#268 Meal.ly - Solving food waste and starvation
People are unable to access or afford food for themselves or their families. At the same time, food that is expired or unable to be sold in restaurants and stores for various reasons is trashed and thus wasted.
Champion Name
Meghan Butler
Location
City-wide
Timeline
Sep 20, 2021
Today
Sep 26, 2019
Created
Why it matters
Food is not evenly distributed in the United States. As much as 40% of US food is never eaten while one in eight Americans experience food insecurity (Source: https://www.nrdc.org/issues/food-waste).
What does "good" look like?
Families are able to eat without worry, and food waste is reduced.
How could technology solve this?
A team at HopHacks 2019 fall hackathon created an app to "[match] excess food with people that need it." Participating restaurants or stores would scan images of available food at the end of each day, and users in need would be alerted before the store closes (Source: https://devpost.com/software/meal-lly).