Inspiration
We don’t have a food scarcity problem; we have a food distribution problem. Each year, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States, yet more than 38 million people live in food-insecure households. Constantly, excess food from events goes to waste, but what if we were able to provide others, specifically those who are low-income or have limited access to food, with access to this free food?
What it does
Our app addresses this food distribution problem by alerting users (students) of events with free food in hopes of reducing food waste and eliminating food scarcity and inequality. Additionally, event hosts can create events on our app, notifying users of where new free food events are.
How we built it
We used React Native and Expo to develop a cross-platform app that would be compatible with both IOS and Android devices, along with Firebase for all users to access events. We figured that using a map would be the most intuitive background and pins would mark the locations of events with free food.
Challenges we ran into
We had trouble with compatibility between Expo and other platforms and packages and figuring out how to enable the map to track users location. We spent a lot of time debugging and figuring out exactly how to implement location tracking and markers. Additionally, web development was new to some of the members on the team and required lots of time to learn and understand how to implement many features.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Creating an app that works! We're also proud of working as a team to solve a problem that affects the real world and persevering to create a viable product.
What we learned
We learned lots of new technical skills including navigating Git, creating a mobile app using React Native, and collaborating as a team!
What's next for Food for thought
We hope to expand beyond food scarcity to incorporate other community building events and possibly address other issues. One example could be adding volunteering events that target cleanup and recycling initiatives or educational programs on the interactive map. Additionally, we could incorporate minor features like finding a path from your current location to an event location, deleting events after a certain number of hours has passed, and/or creating a comment feature for users to provide feedback about events.
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