EcoNom-y

meal planner

Inspiration

Nearly 20% of all the food produced in Canada becomes avoidable food waste; that's 11 million tons!! With all this food going to waste means family also throw away thousands of dollars buying groceries that they won't use or forget about in the back of their fridges. With EcoNom-y, we wanted to address this issue and start help our users to keep their wallets filled and keep perfectly edible food away from the landfills.

What it does

EcoNom-y is a smart solution designed to help families optimize their meal planning and reduce food waste. After each meal, users provide feedback on their satisfaction level, allowing EcoNom-y to accurately gauge how much food is truly needed. By analyzing this data, EcoNom-y fine-tunes ingredient quantities for future meals, ensuring that each dish is perfectly portioned to satisfy everyone and minimize leftovers.

EcoNom-y also takes the hassle out of shopping by generating a tailored grocery list based on your planned meals. It focuses on what you genuinely need, helping you avoid impulse buys and stay within budget.

Challenges we ran into

With another hackathon comes another opportunity for learning. We expeirenced difficulties simultaneously learning many new technologies and staying focused on building a presentable end product. Throughout our time at Terrahacks, we developed fond memories of Google Gemini, Git, Streamlit, Supabase, VS Code Liveshare, and the varying operating systems our team used. Additionally, our team generated a number of potential features to be implement and it was tasking to implement as many as we could. However, at the end of the day, isn't this what a hackathon is met to be? I can confidently say that this is a worthwhile experience and would definitely participate again!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We take pride in incorporating the knowledge we obtained during this short period and utilizing it to build a prototype of our ideas. By offering guidance to families when deciding how much food to buy and cook, we believe that we will make a significant impact on their food waste and overspending. Furthermore, navigating technical and organizational challenges has fortified our teamwork and enhanced our problem-solving abilities.

What we learned

Working on EcoNom-y has allowed us to develop proficiency with various Python libraries and advanced AI tools, including Streamlit and Google Gemini. This experience has also strengthened our collaboration and problem-solving skills as we navigated and resolved complex challenges. Overall, it has been a valuable journey, expanding our expertise in both food waste management and programming.

What's next for EcoNom-y

Elevating our tool to a whole new level by integrating it with smart fridges. By leveraging the front camera on these fridges, we’ll effortlessly capture and manage your ingredients with a greater degree of accuracy and confidence
Transitioning our web platform into a mobile app will enhanced accessibility and convivence for our user base
Introducing a new data visualization feature, offering families more insights into their eating history and trends