Inspiration

When I saw the theme of STEM Connect, I already had Native Americans in mind. I have always been passionate about highlighting the issues regarding Native American reservations. When I looked through the hackathon prompts, I knew I wanted to tackle one of the fundamental issues in this community, which is nutrition and food access. FDPIR stood out immediately as it's a real federal food program serving hundreds of tribes, but SNAP has decades of comparison calculators, budgeting apps, and benefit estimators built around it, while FDPIR has essentially none. American Indian and Alaska Native households also have the highest food-insecurity rate of any group the USDA measures, more than double the national average. These factors were what I hoped to solve with my project, GroundTruth.

What it does

GroundTruth compares FDPIR and SNAP in actual dollars, not vague program descriptions. It breaks down your monthly food package item by item: quantity, servings, macros, and cost. From there it builds a real budget: take-home pay, essential expenses, and what's actually left over. A Recipes section turns the food package into actual meals with cost and nutrition per serving, filterable by dietary tag and allergen. A Locator finds the nearest distribution site by ZIP and estimates the gas cost of getting there. It runs both as a website and as a fully offline Python desktop app, since reservation connectivity isn't always reliable.

How we built it

I began with creating my project as a website first. This would allow for accurate numbers and list of foods, as this will change as time continues. Every number in the app is sourced to something real. However, I realized there was a problem with hosting an online website. In many reservations, internet connection is not a gurantee so I decided to create a desktop version in Python with Tkinter. This would need to be updated locally but by providing an offline solution, it better serves the Native American community.

Challenges we ran into

This program is primarily front-end programming, which is something I am not as familiar with. A few real bugs taught me the most, such as with the layout or screen sizing bugs. With the Locator function, I ran into logic errors with how the program took zip codes and found nearby distribution centers. This was my first hackathon so spending time on the project while balancing other things, such as personal events and meetings for other organizations, improved my time management skills.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am happy with my end result as I accomplished what I originally sought to do. I hope that I can continue to inform people about the struggles of American Natives and creating a product that is beneficial for them is always an achievement.

What we learned

I've improved my programming knowledge, primarily with front-end coding in CSS and Python. This has taught me more about my industry and what I can expect from future hackathons. I also learned more about the living conditions of American Indians, past malnutrition and education gaps. I hadn't heard of FDPIR before researching, as I was only aware of the food scarcity issues in reservations.

What's next for GroundTruth

I hope to convert this into a low level downloadable app, primarily with react. I hope to extend the current programs, such as adding more FDPIR groups or improving the budget tool and locator settings. I want to reach out to my target demographic and see if this calculator is applicable to their real world living conditions.

# GitHub

GitHub is currently hosting my programs for both the website and app. It also has my presentation. I could not get through all of the slides in the 5 minutes.

Built With

• css
• java
• javascript
• python