There's an app for everything. So why not one to solve hunger? That's why 4 students from Dallas ISD's School for the Talented and Gifted created FoodNex.
"Just a group of kids at a high school," TAG senior Ben Peckham said. "We could take on an issue so challenging as food waste."
'When we volunteered at these areas, there would be weekly food distribution events to families and by the end of the event, we would often, like, run out of food," TAG senior Dat Tran said. "That, like, really hurt my heart because they wouldn't receive the food that they needed."
For Tran, it was personal.
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"I was an immigrant from Vietnam," Tran said. "Growing up, it was a struggle for me and my family."
So Tran and Peckham, along with classmate Akhil Peddikuppa, and DISD grad Vedant Tapiavala created the FoodNex app.
"So FoodNex is a mobile app that connects businesses with extra food to hunger assistance organizations like food pantries and food banks," Peddikuppa said.
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It works like a dating app for those who have food to donate, and organizations in need of food to distribute.
"I also took a class on food during my first semester at Dartmouth," DISD grad, now Dartmouth College freshman Tapiavala said. "Saw a lot of shocking statistics about how prevalent and issue food waste is."
An estimated 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the U.S. every year, much of it because it's nearing expiration.
"If we could just reroute that food to the people who needed it, that could easily end food insecurity," Peckham said.
Dartmouth helped fund the FoodNex app, which has been used in North Texas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Minneapolis to help distribute about 70,000 pounds of food so far. The students hope to scale the use of the app nationwide.
