Farepath


Sponsor: Jason Heo
Email: jheo1v[at] swarthmore.edu

What's the mission of your project or organization?

The United States was faced with the worst drought in the last 25 years this summer. Approximately 60% of farms, producing corn, soybeans, and wheat, are plagued by drought, which has long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. Though the effects of the drought have been clear to farmers, consumers will ultimately be hit the hardest; lower crop yields result in higher food prices. Due to unemployment and rising food costs, food banks across the nation actually need to feed more people with fewer donations. I hope to address this issue by increasing donations through a simple and efficient tech-platform that brings transparency to donating.

A web platform will allow volunteers to access best practices to go door-to-door for only 1 hour a week, and collect food items left on the doorsteps of neighborhood donors. With GIS-mapping technology, we can promote neighborhood civic engagement by allowing donors to see their neighborhood participation as well as show where their donations are going.

What challenges or problems do you think a mobile app could solve for your project or organization?

Because so few food/poverty alleviation organizations and individuals go door-to-door currently, the Farepath model has huge potential. To improve on an existing model executed in a Tucson neighborhood, Farepath will aim to become a data-driven organization. I want to use technology to enable higher levels of donor engagement and participation. The GIS-based technological platform will allow donors/sponsors to view a summary of their donation history and where the food items go. The success of the organization could be measured by any number of factors: donation yield, participation percentage, residents served, etc. Additionally, donors could use the information Farepath provides for tax returns. The process could even be game-ified with comprehensive donation data. Farepath could offer an evaluation of which neighborhoods or families are most consistently generous, and this friendly competition has the capacity to increase civic engagement and neighborhood unity, thereby increasing donations. The technological platform will not only make transparent the current black box in donation-giving, but it would also offer solutions for starting other chapters. When Farepath develops a smartphone application, it would offer simple, scalable means to increase volunteer participation. This would improve the likelihood that each neighborhood involved could offer a more consistent supply of food to under-resourced communities throughout the year. Interested high school, college students, and graduates will all be able to access the information they need on our platform to get started and receive donations under the auspices of the organization. College campuses around the nation, like Swarthmore, are generally located in more affluent areas. Of these colleges, especially those found in cities, many are surrounded or bordered by communities of a lower socioeconomic status. Every college that falls under these criteria has the potential to become a chapter of Farepath. Fortunately, walking to pick up canned foods on one street takes less than an hour per week. This appeals to busy students who want to be able to contribute, but do not have the time.

Please share any other questions or concerns:

A better description of our model can be found here: "http://www.onecanaweek.blogspot.com/. Essentially, after an initial recruitment of interested Swarthmore households, my team would collect their donations by foot once a week. However, to keep our donors engaged in their donation, we'd like to enable them to verify that they are making a difference, and their contributions are not going to waste.