SaveAPlate

Inspiration

Food waste is a big problem in Australia. Restaurant throw out lots of food at the end of the day - which is lost revenue, wasted food and money lost. Student don't have much. money, with 3 in 5 Australian students reporting personal finances as a point of concern. The environment is suffering due to food waste, with avoidable arbon dioxide emissions contributing to global warming.

SaveAPlate aims to link struggling students with restaurants in an effort to aid students, bring attention to restaurants and save the environment.

What it does

An app that displays end-of-day food sales for students

How we built it

Problem Solution Brainstorming: Our team embarked on the journey by discussing potential problems within existing domains. After considering various issues, we identified the challenge of food waste and its impact on both students and the homeless population. Our solution was born: an app promoting end-of-day deals for students, with the profits being dedicated to helping homeless individuals.

Idea Selection: Through intensive brainstorming sessions, we explored potential problems and solutions. Our team members shared their perspectives, leading to insightful discussions. After deliberation, we collectively chose the idea of an app for end-of-day deals due to its promising potential for addressing both food waste and homelessness, SaveAPlate.

Challenges we ran into

Technical: Figma Utilization: As a team, we learned and leveraged Figma for the first time. This tool facilitated collaborative design and allowed us to create a user-friendly interface that aligned with our app's mission.

Implementation Complexity: We acknowledged that addressing the ethical challenges required a complex implementation. However, due to time constraints, we focused on using Figma for interface design, allowing us to allocate more resources to core functionalities.

Other:
Time Constraints: The hackathon's 2-day timeframe presented a major challenge. To overcome this, we strategically divided tasks, focusing on features that aligned with our core mission and could be developed within the limited time available.

Ethical and Regulatory Challenges: We confronted the complex ethical dilemma of whether restaurants should give away surplus food for free or at a cheap price, considering the risk of system exploitation. To tackle this, we limited app access to students only. However, this introduced its own set of challenges, including student verification and ensuring data privacy.

Quality Control and Health Standards: Ensuring the safety of surplus food was another hurdle. To meet health standards, a mechanism will be needed to monitor and enforce food quality. Collaborating closely with food providers also will be important to allow us to establish clear guidelines for safe and quality offerings.

Notable Features:

Our app boasts the following standout features:

Exclusive Student Access: Designed exclusively for University of Melbourne students, with potential expansion to other institutions in the future.

Reward/Credit System: Encourages students to actively reduce food waste by participating in surplus food deals, earning rewards for their engagement.

Timely Notifications: Integrated notification system ensures users are promptly informed about surplus food availability.

Map-Based Discovery: Map integration allows students to easily discover nearby surplus food deals, enhancing convenience and engagement.

Real-time Updates: Our app includes a real-time notification system to alert users about surplus food deals as soon as they become available.

What we learned

Throughout the hackathon, we gained new skills, particularly in using Figma. Our teamwork and camaraderie improved, and we honed problem-solving and innovation skills.

What's next for SaveAPlate

Enhancements: Moving forward, we plan to refine and expand our project by adding additional features and enhancements, making the app even more comprehensive.

Validation: User feedback will be crucial to validate our project's effectiveness. We intend to gather insights to drive data-driven improvements.

Deployment: Our goal is to deploy the project beyond the hackathon environment, ensuring that it reaches and positively impacts its target audience while minimizing food waste and supporting homeless individuals.

In conclusion, our journey in developing this app taught us valuable skills, presented challenges that we creatively addressed, and led us to build a solution with meaningful impact. We are excited to continue refining our project and exploring its potential beyond the hackathon.