pop up

Connecting foodies with the meals & people that remind them of home. Popup calls upon the age-old tradition of sharing a meal to foster the organic human connections that make us feel "full".

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Inspiration

Sharing a meal with others has always been a powerful mode of connecting people together, transcending historically divisive cultural and social constructs. Digging deep into “the making of a meal” is what served as our food for thought.

In a rapidly accelerating digital world, loneliness has become an epidemic across all demographics, resulting in a widespread deterioration of mental wellbeing. The rise of food-delivery services has only exacerbated this epidemic and has led to the loss of the memories that remind us of what a meal means. Popup aims to reverse the psyche of food-delivery services and address this systemic issue of wellbeing through drawing upon our own lived experiences with the meaning of a meal.

Cooking for others is a love language that has represented a form of cross-generational communication, especially in multilingual families. Eating a warm, home-cooked meal brings us closer to our roots. And sharing meals with others gives us a safe place to share pieces of ourselves with the world. We realize that a true meal is much more than food on a plate; it is the heart that goes into preparing the meal, and the comfort of belonging alongside new and familiar faces alike that makes us feel full at the end of a meal. It is this inextricable link between cooking, eating, and sharing that Popup’s web application fosters.

Through connecting home chefs, who find joy in sharing their recipes, with foodies, who crave the warmth of a home-cooked meal, in communal spaces for gathering, we hope that people can build organic relationships that make them feel whole.

What it does

Popup hosts a two-sided market of chefs (home chefs, food trucks, family-owned restaurants) and foodies (anyone who is looking to eat hearty meals with others!). On the foodie end, users can browse through a recommended feed of food gatherings, including Home-Cooked communal meals, food truck events, and restaurant tastings/exhibitions (with greatest emphasis on home-cooked items per our product vision). Users can also view which of their friends are attending each event. If interested in an event, a user can reserve a meal/seat through our app, order, and pay ahead of time. Once a user has confirmed their order, a personalized user QR code will appear in “My Events” which will ultimately be scanned by the food vendor to confirm receipt of the meal. On the day of food pickup, users can track the status of the food delivery, meet the chef at the designated pickup location, and have the opportunity to enjoy the meal alongside new peers! We hope to build out a “compliments to the chef” feature which allows users to post pictures and comments about their experiences sharing food with others.

On the chef’s end, chefs can create new listings based on the specialty home-cooked items they want to sell. The chef will designate the date, time, and location of meal sharing as well as the food options with their prices and maximum quantities willing to be sold. Popup helps chefs find the best location for communal food sharing through considering the chef’s home location, interested users’ home locations, and AI-recommendations. Chefs can view and manage the upcoming orders they need to fulfill and scan foodie QR codes to confirm pickup.

Furthermore, Popup offers a win-win-win opportunity since chefs get to spend less time preparing the meals since they have a fixed delivery point, customers get to know exactly when and where their order arrives in addition to being more cost-effective, and drivers get to make fewer trips and waste less fuel.

Lastly, both foodies and chefs have the ability to add friends and join communities! Communities are especially powerful for groups with dietary restrictions, including religious, health, and preference-related foods! Many of these groups actively need and seek support and solidarity, and community-based meal sharing is a great way to fulfill this need.

From the abuela who wants to cook and share tamales with fellow elderly in the neighborhood for Christmas…

to Confused Casey who is seeking help finding diabetic-friendly foods for her husband…

pop up has the perfect community-based food gathering for you!

How we built it

We built popup using React for our frontend, Convex for our backend (logs, functions, preview deployments, type safety!), Tailwind CSS for styling, Github for collaboration, Figma for UI and logo design, the user stories of friends and family for idea inspiration, and the feedback of many mentors, and sponsors!

Challenges we ran into

We had lofty ideas, many being too lofty! Initially, we struggled to find balance between what we wanted to implement versus what we had the ability to accomplish in 36 hours. Once we collected user stories and narrowed down on a problem space, we were also challenged by finding a non-existent idea that directly solved the problem of systemic loneliness. Beyond ideation, we also spent many hours debugging using the documentation of Convex and React. As Neo, David, and Ronit flew in from out-of-state, we wanted to explore as many treehacks opportunities as possible, but we had trouble attending all of the workshops we wanted while also completing our hack. Overall, we sometimes struggled to find balance amidst the hectic, yet exciting environment of treehacks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It is Abbie, David, and Ronit’s FIRST-EVER hackathon! And it was also our first time working together as a team! With respect to ideation, we are proud of our user-centric approach to finding a real need in the space of food and wellbeing. On the technical side, we all learned to use Convex and React for the first time. Lastly, from bitcoin workshops to genAI demonstrations, we all interacted with brand-new topics and technologies which allowed us to explore new applications of technology in our early careers (and grow closer as friends!).

What we learned

Abbie is a rookie to both hackathons and CS, so popup is her first exposure to frontend and backend outside of the classroom! She learned how to translate her designs in Figma to React components/pages. David and Ronit tag-teamed to boldly venture beyond their scope of familiarity in backend and learn how to tackle front end challenges. And Neo was an all-star player who took on a leadership role by mentoring the team with this experience in both front and backend. Lastly, we all learned more about ourselves and our identities in technology- the things that excite us, the things that confuse us, the things that allow us to thrive in teams, and the things that drive us to continue making an impact.

What's next for pop up

There is so much that we still hope to do with popup!

Implementing a real AI recommendation engine for suggesting the most optimal communal gathering spaces for chefs.

Building out the “compliments to the chef” feature which will mimic the BeReal model of posting fun pictures in-action

A fully integrated payment system with Stripe so pop up can be an end-to-end “side-gig” opportunity for home chefs

A dynamic feed that uses a user’s community information and past events attended to recommend a personalized suite of food events

…perhaps treehacks 2025 will be the place to take pop up to the next level! :)

https://github.com/nwatx/treehacks-2024

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