MealPass

We reduce waste by connecting restaurants which have food that might go to waste and people who need it most

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Inspiration

As students, we know what's it like to survive on junk food and instant noodles for their cheapness, and many people are having it worse, low-income families, people who are sleeping it rough, or simply people who live on a budget but still long for those hot, nourishing dinners. At the same time, Australia is throwing away thousands tonnes of edible food every year, a lot of which come from restaurants leftovers.

We want to connect these two dots and fix this, while reducing food waste to boot. We also enable users to pay for food for someone else, for example, parents of students can use this to ensure that they are always well fed with a nutritious meal.

What it does

MealPass is a platform that comprises of two main parts:

  • A web app for restaurants owners to list food/meal serves that they would not be able to sell by the end of their day, and can list them using a quick and friendly interface to find potentials consumers. They will receive payment from MealPass based on their user rating and how much food they sold through MealPass.
  • A mobile app for users to find food listed by restaurants in their vicinity. Users will pay a monthly subscription fee and receive Passes that they can use to exchange for these meals.

Other key features:

  • "My Shout": A pay-it-forwards feature, allowing individuals like parents who want to pay for their children' meal while they study far from home, and philanthropist organisations to sponsor users, giving away food Passes to people who need them most.
  • Overseas payment: MealPass allows users to purchase food using the same Passes whilst overseas at local restaurants.
  • The framework is adaptable and we believe it can be used to help with identifying wasted resources and people in the same locality who need them and might be willing to pay a small amount for them.

How we built it

The backend is built with Django and Postgres database. As none of us have extensive backend experience, Django helps with rapid development and also provides a frontend for the restaurants' interface. The web app front end is also built with bootstrap and html. The mobile app is built with Swift for iOS.

Challenges we ran into

  • We did not have a lot of experience with Business Model Canvas so we were a bit slow it getting it together. However, thanks to the help of the mentors, we learn quickly the value of the Model as a method to outline our idea and how to bring it to life.
  • Time-constraint is certainly on the list. But we think it's important to be able to present our ideas with a minimal product. It also forces us to think about what the most important value giving features are.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We put a lot of work into formulating our idea and the development of the applications. We have achieved a lot in a short time span, a functional platform with minimal feature, and also a pitch that won us Best in Hobart prize. It gives us confident that we can give our project some traction down the road.

What we learned

How to connect business idea and technical requirements, to work as a team and trust in each other to deliver. We have very clear work responsibilities for each team member and we rely on each other to deliver our product.

What's next for MealPass

  • We are very keen to perform user testing and more market research to understand the viability of our product.
  • The next step post Uhack is to bring it to our first customer segments: Students and restaurants near campuses and student accommodation.
  • Our vision though is that after food waste, we will use the same idea to tackle other kind of resources as well. We are very excited about exploring new possibilities for our product.

TO TRY OUR APP

To log into the restaurant management web app: use account: thai ; pass: thai1234 ; Or simply sign up for a new account.

Our Business Model Canvas: link

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