Hungry Bear

Inspiration

Walking into Big Red Hacks this morning, we noticed many leftovers from the night before. After speaking with the organizers, we found that most will be thrown out. This prompted required research into the amount of food waste at colleges around the U.S. According to the Food Recovery Network, "22 million pounds of food is thrown out each year by U.S colleges." There is an obvious miscommunication between colleges and students. Newspost states "More than one-third of U.S college students don't have enough money for food." So much food is being thrown out yet so many students are left starving. How can there be so much food waste if there are many students who would love to take some home? And how can hunger affect the way a student performs in college? Susan S.Lang from the Cornell Chronicles in 2002 stated "Adolescents from 15-16 that are food-deprived are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide, 4 times more likely to have chronic depression which is a high-risk factor for major depression." Addressing mental health issues, college student hunger, and food waste is a job for Hungry Bear.

What it does

1. Notifies students of free meals on campus
2. Pick usernames and create personalized avatars
3. Students will post details about when and where free food is available on campus
4. Students can also take a picture of the food received and feed it into the app to find how much money and food waste they saved!
5. Create incentives by providing badges and coupons for every ten meals scanned
6. End Goal: For students and college dining to partner up to feed hungry students, preserve student mental health, and prevent food waste

How we built it

1. Researched food waste issues in U.S universities
2. Observed existing solutions and identified their drawbacks
3. Brainstormed better alternatives
4. Developed and designed UI/UX prototypes using Figma

Challenges we ran into

Duplicate notifications

• Eliminated based on similar location, description, and time of post

Conserve privacy

• Use college IDs for authentication
• Display only user ID and in-app avatars to mitigate the stigma around receiving/depending on free food

Accuracy

• Student-run informants/volunteers will validate information

Covid Restrictions

• Students and staff will be required to wear masks per the institution's restrictions.
• Food would be individually packaged (not distributed otherwise)
• Any free food off-campus will be up to the student’s discretion to consume

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Able to rectify most of the existing solution’s drawbacks (improved correctness and completeness)
• Placing an emphasis on food sustainability
• Providing basic needs vital to the mental and physical well being of students

What we learned

• The direness of the food waste situation at colleges, specifically its negative effect on the environment and global warming
• Understanding the perspective of diverse users (students, volunteers, dining administration, etc)
• Process of design from start to finish (user research, ideation, storyboarding...)
• Quickly adapted to using Figma software to create visualizations

What's next for Hungry Bear

• Promote the app at Clubfest, Freshman/Transfer Orientations, Info Sessions, etc
• Implement this app at other universities across the world
• Track the total meals served, number of users fed, and money you have saved since joining the app.
• Getting universities to give back the student informants/volunteers and possibly reward them for their efforts

Built With

• figma