FoodScan

Inspiration

What inspired our group was previous experiences having worked at food banks and supermarkets alike. On a typical day, enough food to feed families would be thrown out, while there never seemed to be enough quality produce in our local food banks. We saw an opportunity to streamline and simplify the transfer of food to foodbanks that would otherwise rot away.

What it does

The platform allows stores to submit their stock of excess product for distribution. Any food bank in the country can then request any type of food, and if there is local stock available, it would allocate the stock to the food bank for distribution.

How we built it

We used Palantir Foundry to create this platform, having created various forms for the stores to submit their available stock by scanning the barcodes and food banks to request food items. We also used Python with PySpark to try to automate the submission and request process, allowing stock to be allocated automatically to the earliest request, and update when new stock is added to the system.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into constant challenges during development. We had to learn to use Palantir Foundry and PySpark from scratch. Database design was a considerable challenge, but after which we made progress.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Overall, as our first hackathon, we are proud to have made something with a cause for social good. While our implementation was far from perfect, given more time we could improve upon the program substantially.

What we learned

We learned much about working in a group, as well as time management. We also learned the basics of PySpark.

What's next for FoodScan

Hopefully, we can continue to work on this project, and fulfil our vision to completely automate the distribution process - including delivery from the stores to food banks.