PUDO | Devpost

Problem: The problem space we have identified is food insecurity and excess food waste in urban areas. Food Insecurity is an issue that 34 million Americans face every single day, and 10% of US Households are food insecure. You walk past people everyday without knowing that are struggling with food insecurity. One in eight children struggle with food insecurity daily, not always being guaranteed a hot meal at that age can have profound effects on their mental health. They become less social for the worry of people bullying them over it and their academic performance tanks as well. This is not a rare issue,13.1 million children around the world are food insecure. Moms and women coming from all different walks of life also struggle with this, 60% of people who are food insecure are women. This speaks for itself, no matter where you come from, how old you are or what you look like this issue can affect you.

One in five latino households have 1 person that is food insecure. You would expect that the least we can do is feed those in need.

Especially Veterans who come home from fighting for our Country and end up struggling from food insecurity. 27% of them in fact struggle with this. Where are the benefits? Where is the help for these soldiers?

Now this brings us to Charleston, who alone has 32 thousand + food insecure individuals living in the county. Ranging from women, children, the elderly, etc. The average meal in Charleston costs $4.25, seeing the poverty issue that exists in our community adds to the number of food insecurities people have around us.

That brings me to food waste.

40% of all food in America is being wasted. One hundred and nineteen billion pounds of food. Four hundred and eight billion dollars worth of food being thrown away.

A big contributor to this is Restaurants, they generate 22 billion pounds of food waste each year. With all 367 restaurants in Charleston throwing out an average of 50 pounds of food out daily, our community is wasting 18,350 pounds of food out every day.

I’ve had friends who have struggled with being guaranteed a hot meal at the end of each night. I’ve seen the toll it has on them and their families. I wasn't in the position to help them then. But I am now.

Solution:

I'm looking to develop and design a mobile application called pudo.

The idea behind pudo is to develop it for the restaurants and the food distribution centers. But also for the students to use. They would use pudo to help manage the safe transport of excess food waste in urban areas. We would achieve this by crowdsourcing a network of student couriers to pick up excess food waste and bring it to the food distribution centers, who get it to those who need it most.

Part of the design of this mobile app is creating a cross-functional team of undergrad students from various departments at the college. We would pull students from the computer science department to work on mobile app development. Then from the school of public health to be a subject matter expert on the issue, and work with the product team to help make this app and make it viable for all users.

What we developed it in: React native -Javascript mobile app framework Firebase - club-based data Authentication - OAuth 2.0 Api’s - Google maps

Whats Next: Register pudo as a non profit Establish advisory board Build-out pudo team SME’s on food insecurity and food waste UX design Mobile app dev Business development & marketing Conduct research on problem space Conduct UX research Determine Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Begin development on MVP