Purdue University Free Food

Example Poster
Example Post
Mobile View
Desktop View
Example Posting Screen

Inspiration

Our idea originated when we saw the organization of a certain free food group chat on GroupMe. Unfortunately, because it has 2,000 members, the information quickly becomes cluttered or buried among the chatter. PUFF can be the solution to that.

What it does

Purdue University Free Food (PUFF) is a website that compiles a list of events with free food on Purdue’s campus. The events are sorted by most recent and contain useful information such as start time, end time, what food is offered, event location, and a BoilerLink url.

How we built it

We built this using Firebase RealTime Database, Firebase Hosting, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. For collaboration, we used GitHub and Syncfiddle.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge we ran into was the front-end development. None of us are very familiar with front-end development, so we had to do a lot of research and testing. There was even a half hour period where we couldn't figure out why our hamburger menu was blue (we had turned it into a hyperlink).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of coming together to work on something that can improve the community of Purdue University. We hope that we can continue to work on this project and implement it among students.

What we learned

We learned a lot about web development, especially the front-end side. For some of us, this includes learning new languages entirely, while for others it means learning how to apply our knowledge to a real-world application. We also learned how to collaborate, communicate, and work together as a team. At the beginning, there was a lot of waiting around for someone else to finish, but we quickly learned how to better divide up work.

What's next for Purdue University Free Food

Some future plans include a bookmark feature, a filter option, a search option, and extra information on event posts, such as if an event has special requirements. We also plan on making mobile apps on Android and iOS that can send users notifications when a new event is approaching.