Essentials | Devpost

Inspiration

After watching videos online about how retail workers tend to throw out mountains of excess food each day, we wanted to find a way to use these goods towards something non-wasteful. According to studies, "US restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste each year. Institutions — including schools, hotels and hospitals — generate an additional 7 to 11 billion pounds per year." This can also be applied to other businesses that sell essentials such as clothes: “A lot of the clothing waste comes from manufacturers--13 million tons of textiles each year-- and from clothing retailers themselves.” Even with these excess resources, food insecurity is still a major problem. Our app addresses these problems by connecting them directly.

What it does

Businesses can sign-up and post listings of the extra items they have leftover at the end of the day. Individuals in need can see these listings and request to pick them up. After clicking on the listing, a map should pop up with all the necessary information.

How we built it

We created an app on XCode and used Swift UI. We collaborated using the CodeWithMe software on AppCode by Jetbrains. In addition, for our backend database, we used Firebase to store details about the listings. We used the API MapKit to show the location area on the map for ease of travel, and we used the API CoreLocation to target specific locations on the map.

Challenges we ran into

Connecting the database to Swift and learning Swift in general (we had no experience with it previously).
Our entire project was deleted at 3:20 AM

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Working together
Learning a new language
Learning how to use databases.

What we learned

SwiftUI
Connecting firebase to Swift

What's next for Essentials

Deploying it in real life to connect businesses and individuals in need.
Limiting requests to avoid exploitation
Stemming the app into also connecting individuals with excess resources to individuals in need