CommuniFridge

App Screenshots
Logo

Inspiration

“Each year, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away each year” (FeedingAmerica.org). Food wastage is one of the biggest problems in sustainability that we face globally today. We often have excess food that we cooked or groceries that we know we will not be able to finish before the expiration date. However, we usually always end of throwing it away whereas it could have fed someone else in our community and not just make that person's day better but also reduce the overall food wastage problem in our community.

What it does

We have built a mobile app that allows users to easily post their excess groceries or food to give away to people in their community either for free or at a much lower price than the stores. Users can then view all the items that people are giving away in their community, find something they need using the filters and search functionalities and easily Get the food after verifying that they can trust the person based on their Trust Score. Givers can then see who wants their excess bread and pick a person that they can trust to send their contact so that the two individuals can meet up and exchange the item. We also incorporated badges and statistics that inspire more people to give away their excess food and monitor how much of an impact they are making in their community to reduce the food wastage situation and achieve a more sustainable tomorrow.

How we built it

We used Figma for creating the full design and developing prototype and wireframes. The mobile app is built with React Native to allow cross platform functionality and enable more users for our app.

Challenges we ran into

None of us had used React Native that much before and had faced a learning curve, so in this short time we had to brainstorm the idea and polish it, design the whole solution, and then build it as well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have a complete working prototype of the project and we are really proud of the impact this can make by using technology to reduce the food wastage problem.

What we learned

Anything is possible! Yesterday, it seemed like an impossible task to build something that can achieve greater sustainability, but we learned that if we work together and use modern tools and technologies, we can collectively contribute to alleviate even the biggest of problems little by little.

What's next for CommuniFridge

We want to develop a fully working app with functionalities that draw more users. We plan on collaborating with communities like universities and neighborhoods to encourage them to start using the app. We also want to introduce new features like advanced dashboards which can use machine learning to show more captivating statistics that inspire more people to make an impact.