On the 1st day of giving, give food to those in need

As Arizona State University gears up to win the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, Dec. 29, in San Francisco, the university is taking the opportunity to offer suggestions for 12 Days of Giving in order to make a big difference this season and celebrate the university’s outreach role in the community.

Day 1
Distribute leftover food to those who need it.

A team of ASU engineering, marketing and sustainability students developed a venture to combat hunger – a mobile phone application to connect a food recovery and distribution network.

The app is designed to send out a text message to subscribers to the service in local communities to inform them where and when food will be delivered. The idea is to collect leftover and excess food from restaurants, catering services and banquet halls and deliver it to various community and neighborhood locations from where it could be distributed to people in need.

The venture idea won FlashFood the U.S. Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals in April, earning the team a trip to the Imagine Cup Worldwide finals in Australia in July.

FlashFood’s performance in the international competition led to its selection as one of the teams eligible to receive an Imagine Cup grant to support its project. Five teams out of the original 40 will share equal amounts from $350,000 yet to be awarded by Microsoft.