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atxhack4change / 2016-project-proposals

June 3-5, 2016 @ St. Edwards University
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Project Code not Bombs - Food donations made easy #22

Open hex0punk opened 8 years ago

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):

App that connects those who can donate food to those in need with volunteers and orgs that will. Reduce food waste by donating in a safe way.

What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?

App that connects those who can donate food to those in need with volunteers and orgs that will. Reduce food waste by donating in safe way.

Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?

How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?

Primarily those affected by food insecurity. We would all benefit from less food waste as well.

Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?

According to Feeding America, 20 – 45% of the food we grow and process in the United States goes to waste. But we shouldn’t need formal statics to know this simple fact: we waste a too much food. We often tend to buy more food than we can consume before it goes bad. Grocery stores get rid of their food when “buy before” dates start approaching. Have you ever entered a grocery store late a night when employees start piling good looking food in a shopping cart and getting are ready for the dumpster (take a peak inside one if you’ll see what I mean)? Bakeries get rid of great looking bread every night, and food service business that want to claim certain high levels of freshness in their food throw away vegetables with minor imperfections. Yet, in 2014 14.8% of Americans were food insecure. With so many people hungry, why are we still wasting so much food? I think there is one very likely cause for this: it is too easy to throw food away – certainly much easier than it is to find people and/or groups and organization to donate it to. Moreover, then there are the questions: “who should you donate you excess food to anyway? And how?”

The idea is to make it (at least) almost as easy to donate food to those in need, or groups and organizations that help those in need, as it is to throw it away. You login to an application through your phone and or computer, see a list of companies that are looking for donations, their ratings, and then schedule a time for them to pick up the food. Follow up with them and see how they are making use of your donation and give them a rating. Volunteering organizations can start establishing relationships with grocery stores, restaurants, etc. via the app.

Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:

I do not have any mock ups but would love to get together with people passionate about technology and about using technology to help others help evolve this concept. I have experience doing full stack development and can work with JS, Angular, Python, Django, Swift and C#. Technology is fun, but what you can do with it is much more important!

Tell us about yourself.

What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?

Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?

Two of my biggest passions are 1) technology and 2) using technology to help others. I used to actively help groups like Food not Bombs prepare and feed the homeless in Tampa, Florida and I am currently able to help an organization deliver food to people in need. I feel extremely lucky of having been able to grow around computers, especially coming from a third world country like Venezuela. I feel strongly that if you were lucky enough to get an education of any kind that allowed you to quickly learn how to code (a magical skill!), you should try to give back to your community by making effective use of whatever skills you have.

mateoclarke commented 8 years ago

Hey @madrusec! Thanks for submitting the proposal. There was a very similar project from the 2013 Hack for Change. The team actually got to visit the White House to demo their work! I'm attaching some links for you to check out. Would you be interested in researching and connecting with some of the folks that have worked on this type of idea as a first step to brining this to the hackathon?

aristotlemanolakos commented 8 years ago

Check out: https://www.gocopia.com/ It's essentially the same sort of application you described however they only operate in the Bay Area.

georgeluc commented 8 years ago

I like it :) Great to see a mobile app doing this. Lots of companies beyond gocopia that have tried entering into this field. Good to see they are making traction in Cali.

Our weekend hack was a responsive app with twilio and crm intergration.

How can we help?

On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 3:00 PM, Aristotle Manolakos < notifications@github.com> wrote:

Check out: https://www.gocopia.com/ It's essentially the same sort of application you described. Would you be different?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/atxhack4change/2016-project-proposals/issues/22#issuecomment-219248506

George Luc Cofounder george@givepulse.com | 512.765.5145 Transforming everyone into engaged citizens Stay Connected: @givepulse | facebook.com/givepulse www.givepulse.com | http://youtu.be/p_HmJnK18lE

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail and any attachments contain information belonging to the sender which may be confidential, proprietary, legally privileged, or otherwise protected from disclosure. This information is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized agent), you are hereby notified that you have received this e-mail transmission in error and that any review, retention, disclosure, copying, dissemination, printing, saving, or any other use of, or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. E-mails exchanged with the sender may be retained and produced to others in compliance with applicable law. Nothing in this e-mail constitutes an electronic signature unless expressly stated otherwise. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify us immediately by reply e-mail to the sender and delete this copy without reading it or saving it to your system.

