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Healthcare and Life Sciences Blog
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Food Insecurity Hackathon: Tech-enabled solutions addressing food insecurity related barriers

Anshika Goyal's avatar
Anshika Goyal
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 25, 2022

Microsoft partnered with the City of Glendale, CHLA, KidsX, and verynice on a 3-day design-a-thon challenge (March 4-6) to come up with innovative and creative approaches to address the issues which impacts nearly 1.2 million homes in LA County. All these homes struggle with food insecurity due to challenges related to screening for food insecurity and enabling access to quality, healthy food tailored to children and families’ specific needs.

 

The goal of this event was to ideate upon tech-enabled solutions addressing food insecurity related barriers during this 8-hour virtual hackathon hosted on Microsoft Teams.

 

6 teams were created with up to 5 members. Each team presented their solution during the sharing session. You can find the top 2 team's solutions below along with a short video.

 

Team Meals to Go (The winning team)- 

Solution - A system of large format grocery vending machines stocked with bags of surplus and rescued food, conveniently located at school or community centers. The system is digitally interfaced through a web app for parents to locate vending machines, preview groceries, access recipes, and user's feedback. Insights from the app will be used to manage and monitor the vending machines (scheduling servicing and usage).

 

Team members: Jenna Gestetner, Laura Green, Jessica Zhang, Tracy Vuu, Eric Williams, Jr.

 

You can watch their recorded webinar Food Insecurity Webinar – Team Meals To Go 

 

Team Food Locker -

Solution - A hyper-personalized SMS mobile platform that can help guide families through the process from picking up free/reduced groceries at convenient Amazin hub location to cooking personalized meals. 

Below is the UI for registration page, which includes assistance from a chat bot to onboard users. Similarly, another chat bot is used to gather user's experience and feedback.

 

 

Team members: Edward Fu, Tiffany Billey, Maya Omori, Bryan Garcia

 

Additionally, the top two teams pitched to the City of Glendale Integrated Waste Management teams to see if their solutions can be built into the City’s strategic development plan and thus become invested in and developed.

 

If you are considering running a hackathon within your organization, check out the Hackathon Starter Kit that we have been working on to help get you started. You can also reach out to your Microsoft contact for guidance on running your own hackathon on Microsoft Teams.

 

Resources:

Run your own Hackathon - Hackathon Starter Kit 

Webinar Recording: Food Insecurity Webinar – Team Meals To Go

Meal to Go Pitch to CoG: https://youtu.be/OgX2eRicZuw

Food Locker Pitch to CoG: https://youtu.be/W4SFDApsHF8

Updated Apr 26, 2022
Version 3.0
  • AlexMahoon's avatar
    AlexMahoon
    Copper Contributor

    A Food Insecurity Hackathon brings together innovators to develop tech-driven solutions for food access challenges. Ideas can range from AI-powered distribution systems to mobile apps that connect surplus food with those in need. These solutions help reduce waste and make nutritious food more accessible to communities. Finding creative ways to improve food access is essential—just like how the Dutch Bros menu offers a variety of drinks to suit different tastes and preferences.

  • dutchbrosmenu7's avatar
    dutchbrosmenu7
    Copper Contributor

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  • oliviacooke's avatar
    oliviacooke
    Copper Contributor

    A Food Insecurity Hackathon is dedicated to crafting tech-driven solutions to tackle food insecurity issues. These innovations focus on improving the efficiency of access, affordability, and distribution of food resources. Leveraging technological advancements is crucial. By creatively solving these challenges, hackathons play a significant role in bolstering food security for all. Speaking of affordability, have you tried the Jack in the Box dollar menu? It's a delicious and affordable option, perfectly aligning with the goal of making quality food accessible to everyone. 

     

     

     

  • Jamesitali's avatar
    Jamesitali
    Copper Contributor

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  • wijeto8's avatar
    wijeto8
    Copper Contributor

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