- David Cheng
- Vincent Liu
- Christine Wang
- Lauren Willis
- Elane Ye
Every day in America, 150,000 tons of food is wasted. This amounts to 1lb per person. Perfectly untouched and edible food is often taken to the landfill. But food waste isn't an issue of a lack of food- it isn't a scarcity problem, but rather a logistics problem. Given this, the ratio of food wasted to food needed does not make sense. This is where Chip comes in. With Chip, we can start a community where everyone “chips in” to fight hunger and food waste.
To address the inefficient distribution of food, Chip connects businesses (restaurants, grocery stores, farms) to the people who are food insecure. This is accomplished through a delivery service that streamlines the food donation process. Extra food, fresh produce as well as packaged foods, that would otherwise be wasted would be set aside for donation and a driver would pick it up at a pre-arranged time. They then would drop off the food at a specified location to the household or individual that requested it.
For recipients, a calendar showing which day the order will arrive, and a sidebar that allows them to view order status and history. Machine Learning to automatically screen recipient applications to avoid fraud and judge needs Track statistics (how much donated/delivered, amount of people fed) For all, a user review/rating system that allows recipients to express appreciation to the deliverer. Also can be used to report mislabeled or expired food.
Each time a donation is made, a "chip" is earned. If a certain amount of chips are earned, the participating business will be granted a Chip badge, signifying that they are an establishment that helps fight hunger and food waste. We hope that our app not only provides the means to achieve a goal, but is also an incentive program that gives everyone in the community the aspirations of fighting hunger and food waste.
There are three types of users of our app:
- Donators
- Deliverers
- Recipients
Donors provide what type of organization they are, their address, etc. From their home screen, they provide information about how much food and when it is available. They receive notifications when deliverers will arrive to pick up food.
Deliverers provide what stores they shop at, and where they’re going afterwards. The app then intelligently calculates the address that adds the least additional time to the original route, giving the driver the best route. The needs degree is also taken into account.
Finally, recipients need to fill an application to start receiving food. This is to judge their needs and filter out any potential fraudulent behavior. They are then assigned how often they can receive meals depending on their needs. From the app, recipients can request specific days for food. In the future, machine learning can be used to automatically screen applicants.
The ultimate goal of this app is too create a beneficial relationship between all three types of users: businesses, deliverers, and receivers. Hopefully we can slowly mend inequality gaps with our actions of kindness.