The app will solve the inefficiencies in the food bank supply chain. It will increase the volume of food in the supply chain by reducing the response time between customers -Feeding Texas (Austin) and its 21 Food Banks, in ordering and coordinating the delivery of produce. The food insecure people in Austin will have access to more nutritious food because the produce will be moved quickly (3 days in advance), meaning produce can be saved from food loss (produce unfit for consumption) and food from losing its nutritional value, since each day that passes by, the produce loses its nutritional value.
The app will save Feeding Texas (Austin) and Central Texas Food Banks (Austin) and its agencies increase the volume of produce and supply provide food insecure people in Austin with more nutritious produce, leading to a reduction in malnutrition and towards Zero Hunger in Austin.
With the current system, it takes 7-8 days for the produce from the date of availability to reach food insecure people. And because there is no streamlined ordering mechanism (currently used - Email, Phone, Text), more than 40% of the produce being delivered to the food banks is expired and unfit for consumption.
With Feeding Express app, it will only take 4 days for the produce to get delivered, 4 days in advance and food will have good nutritional value. This app will also save 130 days worth of time for Feeding Texas employees who coordinate 6 million pounds of produce per month / 142 trucks, making them more effective and efficient in their mission towards a hunger free Texas.
Most of the food bank representatives who order produce are constantly on the move and this app will enable them to order produce in just 4 clicks making it convenient and easy to use.
Feeding Express app will change the way Food Banks and Feeding Texas operate, making them more effective and efficient to serve people than the current system which uses - Emails, Phone calls, Text messages. It is a simple design and user-friendly interface, which will increase visibility and help in broadcasting produce availability. Instead of taking 2 days to order produce by food banks, the app would help them create an order in 2 min, because of the internet technology that is available freely.
1. I am Nitin Vignesh Bati. I am a Masters student - Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. I currently work as a management consultant with the Central Texas Food Bank, Austin, currently working on their Warehouse improvement.
2. Victor Rojas - Victor is the Founder and Senior Developer for JustLegal (
https://justlegal.com), an online marketplace for attorneys, empowering clients and attorney's to connect online. Victor works at the Capital Factory, Austin.
3. Rathnavel Sankaralingam - Rathnavel works as a Graphics Software Engineer with FoVI3D (Start-up) in Austin. FoVI 3D creates collaborative holographic light-field display (LFD) tables.
This app will directly impact the food insecure and homeless society by providing them with food with good nutritional value since the app will move the produce quickly become the produce gets expired. Healthy and more nutritious food will help the children concentrate on their education and learning which is very important for the development of community, city and the country.
Building the app and web application. The prototype / mock up was already finalized after reviews from Feeding Texas and Food Banks.
