Meal Matchmakers

Inspiration

We've taken on the mission of conquering two vital challenges within our community. Firstly, we're tackling the scarcity of donors by engaging parents who are already nurturing their own kids. Their empathy for hungry children in our neighbourhood drives meaningful donations.

But that's not all - we're revolutionizing the way we collect and deliver food. By keeping donations local within the vibrant Waterloo region, our innovative matching algorithm links families with shared dietary needs in close proximity. The result? A reduction in delivery time and volunteer effort, and a boost to our community's well-being.

What it does

Our matching and sponsorship program operates through a multifaceted approach. It begins with a dedicated teacher portal, which equips educators with valuable resources to identify children in need of donations and a user-friendly form to sign up these children for the program. The portal also offers management resources, simplifying the reporting of any issues and ensuring the efficient maintenance of the program. As part of the process, there is a participation form and data collection questionnaire, helping us gather essential information about the recipients. The heart of the system lies in the algorithm we've designed to match donor and recipient families, ensuring that the support reaches those who need it most effectively. We've also developed a script to automate the initial match email notifications and provide a structured approach for sending weekly emails containing grocery lists for the donation packages. This comprehensive solution streamlines the entire process, making it easy for donors, recipients, and educators to participate and contribute to the well-being of children in need.

How we built it

The technical background of our solution is rooted in a combination of tools and technologies to allow for seamless integration into the existing food4kids operation. We designed the teacher portal using Figma as a prototype, with plans to build it using a front-end framework like React. This allows for a user-friendly and interactive interface that can seamlessly handle user interactions. On the backend, we utilize a framework such as Flask to manage the interactions between users and the database, ensuring efficient data handling and storage.

For data collection, we employed Google Forms, providing parents with an easily accessible and user-friendly platform. This choice allows for the effortless conversion of collected data into CSV format, which can be seamlessly integrated into our algorithm. The algorithm itself is developed using Python, supported by libraries like Pandas and NumPy, which are excellent for data manipulation and parsing. It utilizes a min-max type algorithm, considering defined factors to facilitate the best possible match between donors and recipients.

To complete the process, we've implemented two distinct scripts. The first handles the sending of initial match emails, notifying donors and recipients of their match. The second script is responsible for sending weekly instructional emails to matched donors, including grocery lists for donation packages. These scripts automate communication, ensuring a smooth and consistent flow of information to participants in the program. Overall, our technical approach leverages a combination of front-end and back-end technologies, data collection tools, and algorithmic calculations to create a streamlined and effective matching and sponsorship program.

Challenges we ran into

Developing a concept to combat childhood hunger was a difficult process, as there is a multitude of pressing issues to address. One of the largest challenges we encountered was the need to narrow our focus amid a myriad of interconnected issues. We grappled with the dilemma of whether to address food insecurity at its source by advocating for policy changes, or to concentrate our efforts on direct, immediate assistance through food distribution programs. Identifying the most pressing problems required research and an understanding of the unique challenges faced by the communities we aimed to serve. Furthermore, we had to ensure that our approach was sustainable and scalable, capable of making a lasting impact while staying responsive to the evolving dynamics of childhood hunger.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our proudest achievements during this journey was the successful development of a matching algorithm. This algorithm was designed to consider a wide array of factors, ranging from geographical proximity and dietary restrictions to individual family dynamics, to match children in need with donor families effectively. In a relatively short timeframe, our team harnessed its collective creativity and exemplified outstanding teamwork to bring this intricate solution to life. It stands as a testament to our commitment, innovation, and collaborative spirit.

What we learned

Throughout this process, we gained invaluable insights into the nature of childhood hunger in our community, even when it may not be immediately apparent to us. We discovered that this issue often remains hidden beneath the surface, affecting countless families who silently grapple with food insecurity. Our journey also taught us crucial lessons in rapid prototyping. We honed our ability to swiftly generate innovative ideas and then prototype them to the highest fidelity possible within tight timeframes. This iterative approach allowed us to test and refine our solutions rapidly, adapting to new information and insights as we delved deeper into the complexities of the problem statement.

What's next for Meal Matchmakers

Our next steps are crucial to the realization of the project. Building upon the foundation of our Figma prototype, our immediate goal is to translate it into a functional, user-friendly platform with both front-end and back-end development. This will enable us to turn our concept into a tangible solution that can efficiently connect children in need with donor families. Simultaneously, we would initiate community outreach efforts, aiming to introduce and implement our program in schools across Waterloo. By collaborating with educators, parents, and local authorities, the hope would be to extend the reach of food4kids and support more children in need within the community.

Built With

• csv
• figma
• google-form
• mimemultipart
• numpy
• pandas
• powerpoint
• python
• smtplib