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The Map
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Post Your Food Page
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Messaging system
Inspiration
Every year, millions of tons of perfectly edible food are wasted — often just leftovers sitting in someone’s fridge. Meanwhile, food insecurity continues to impact families globally. We built Leftover Love to bridge this gap locally. It's our way of turning “too much food” into “just enough for someone else".
What it does
Leftover Love is a React web app that lets users post leftover home-cooked meals on a live map with details like cook date, best-before date, and images. Others nearby can browse the map, view available food, and message the poster to arrange pickup.
How we built it
Frontend: React.js, with react-leaflet for interactive maps and Framer Motion for smooth UI effects. Backend: Firebase (Firestore for data, Firebase Auth for login, and Storage for images). Geolocation: HTML5 Geolocation API to tag posts by location. Messaging: Custom chat interface using Firebase’s real-time database features.
Challenges we ran into
Safely previewing and uploading user images while keeping performance smooth was trickier than expected as well as querying nested or multi-field constraints (like finding unique chat threads) required restructuring our schema.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Created a welcoming, low-friction UX that anyone in a neighborhood could understand and use easily!
What we learned
Building for social impact means constantly thinking about trust, ease of use, and accessibility. For example, if users do not trust the safety of the website or have a hard time navigating it then they will not use it.
What's next for Leftover Love
Add safety flags (e.g allergy warnings, vegetarian tags, halal tags) and potentially partner with local food banks and nonprofits for bulk pickup and redistribution.
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