FoodSource

By creating a way to connect people with distributors and venues with surplus food, we hope to provide a resource to those in need of food while redirecting food that would otherwise go to waste.

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Inspiration

After witnessing the abundance of food waste here in our community at Stanford, we became discouraged by the social attitudes pertaining to this issue. Members of our team come from backgrounds that place emphasis on mindfulness surrounding food consumption and security. We hope to provide a resource to people who may need additional access to food, such as low-income families and unhoused people.

What it does

FoodSource provides a way for surplus food (such as sports games, imperfect produce, or other venues) to be redistributed. Food donors post about extra food to have to donate, which distributors (i.e. non-profits, food drives, church orgs, etc.) can pick up and move to a location where it can be redistributed. Consumers who are in need can view upcoming and current events held by distributors and are provided with an additional resource for food.

How we built it

We used Bootstrap, PyCharm, and Procreate for website design, front-end visuals, and back-end engineering.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was finding a back-end framework, hosting, and accessing a database. Because we could not develop our back-end infrastructure without most of our front-end, we were challenged by completing our front-end development quickly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are super proud of getting through our first hackathon! We're also proud of creating a product whose causes we resonate with.

What we learned

We learned how to use Bootstrap and PGSQL. Some of our team members learned how to create a website from scratch, along with planning and implementing all the details involved in web development.

What's next for FoodSource

We hope to allow distributors to upload images of food for consumers, set up a messaging system between distributors and food donors, and enable consumers to filter results by food allergens and location. Once our prototype becomes a more fleshed-out and structured product, we hope to gain more publicity, as the effectiveness of our site depends on public awareness.

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