Community Camel

Community Camel connects people searching for a way to give back to their community with those who need it the most. This application allows people to donate groceries and school supplies.

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Inspiration

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the luxuries that have commonly been taken for granted and showed us that many people face many real barriers to basic necessities.

What it does

Community Camel connects people in need with those looking to give back to their community as both a response to the pandemic and as an ongoing environmental initiative. Users can use the web service to order groceries, which are delivered free of charge by those willing to lend a hand. The application also provides the option to fill orders entirely free of charge, encompassing much larger demographics than currently available services.

How I built it

Given the tight time constraint of the contest, we wanted to focus our efforts on core functionality, without sacrificing usability or UX. We used HTML5up to create the backbone web design, based on our Figma plan. From there, we used the Cockroach DB to create our database for user information. Using Flask and Ajax, we connected our web application together and conducted the majority of our data processing in Python. We incorporated the Google Maps API to add fuller experience to our users, as well as allowing users to track and view pending orders to improve credibility.

Challenges I ran into

Unfortunately, the Cockroach DB we based the majority of our web platform on went out of commission the night before submission, leaving many aspects of our application less refined than we hoped it to be. This occurred at a point too late to transfer our service to a new platform and is reflected in our code.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Many of us were thrust into tech stacks we were unfamiliar with, however, our team proved to be resilient, and made incredible progress given our inexperience.

What I learned

We learned it's important to never leave the entire platform dependant on a single service and going forward we're determined to ensure our products are always supported by contingencies for the unpredictable.

What's next for Community Camel

Going forward, we hope to continue to develop this product and incorporate higher level data processing. In the short -term, we hope to supply our data based on geographical location to add new precision on which areas face the greatest challenges. This data can then be supplied to nearby charities and non-profit organizations to be used in accurately targeting the microcosms of society that suffer the greatest equity disparities.

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