The Potluck Campaign

Main screen
Main screen (scrolled down halfway)
Main screen (scrolled all the way down)
Donor page
Manager page
Pantry page
Client page
Sign-up page
Sign-in page

Inspiration

We were inspired to develop a website to help distribute food because members had a food bank next to the her high school, which had volunteer opportunities. She also has helped with food banks in the area through her calculus class in high school through a gingerbread house building competition where the houses were eventually donated to the local shelters. Another teammate volunteered at her local food pantry. Community involvement is important to the group. That was the catalyst for the Potluck campaign.

What it does

High calorie low nutrient foods contribute to increased risk for type two diabetes and obesity in clients. The obesity-poverty paradox describes that low income households eat more economical calories i.e. cheap high calorie, sugary foods. In the long term however this can lead to serious health complications. One source of calories for clients are food pantries. The role of Potluck is to facilitated better distribution of healthy calories. It achieves this by acting as a website that allows pantries to communicate among themselves and distribute low calorie, high nutrient foods from areas of high concentration to pantries with less or no low calorie options.

How we built it

Our stakeholders have different roles on the platform such as viewing catalog of pantries, accessing distributive software for tracking inventories, and facilitating donations to food banks. Technologies were used to increase accessibility and empowerment in this industry. The web development tools were CSS styling JavaFX scene builder (for creative front-end and back-end development). Figma was utilized to develop an innovative website design and provide a compelling website. Figma efficiently enhances process-centric action items a visual stockholder flow in an innovative collaborative approach.

Challenges we ran into

Multiple small bugs with code and Figma were resolved with Trial and error. Issues with back-end compiling to interact the front-end of the web development, so were temporarily substituted interactive site with Figma designs. Difficulties with JavaFX to work due to lots of dependencies as it was our first time working with it, but we watched YouTube videos and worked to overcome issues. Connecting HTML to our purchased Domain.com was another problem as no free hosting ability, so we switched to a GitHub site.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very confident with our idea because of the efforts placed into each aspect. Our website utilizes front-end and back-end development with various technologies. The Figma page has very detailed illustrations of the ideal final website. But most importantly, we are very proud of the amount of dedication each team member has put into this project over the last 24+ hours through idea generation and the actual implementation.

What we learned

We learned about website design using tools such as Figma. JavaFX led us to learn about making scenes interactive with HTML for web development. Microsoft VS Code was another tool utilized for collaborative work on the website through HTML, CSS, and JS. As a first hackathon for majority of the team, we learned the essential skills of teamwork, collaboration, communication, and discussion.

What's next for The Potluck Campaign

We would like to see its implementation on the local level after we’ve made some modifications. Adding more interactive pieces such as using EchoAR for modeling inventories and locations on a map to indicate the pantries. We envision this project as a very feasible one due to its relatively easy implementation. There are great real-world needs since food scarcity statistics are highly concerning.