HungryHelpers

HungryHelpers was inspired by our personal experiences with cousins who attend universities far from home and often express how much they miss the home-cooked meals they grew up with, meals that provide comfort, culture, and a sense of belonging that dining halls and fast food cannot replace. To address this, HungryHelpers is a platform that connects university students with local home cooks who can prepare affordable, home-style meals based on students’ preferences, dietary restrictions, and allergies, with full ingredient transparency for safety and trust. Students can choose between lower-cost pickup or paid drop-off options, with future plans to integrate third-party delivery services. We built HungryHelpers as a scalable web platform, focusing on simple, user-friendly design, clear communication, and location-based matching while laying the foundation for a future mobile app. One of the main challenges we faced was our lack of coding knowledge and the difficulty of designing a website that is both easy to use and accessible for a wide range of people. We had to learn how to translate complex functionality into a simple, intuitive interface while making sure students and cooks could navigate the platform with ease. We are proud of creating a solution that addresses a real student need, supports local cooks, and emphasizes clarity and inclusivity through detailed ingredient listings. Throughout this process, we learned the importance of trust, simplicity, and user-centered design in building a successful marketplace, especially when food and health are involved. Moving forward, we plan to expand HungryHelpers by launching a mobile app, adding reviews and cook verification, integrating secure payments and order tracking, and partnering with delivery services to make comforting, home-cooked meals even more accessible to students everywhere.

Built With

• squarespace