NutriShare

Inspiration

The inspiration for NutriShare came from seeing the vast amount of food waste in our communities and households while so many people go hungry. I wanted to create a platform that makes it easy for individuals and businesses to donate surplus food to those in need, ensuring that good food doesn't go to waste and helps those who need it most.

What it does

NutriShare connects food donors with recipients in their local community. Donors can list available food, and recipients can browse and request pickups. The app sends notifications to both parties, lets the donors accept or decline pickups, and even provides addresses to recipients to the nearest pickup locations if accepted. It’s a simple, user-friendly platform that helps reduce food waste and alleviate hunger.

How I built it

I built NutriShare using a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend, ensuring a responsive and intuitive user experience. The backend is powered by local storage to easily manage user data, donations, requests, and make sure they are all saved properly.

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest challenges was ensuring real-time updates and notifications, particularly when matching donors and recipients. On top of that it was difficult to make the accounts save to local storage so I added two parts: users and current user. I also had trouble with the pickup address since it would not show up because I used the same class I used for notifications and the notifications expired so I had to program for the new class. Lastly, balancing the simplicity of the user interface with the functionality needed for different user roles (donor vs. recipient) was challenging.

Accomplishments that I am proud of

I am proud to have created a platform that not only works seamlessly but also has the potential to make a real impact in reducing food waste and helping those in need. Successfully integrating the roles, address, and notification systems was a significant technical achievement for me, and I am particularly proud of the intuitive design that makes NutriShare accessible to a wide range of users especially to those who don't have much experience with technology.

What I learned

Throughout the development of NutriShare, I learned the importance of user-centered design, especially when working with a diverse user base. I also gained valuable experience in integrating various APIs and cloud services, and how to effectively manage real-time data in a web application. Even though I wasn't able to integrate more APIs like Twilio for messages and Google Maps API I still got a lot of experience with APIs as this was my first major hackathon. The project taught me the value of testing and iterating new features based on others' feedback to improve functionality and usability.

What's next for NutriShare

The next steps for NutriShare include expanding the platform to support more regions and languages, making it accessible to more communities. I also want to add features such as in-app chat between donors and recipients, Google Maps API, enhanced filtering options for donations, and partnerships with local businesses and organizations to increase the impact. In the long term, I hope to build a mobile app version and integrate more advanced analytics to track the impact of food donations while keeping the app still easy to use.