Feed Forward

Problem:

According to the USDA about 30-40% of the food supply in America is wasted each year, which is equivalent to disposing 80 billion pounds of food. Consumers are buying more products than they can actually eat, causing waste. While the US has the resources, such as land and varying climates, to produce more crops than other countries, reducing this food production would impose negative implications on farmers and companies. Therefore, consumers need to buy less or donate their food.

Idea:

We will create a mobile app that will incentivize reducing food waste. All packaged foods that are not fully consumed can be delivered to food shelters and scanned on the app to determine the package’s weight. The user will receive a certain amount of points based on the weight and can use them to receive coupons for various stores in the Miami area. This points based reward system will encourage more consumers to donate food leading to a reduction in waste.

Main Beneficiaries:

Currently, we are focusing on the local Miami-Dade area, but hope to expand to other areas and states in the future. Our first beneficiary would be the 300,000 people in Miami-Dade county experiencing food insecurity as they would receive the uneaten food. Our second beneficiary would be the 300 selected businesses on our app in the Miami-Dade county as they would gain more popularity and sales through the app's points based reward system .

Stage:

Execution and validation

SDG:

GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality

University:

University of Miami (USA)