food sharing made easy
Hey! Straight up, we are reducing food waste and addressing hunger! Currently, Second Harvest is dedicating most of its limited resources to handling large-scale donation deliveries. One supplier noticed that Second Harvest sometimes isn’t able to collect their donations because they simply have too many orders. As you can imagine, the rescue of small scale donations gets left behind. Yet, Second Harvest notes that the need for what they do is growing every year. What if we could find a way to include those small-scale donors and connect them directly with agencies who rely on food donations?
This is where we come in! We designed a multi-platform solution enabling nonprofit agencies to rescue surplus food from small scale donors with the tap of a button and making it easily accessible for those experiencing hunger. The platform will be a simple, easy-to-use web-based monitoring interface for related nonprofits and Second Harvest. This interface will work together with iOS and Android mobile apps for donors, drivers and diners. Once this system is tested on a local scale, it can gradually be scaled to a super operation to reduce food waste and address hunger on a national level; the first of it’s kind!
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FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
Why FEEDBACK? Our solution is called feedback for Second Harvest. The concept of feedback is taking something that already exists and building upon it — creating a continuous cycle of change and improvement. We see this as an amazing model for changing the perception and how food is donated and accessed. Giving and receiving healthy food should be simple and rewarding, making everyone involved happy.
Donor’s view
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FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
Diner’s view
Nonprofit agency’s view 4
FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
Our Insights Some small-scale donors include specialty food retailers, restaurants, smaller catering companies and weekly home produce delivery operations whose potential donations get lost in the fold of Second Harvest’s current framework. These operations are faced with the problem of dealing with surplus food. When donations can’t be facilitated, their surplus food ends up in compost or landfills, while those experiencing hunger face barriers to accessing affordable healthy food in the first place. The fastest way to connect these potential donors with time-sensitive items like fresh surplus food is through making instant connections using smartphones.
Second Harvest
Platform owner Players Attributes
Donors < 100 kg
Drivers
Nonprofit Agencies Distributors
Diners/Shoppers Low-income Families
Device
Example
Wealthsimple (ish)
UberEATS (ish)
Stripe (ish)
Zomato (ish)
We suggest to roll out a mobile app at the soft launch stage that will work together with the web platform, since over 68% Canadians own a smartphone. A mobile application will make donating food as easy as a tap of a button, and therefore possible from anywhere. Small-scale businesses who wish to donate surplus food will have employees with smartphones. The integration of the app and the web-based platform will make the communication between small-scale donors and agencies instantaneous, streamlining the exchange of healthy food donations and broker donation transportation (think of it as Uber for summoning food donations).
Aligning feedback goals, technically speaking... Donor Reducing their contribution to food waste while making an investment in their community Nonprofit Agency Acquiring nutrient-rich food donations and making it accessible to those experiencing hunger Recipient Being able to easily access healthy affordable food Second Harvest Overseeing the operations of vetted agencies rescuing surplus food and feeding those experiencing hunger 5
FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
Functionality
Donor
Driver
Nonprofit agencies
Diner
Likely in mid to high income bracket
Likely to access the platform on the go
Likely to access the platform using a desktop or laptop in an office style environment
Likely in the mid to low income bracket using more affordable devices
CORE FEATURES • Drivers, donors and nonprofit agencies will be synced using feedback and the information of their activities will be accessible in real-time. • Donors will be able to donate their surplus food conveniently through the app. • Drivers will be able to use the mapping system to see where the food is and where it needs to go. They will also be able to communicate with donors and agencies through the app. • Nonprofit agencies will be able to track their inventory as well as the flow of incoming and outgoing food. • Diners will be able to locate and view food available at a nearby agency through the app.
SUPPORTING FEATURES • An internal instant messaging system between donors, drivers and agencies to arrange food exchanges. • Google maps integration will allow the donors, drivers, diners, and agencies to see their respective locations around them. • Home screen (feed) with information about available donations to agencies, and what donations agencies are looking for. • Web-based interface for nonprofit agencies and Second Harvest to monitor the donation processes.
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FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
The Dream Team We propose to work with MetaLab, a Canadian design firm that specializes in creating beautiful, fun and engaging products that people love to use. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve created marketplace products that connect people, like the widely popular Slack, a communication platform for teams that makes working together easy and fun. Their design philosophy is in alignment with our goal to make feedback a simple interface that people love to use, which would make donating and accessing food easy and rewarding! They created and are still working with Walmart ecommerce solutions.
Second Harvest Hunger Squad drivers using an Uber-style pick up platform In app real-time messaging
Roadmap to the Future! This operation will be piloted locally in Toronto and will gradually be scaled up by expanding the operational radius of donors and nonprofit agencies, which ultimately will become a nation-wide platform dedicated to diverting food waste and addressing hunger. As we scale up, additional features will be implemented at each stage, always moving forward while growing. We couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ignore the largest statistic staring at us in the face. Who really typically wastes the most food? Our research showed that individuals were the single largest contributor to food waste along the Food Value Chain. Every year, individuals collectively throw away approximately $14.6 billion worth of food that they intended to consume. Most of this waste is unused fresh produce and items close to their expiry date.
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FOOD + DIALOGUE = FEEDBACK
We propose to include individual consumers as a part of the category of smallscale donors that could be connected directly with an agency in need of food donations. Our roadmap could eventually provide individual consumers the ability to donate surplus food, they could earn donation ratings from vetted agencies based on the quality of their donations (similar to a hosst rating on Airbnb, or a driver rating on Uber). We are confident that our product will augment Second Harvestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food rescue operations and make small-scale donors part of a large-scale solution to reduce food waste and address hunger. We will generate continuous dialogue and facilitate ongoing food rescue using the power of feedback!
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