WellFood

WellFood: Fighting a rising global problem with a local solution

A project by Jackie G, Wafa Q, Deborah W, and Carolyn W. Also an ElleHacks 2022 finalist.

See the prototype on Figma: https://www.figma.com/proto/k7awhli2KOVWhQHEh8PDLZ/Ellehacks-2022%3A-Fully-Developed---WellFood?node-id=20%3A121&scaling=scale-down&page-id=0%3A1&starting-point-node-id=20%3A121

See our submission on Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/wellfood

Inspiration

We took inspiration from food delivery services like Skip the Dishes and Doordash to provide a platform between suppliers and organizations so that those who have excess food, which would otherwise go to waste, can share it with organizations that help people who suffer with food insecurity.

If this idea were to work in reality we would need to contract drivers to pick up food from suppliers and deliver it to the organizations. We believe that charging the organizations, who have access to funds in order to carry out their current operations, would make the most sense. We would have to ensure that the fee is low enough that it makes sense for them to use the service, but enough to cover the cost of our expenses. We opted against charging the suppliers because it would be difficult to get them to alter their behavior (packing food up for a delivery rather than throwing it away) if it is also going to cost them.

Suppliers: Grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, cafes; businesses that waste food for commercial reasons

Organizations: Non-profits, food banks, charities

What it does

The website has three main functions:

To inform curious visitors about the issue of food insecurity and how dealing with food waste will help to alleviate the problem
To provide a portal for organizations to create an account, provide details on their food needs, easily calculate their cost, and provide flexibility so they can change their preferences easily to adapt to emergency situations
To provide an easy to use portal for suppliers to create an account, provide details on what they are able to donate, schedule convenient pickups, and see which organizations that they have helped, which may be helpful for tax purposes

How we built it

Prototype:

Figma

Website:

HTML
CSS (and Tailwind)
JavaScript
GitHub Pages

Challenges we ran into

We were unable to fully implement the website due to the time limit
We had to discard back-end features that we would have liked to be able to implement (ex. a user database)
We ran into some difficulties with Tailwind at the 11th hour

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a stunning and professional design for our platform
Completing a working Figma prototype
Developing a website for WellFood — Tailwind CSS was new to most of us!

What we learned

We learned the importance of designing a specific solution for a general problem
Many of us learned how to work with Tailwind CSS

What's next for WellFood

As a company WellFood would need to add both front and backend functionality for managing its drivers, as well as posting for jobs
Implementing a database to store user information
Implementing the logic and functionality to match suppliers and organizations
Implementing user account authentication and security
Implement secure payment
Further testing to integrate new features

cw118 / WellFood