Inspiration
On a global level, 1.4 billion tons of edible food are thrown away each year. This enormous scale of food waste is even more problematic when placed in the context of global food security, or the lack thereof, as 1 in 4 people don't have consistent access to nutritious food. The issues of food waste and food insecurity both have devastating consequences. Food waste contributes to 11% of the global greenhouse gas emission levels, and implicit with food waste is the waste of precious water and energy consumed to produce the food. On the individual level, the ability to achieve good health is foundational for one to reach their full life potential unfettered by illness. Access to nutritious food is a crucial component of good health, yet this is not a reality for so many.
For the sake of a sustainable future and a world where all people can live to their fullest potential, the problems of food waste and food insecurity must be addressed simultaneously. Realizing that large policy changes are required to address these issues on a global problems, our website aims to make an impact on reducing food waste and fighting hunger at a smaller scale on the Northwestern Campus.
What it does
The existence of food waste and food insecurity as simultaneous problems derives from issues in food distribution. Our website "Munchies" aims to meet these problems by creating a platform that connects dining halls with students. Rather than throwing out uneaten, served food, dining halls can update "Munchies" with records of the food throughout the day. Students can then visit "Munchies" to see which foods are available at the end of the day, and visit the dining halls to save the food. Our website name was influenced by the spirit of "midnight Munchies," as dining halls often close late at night.
How we built it
We developed the front end pages through pure HTML and CSS. The backend was developed with Python scripting. The front and back ends were integrated using Flask/React. Scraped data from the dining halls were stored in MongoDB, and updated as food options were selected by at the front end.
Challenges we ran into
- Sharing code through Git and LiveSharing (a minor scare where the entire backend was gone!)
- Integrating the front and back end.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- The team is collaborating well and having fun!
- Gaining familiarity with Git and MongoDB
- Creating a full stack app for the first time for many of our team members
What we learned
- Learning new technologies (Git, Flask, CSS, JavaScript)
What's next for Munchies!
- Expanding to multiple dining halls at Northwestern University
- Expanding to other Universities across the US
- Connecting dining halls to volunteers involved with food recovery, to enable distribution of unserved, uneaten food
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.