Hunger Fighting Phone App

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FlashFood is a food recovery network, powered by social media, that feeds the hungry by collecting excess food from restaurants, caterers, and conventions, and delivering it to nearby community centers.

Standings & Awards

7 out of 422 in North America
2 out of 94 in Food & Nutrition
20 out of 935 in Design
18 out of 1066 in Blended
51 out of 4003 Overall

29

VOTES

FlashFood

By recovering excess food, FlashFood reduces food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste.

One in five children in America goes to bed hungry every night, and FlashFood's home state of Arizona has the third highest rate of child food insecurity in America. Yet one 40% of all food in the U.S. is wasted. By connecting local caterers, restaurants, and grocers with food collection agencies and hungry Americans, the FlashFood app will reduce food waste and feed the hungry like never before.

The Innovation

The FlashFood mobile application leverages the power of instant communication to bridge the gaps between food service vendors, community organizations, and the hungry. If a vendor has excess food, he or she can instantly tell a local community organization that they wish to donate it. That organization can then 1) coordinate pick up of the food and 2) alert food recipients of an upcoming donation at a nearby community center.

The Donors

The primary application users will be food collection agencies and donors including caterers, conference venues, restaurants, and grocers; each will be able to create an individual profile with distinct capabilities. Prior to an event, an event manager can post a notification of excess food on a digital calendar. An agency will agree to be “on call” for the night and takes responsibility for picking up any donations. The app will automatically provide the driver with the route to the venue, further simplifying the process of food recovery.

The Recipients

FlashFood also instantly connects agencies with the people they serve. Once the agency knows how much food is being donated, it can instantly send out a text message alert to a specific number of community members who live in food insecurity. Randomization of telephone numbers and demand prediction technologies will be used to efficiently provide the most food to the most people. The venue will utilize the app to confirm that the pick-up has been made and that food is on the way. This simple, user-friendly app automates this complicated process by streamlining communication.

Our app can recover food in any community by connecting agencies and donors, while automating the scheduling process and reaching even more people in need. Phoenix is home to the world’s first food bank, and now it is home to the world’s first mobile application dedicated to food recovery.

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Food rescue mostly requires large donations scheduled days in advance. However, businesses don’t always know when they will have extra food. FlashFood uses geospatial location technology, an adaptive algorithm, and real time information transfer to optimize the time and resources involved in food recovery. These automated tools match food donors to their nearest community center, enabling rapid recovery of smaller, unexpected batches of food, feeding more people in less time.

2. Who gains the most?

Every participating stakeholder will benefit from using FlashFood. Nonprofit community centers will be able to better carry out their purpose by expanding their impact in their communities. Donating businesses will be able to easily and safely help others, while reducing taxes substantially through enhanced deductions for donated food. Most importantly, those struggling with hunger will receive increased support.

3. Who pays?

FlashFood pays for the technology, development, and hosting of our site and app. These costs will be covered by advertising on the application and our website, and donating businesses will have the option to pay a small monthly fee for added donation tracking software to help with their tax deductions. Most development and design has been completed by FlashFood founders, which has kept and will continue to keep maintenance costs low.

4. What is your success?

Our success will be measured by how effectively we help businesses and nonprofits collaborate to reduce food waste and feed the hungry. Our most important metrics will be the amount of meals served weekly, the monetary value of recovered food, and pounds of food recovered. Our goal is for FlashFood to be regularly used by businesses and nonprofits across the world, regardless of their location, and to be financially sustainable through advertising and premium app version sales to food donors.

5. How will you do it?

As FlashFood was champion of the 2012 USA Microsoft Imagine Cup, our app has been initially completed on the Windows Phone operating system. Before release on the Windows app marketplace, we will conduct several pilot food recovery runs with Phoenix businesses to refine the application. After these pilot runs, we will release the app on the Windows phone app market and our website, and will develop the app for Android and iOS platforms.