EA(s)T LANSING

Inspiration

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, many parts of Lansing used to be considered food deserts – a substantial number of residents having low access to supermarkets and stores. Even though that reality has reduced to some extent at present, there are still challenges for people in this area to access food. The pattern of food desert and insecurity still exists, yet in a more delicate form compared to the past. Many food banks and organizations have been founded to resolve this issue with a host of food drive events, yet the low access of people to official information about the service provided by those organizations and the limitations of transportation capabilities have lessened the effectiveness of the activities. Combined with the sudden economic changes and crises such as the pandemic, the food desert becomes a tremendous burden for many residents in keeping themselves healthy and staying away from hunger which can entail other kinds of social corruption. By pitching this local community issue, we are also looking forward to constructing a solution through technology to reach one of the goals in the UNESCO Sustainable Developments Goals of 2030: zero hunger.

What it does

EA(s)T LANSING is a mobile application focusing on resolving the issue related to hunger and food desert. Its main function is the illustration of food distribution events in the areas of Lansing to the users while also letting different organizations create their own profiles in a single location that is easily accessible for people needing food. To implement this goal, our team has developed the app with two main workflows.

Workflow 1 – organizations can use the platform to set up a profile and put in their drive-food hours' information.

Workflow 2 – Users can set up their accounts and access information about food-drive events and the organizations which can support them.

By using the app, the user can easily access the information relevant to their needs of food and surroundings and does not have to take more time to gather the information for seeking food. Besides, there is also a function letting people choose keywords of ingredients for the suggestion of simple yet healthy recipes. This function becomes necessary for people living in food desert areas since they may have limited food options and will stay with consuming unhealthy food over time without the suggestion of a proper recipe.

How we built it

We first discussed and brainstormed with each other a host of ideas before deciding to solve one of the problems related the most to our community. After that, we started to sketch out the basic structure of the mobile application. When finishing the basic sketch, Aliya and Alva designed the frameworks and User Interface by the Figma application. After that, David and Sadihi downloaded Flutter to program the code for mobile applications before uploading every material to the GitHub repository. Even though we did not finish the coding part in Flutter, the prototype was finished in Figma to be shown.

Challenges we ran into

We had a lot of ideas that were not consistent with each other. Besides, this was also the first time for us to make a mobile application. Therefore, we had to study much new knowledge to apply the languages. We also faced issues with storage since the file for the software was too large.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We can finalize the idea and compromise with each other to make the abstract idea alive concretely on Figma and some parts in Flutter.

What we learned

We learned how to use Flutter for mobile app development and dart language, which is helpful for our project since those programs are beginner-friendly platforms. We also gained more experience in Figma for developing the visual displays of our project. Besides, we understood the importance of brainstorming and time management with flexible adaptation based on crisis situations.

What's next for EA(s)T LANSING

At this time, the application is designed for users living in the East Lansing area with helpfulness for the local community. However, it can be extended to other regions in the state, country, or even world with the necessary to reduce the reality of food desert issues. Besides, other functions such as free ride support or map detecting for the nearest food supply locations can be developed to resolve another core issue of the problem regarding difficulties in transportation.