FoodList was created for the purposes of the 24-hour-long virtual hackathon, OpenHacks 2020. Recently, COVID-19 has been on everyone's minds. For a lucky few, life goes on relatively the same. For most, however, they are now battling new challenges like how to pay rent, what to do if they are unemployed, how to get their next meal, etc. This global pandemic has raised so many different types of challenges, as well as solutions. My team wanted to contribute to solving one of the issues created or aggravated by this pandemic. Because we are no healthcare experts, we decided to find a way to connect people who can help with people who need help. We focused on the issue of a possible food pandemic caused by COVID-19. Millions already experience hunger or financial difficulties getting food daily, and this will only become worse as the world feels the effects of COVID-19.
Our platform, FoodList, connects food banks, soup kitchens, charities, and anyone with spare food, with those in need of food. Users who have food to donate can create posts advertising their food items, and these will be viewed by those looking for food. The posts shown to each user are based on the location of the user, in order to make the exchange of food practical. Interested users can message the poster through our website to ask questions or discuss food exchange details. The food exchange will be done according to how both giver and receiver want it, whether that be by delivery or pick-up at a certain location. Either way, these will be no-contact exchanges in order to comply with anti-COVID-19 precautions.
We learned that there are many ways to help during this pandemic, not just by combating the disease directly, but also through helping social and welfare issues brought up during this time. We also learnt that it's hard work designing and implementing a website in a short time!
As our developer skills improve, we are looking to upgrade the HTML/CSS design of the website, connect the front-end to the back-end, and publish a fully-functioning, responsive website.