Meal Match

Meal Match

Inspiration

We all stay at residence halls at UT and see how much food is wasted in dining halls on a daily basis. There are many days where by the end of all meals, there is extra food left over, so we wanted to work on an idea that we see on a daily basis.

What it does

Meal Match connects colleges and high schools to local shelters, nonprofits, and compost centers that would be able to use extra food to feed the less fortunate or for reuse in compost. It is connected to the campus's menu to update the menu daily. From there, campuses would update how much leftover food they have. Recipients can see food listings, request what they want, and say what time works for them for pickup.

How we built it

Much of the front end was done through React Native. Designs for each component were made through Figma. A Python webscraper is used to collect data on the different items on the meals and is connected to a component that displays the different items for campuses to update the amount of each item there is left over.

Challenges we ran into

Connecting the webscraper to the front end was hard because it required packages that were not there on React Expo, so we had to work around and try several options for how to go from a CSV file to a table in React Native.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of a webscraper and learning new skills and experience in React Native

What we learned

Skills in React Native and full stack development.

What's next for Meal Match

We would like to extend this to more campuses besides just UT and would like to develop a machine learning algorithm that can predict food waste ahead of time based on meals.