Food Messenger

Because the right use of food can end the hunger.
Pepper - the food messenger bot
Welcome screen of the Food Messenger Bot
https://youtu.be/cBRnKltMDLc

Inspiration

I have seen hungry people knocking doors carrying empty container seeking for any food they can find or hungry homeless people on streets. I have seen the cries of their children because of hunger. It is an issue globally.

There are two types of problem : Having more food and Having no food. Both of them can be the solution of each other but there's no unheard solution.

Most people don't realize how much food they throw away every day — from uneaten leftovers to spoiled produce. About 94 percent of the food we throw away ends up in landfills or combustion facilities. In 2015, we disposed 37.6 million tons of food waste.

Now, this food can be used by a hungry stomach, thereby helping the environment and soul :)

What it does

~ Leverage FB messenger bot capabilities to connect the user (food seeker/ provider) by showing them the available food in near proximity. ~ Prototype + “Show pictures of the uneaten food/produce listings along with distance in real-time”

How I built it

~ Using design thinking approaches, we defined our problem statement, user story, pain-points and based on it we designed the prototype and MVP (minimum viable product). ~ Understood capabilities of FB messenger, FB apps ~ With team member of three collaborating on the project, we started from scratch to build a full functional MVP solution in iterations.

Challenges I ran into

~ Working with the libraries ~ Adopting the tech stack (but the documentation made it easier). ~ Deriving a solution with respect to user's security and privacy. ~ Deriving the real time geo-location distance

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

~ Able to show the listings in carousel view with the image of the food/produce along with the proximity distance in real-time.

What I learned

~ FB messenger API and UI elements ~ FB app, access controls ~ Node.js ~ Opencage API

What's next for Food Messenger

~ Proactively reach out to known users to meet the demand-supply. ~ Daily statistical on number of people served and amount of food saved as a post on the FB page to inspire more users about the social cause. ~ The entire solution can be represented on maps plugged in with SparkAR showing the images of food at it's geo-location.