was championed by innovators like Hawaiian cultural practitioner Vince Dodge, who lives on Oahu and uses kiawe for his Wai’anae Gold flour, and wild food educator Sunny Savage of Maui. "For any indigenous culture, you look to the land to provide," Savage told me. "These [invasive species] are things found in most abundance, with a double bonus; being good for the earth to harvest, and beneficial for our human bodies as nutrient-packed food."

My spoon slides through an unidentifiable substance, unexpectedly similar to foie gras, as I glance over my menu to double-check the dish in front of me. “Eat Your Invasives,” it reads. It’s a kiawe flour paté — and it’s delicious..

I’m on Maui at the Grand Wailea's Humuhumunukunukuapua’a restaurant (named after a species of native fish — Humuhumu for short) where the Chef de Cuisine, Mike Lofaro, highlights invasive species on his menu. My current plate includes interlopers like kiawe (a type of mesquite, similar in shape to a green bean, but sweeter) and waiawi(also known as “strawberry guava,” a variety nicknamed for its sweet-tart flavor). Hawaiian culture is grounded in cultivating symbiotic relationships with the land — so why, I wonder, am I not eating poi?

What I didn’t know at the time: native plants such as taro, the main ingredient in poi, are increasingly threatened by an invasive species crisis across the Hawaiian Islands — which has some chefs rethinking their ingredients.

a California campus is embracing a kind of food delivery — via robot. On Wednesday, students at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., will be able to order snacks and beverages for the first time from a bright-colored roving robot on wheels known as the “Snackbot.”

Its stout body perched atop six small wheels, the electric Snackbot resembles some combination of an Igloo cooler and a Volkswagen Microbus. Or perhaps a NASA-built vehicle designed for traversing lunar surfaces. The electric vehicle includes a camera and headlights and can travel 20 miles on a single charge, even up hills and in the rain, according to PepsiCo, which partnered with robot-making startup Robby Technologies to launch the campus delivery program.

Instead of interrupting classes, the Snackbot will follow a less invasive delivery model, Finlow said, noting the “rolling vending machine” doesn’t charge a delivery fee. After downloading the Snackbot app and placing an order, students can select from 50 designated delivery locations across the 175-acre campus.

Users will be able to track their order and open the machine’s lid using a button in the app, but meeting the robot within a particular delivery window is key. The robot will only linger at a delivery location for 10 minutes before moving on to its next customer.

The team at Atlas Brew Works prepared their special spring release the same way they do with every new beer. Late last year, they started fermenting, had a couple taste tests, and finally—the last step before canning the brew—they sent the design for the beer’s label out to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Because of the government shutdown, the process halted there.

Now the Ivy City brewery is stuck with a whole tank of IPA brewed with fresh apricots that may never hit shelves. “It’s fermenting, currently,” says Justin Cox, Atlas Brew Works’ CEO and founder. “That will have to sit in our tank.”

Part of the Department of the Treasury, the TTB regulates alcohol, tobacco, or firearm-related businesses in a handful of ways: If you’re opening a liquor store, distilling a new liquor, or paying taxes on your cigar shop, you’ve got to deal with them. The TTB also reviews labels on cans, bottles, and kegs of all wine, malt beverages, beer, and distilled spirits in the United States, ensuring they carry information like the alcohol content by volume and the Surgeon General’s warning.

Having been deemed nonessential in the wake of the shutdown, the agency has suspended processing applications for label review, meaning that Atlas’ apricot IPA label—along with who knows how many other brewers, distillers, and other alcohol manufacturers around the country—is stuck in limbo. A notice on the bureau’s homepage warns visitors that its personnel are neither reporting to work nor responding to any inquiries. “Submissions will not be reviewed or approved until appropriations are enacted,” the site says.