Restaurants, cafes, and hotels across the world need help with food management systems. The food market is dynamic, and several factors lead to food wastage. These factors are often beyond the control of the management of the eateries since the demand for food cannot be predicted by the events of the previous day. The development of mobile applications can help in solving the food management problem, according to de Almeida Oroski (2020). The sharp rise in food wastage calls for the need to effectively manage the food wasted when customers fail to eat what had been prepared. One of the interventions is to have a charity program whereby the leftovers will be given to the less fortunate in the community or the staff of the eatery. University students have always been one of the unfortunate lot when it comes to feeding; since it is based on pay-as-you-eat, some tend to go without food, making their concentration impaired. This paper presents the “Helping Hands Food App,” an online based platform that will ensure all the leftovers in a restaurant are donated through a managed system to the most deserving members of society. This report highlights the motivation behind the development of the application, which would see the seamless donation of food leftovers and the eateries, and it would provide a scheme whereby only the deserving and less fortunate can benefit from the program. The product is described as the most effective means of food donation to various organizations and individuals in society in a bid to reduce food wastage while at the same time reaching the less fortunate and impacting their lives positively. Feeding hungry university students, for instance, is a way through which humanity can be shown to the starving population while using the developed applications (Frank et al., 2021).
Residential areas, recreational facilities, and hospitality establishments often need help with the management of food leftovers. The streets, landfills, and garbage bins are proof that food management is an issue, and it is resulting in a number of problems. Pollution in all its forms is one major problem associated with unmanaged food leftovers. A quick change in lifestyles and habits is one of the reasons that lead to the wastage of food. Food wastage is an indication of hunger and pollution since the food that might have been used to feed the population generation and avoid pollution. The mobile application, “Helping Hands Food App,” will be integral in the identification of the vulnerable in society and will recommend various subscribers, who will mainly be owners of eateries and should be given food products. Through this initiative, those who live in the streets, children’s homes, and homes for the elderly stand to benefit a great deal.
The majority of households, eateries, and other institutions need to realize how much food they throw away. Food thrown away could be in the form of spoiled food products and uneaten leftovers. The reason for the disposal of food substances and leftovers could be brought by the lack of a platform where someone can display the food materials they no longer use and a deserving person can be gifted the item. It is for this reason that the application “Helping Hands Food App” has been developed. The mobile application will have an interface where organizations and individuals can place their available food items and leftovers while another organization or individual in need places an order of the items they require to satisfy their needs. If a request matches an available offer, then the individual or organization can be contacted and offered the available food item to help them address their need. The current generation uses smartphones, and every household can access a smartphone; those who are in a position to donate food items will then have it easy since they will have to share what they have on the platform as they await a deserving person to be given the item.
The waste of food is a common practice in today’s society. The objective of this report is to analyze food management systems and offer a solution through which environmental and economic sustainability will be achieved. The solution is a developed mobile application that is accessible to all smartphone users. It will have an interface for donors to showcase what they have and for recipients to request what they need. When an organization requests food items that have been offered by one of the donors, they can be considered going by the need they are to address by the mentioned deficit. The application will allow users to sign up, log in, view items, add items, remove an item, and log out. Firebase storage and real-time databases will inform users of the application.
In the proposed system of food waste reduction using the application, various stakeholders will be involved at different stages of food distribution and collection. According to Haas et al. (2022), management of leftover food items can be seamless with the use of developed mobile applications. Agents will be stationed near major eateries; after a food joint has placed their intention to donate food items or leftovers, an administrator will walk to their nearest agent and pick up the food items. The admins will then be responsible for the redistribution of the food items and leftovers according to the needs of the nearby organizations and individuals. The application that aims to do away with the waste of food and increase social interactions through donations will be of great help to society since it will solve a lot of problems. Through donations of food items to the less fortunate, the food is put to good use and never wasted. Frank (2022) highlights the importance of food donation, whereby university students are given free food when there are leftovers. This helps in food management while at the same time feeding the starving university population. The donations improve the well-being of the individuals by assisting them to evade hunger. Finally, donations of leftovers reduce pollution resulting from the disposal of spoiled food items and leftovers.
In conclusion, the increasing amount of food wastage resulting from leftovers and spoiled unused food items can be mitigated through the application developed. The application is designed to connect seekers and donors in an attempt to reduce the quantity of food that is disposed of since there is no one to consume the leftovers. According to Massari et al. (2021), there is a need to reduce food wastage to zero since the effects of the disposal of food and waste have impacts on the well-being of the environment. Through the application, the less fortunate in society can be fed while at the same time, the menace of pollution through disposed foodstuff is controlled.
References
de Almeida Oroski, F., 2020. Exploring food waste reducing apps—a business model lens. Food Waste Management: Solving the Wicked Problem, pp.367-387.
Frank, L.B., 2022. “Free food on campus!”: Using instructional technology to reduce university food waste and student food insecurity. Journal of American College Health, 70(7), pp.1959-1963.
Frank, L.B., Finkbinder, E.M. and Powell, V.S., 2021. “Free food on campus!”: a novel use of instructional technology to reduce university food waste and feed hungry students. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 16(5), pp.706-724.
Haas, R., Aşan, H., Doğan, O., Michalek, C.R., Karaca Akkan, Ö. and Bulut, Z.A., 2022. I am designing and implementing the MySusCof app, a mobile app that supports food waste reduction—foods, 11(15), p.2222.
Massari, S., Antonelli, M., Principato, L. and Pratesi, C.A., 2021. Design Thinking to engage consumers in achieving zero waste food experiences: The CEASE framework. Design Thinking for Food Well-Being: The Art of Designing Innovative Food Experiences, pp.247-260.
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