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

Thank you for sharing that information @mateoclarke and @aristotlemanolakos ! I will certainly look into those.

@georgeluc that sounds very interesting, I would love to learn more about it! I also have been exploring GivePulse today and I really like it, great work! How do you see an integration of the work that GivePulse does and this idea working? The main idea is to help feed hungry people and trying to follow the "think globally, act locally" principle, so any help in making an impact in Austin community would be great. For that I think it will be helpful for me to start understanding:

1) What would make it easier for business to donate their food? 2) What makes it and would make it harder for those same business to do the same?

There were times when I helped FnB Tampa when we asked for donations from some business that ultimately preferred to throw away the bread the cooked that morning, or the vegetables that they prepped before dinner time in the garbage, than donate it to us. I think there was always a doubt that, maybe because they had never heard of heard of us, that we were not going to use the food for good causes. Part of the benefit that hope that this application can bring is to make it easier for new organizations to help and be successful in their mission of feeding hungry people.That is where the "yelp/foursquare/urbanspoon for orgs that help the hungry" concept would come in.

I love mobile applications, but I think a responsive web application may be easier to use and more accessible.

I would love to talk more with you @georgeluc if you have the time, thank you for offering to help.

polunsky commented 8 years ago

Your Tampa experience may have been due to liability concerns -- once the food leaves their control, they don't know that it won't be tampered with or kept in sanitary conditions, and if someone gets sick they might think they could get sued.

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

You are right @polunsky thank you for bringing that up. I will look more into that and into how and why that would be different if a group and/or organization bought the food (without having to tell the business what they planned to use that food for) from the same place as opposed to getting it as a donation (if that would be different at all).

polunsky commented 8 years ago

Restaurants get sued all the time for food-related issues http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-biggest-fast-food-lawsuits.html . You might consult with an attorney, there might be a way through a contract that holds the restaurant harmless or something.

georgeluc commented 8 years ago

I believe the key here is the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act i.e., assuming the food is donated to a 501c3.

@madrusec i'm unsure what the goal here is but if it's to help end food insecurity and food waste. Let me know how I or @givepulse can help with answering your questions. Happy to also do intros to people in the food recovery space.

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

Thank you @georgeluc . The only goal I have with this project if to help end food insecurity and waste as you mentioned, absolutely. I will be reaching out to you very soon!

lisabarden commented 8 years ago

@madrusec - I am with Keep Austin Fed and would be happy to talk to you as well. GivePulse has been a great tool for us as we have grown.

ssharif1 commented 8 years ago

ACTION NEEDED

Hello Project Champion,

Please provide the following: Full Name + Email Address You can comment here or send to ssharif1@stedwards.edu

We are going to be sending out a note + newsletter to our 345 (as of May 18) attendees sharing our submitted projects before the event and your hackers will want to know who you are. Additionally, we have PC-specific communication that we want to make sure that you are included on.

Thanks, ATX H4C Staff

jcdwyer1 commented 8 years ago

I also have background in food waste / liability issues, happy to be a resource. You may want to check and see if one of these orgs already accomplishes your goals:

http://ampleharvest.org/ https://www.meansdatabase.com/

You may also want to check in with the local folks at https://www.auntbertha.com/, they've been working on a universal data taxonomy for social services.

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

Thank you @jcdwyer1 and @lisabarden ! I created a gist with additional details:

https://gist.github.com/madrusec/484190338f76c3b2cf78139da83d6fc0

mateoclarke commented 8 years ago

Hi @madrusec. Your project has been accepted!

Now that your project has been approved, here are some things we suggest you do next: https://github.com/atxhack4change/2016-project-proposals#once-your-project-is-accepted-here-are-some-things-we-suggest-you-do-next

Important: We still need your preferred email address and your first and last name. Could you either comment here or email those details to ssharif1@stedwards.edu. You will receive an email in the next few days asking you to confirming your speaking slot for the Saturday morning pitches.

Please let us know if you will no longer be able to champion your project at the hackathon.

hex0punk commented 8 years ago

Awesome! Thank you! Looking forward to Hack 4 Change next weekend! I just sent an email to ssharif1@stedwards.edu confirming my preferred email address.

danielhonker commented 8 years ago

@madrusec - you should have received an invite to join Slack. If you haven't already joined the team and seen the Slack channel for your project, it's #donatefood. We'll be sending out an email with details on pitches soon.