Food Cowboy is a mobile app that helps combat food waste and hunger by connecting food donors with charities. Founded in 2012 by Roger Gordon, Richard Gordon, and Barbara Cohen, the app facilitates the donation of surplus fresh produce that is otherwise wasted.
Food Cowboy provides real-time routing information, scheduling assistance, tax paperwork, and food safety guidance to make the process easier for truckers, wholesalers, and retailers. The app also allows local restaurants, supermarkets, and foodservice companies to alert nearby charities when they have extra food available for donation, without needing to commit in advance. Donors also receive social media recognition for their contributions.
By diverting surplus food from landfills to those in need, Food Cowboy aims to address the issues of food waste and hunger simultaneously. The app has been recognized for its innovative approach, including being named one of the 100 Most Creative Businesses in 2014. Food Cowboy works closely with the USDA and the UN/FAO, helping to spearhead their efforts to address food waste and hunger in the US and worldwide.
Our client needed an effective way to relay a significant amount of information to a broad audience, enabling them to decide whether to take action. For instance, if a grower had 20 cases of unsold bananas that needed to be disposed of, the client had to communicate with multiple food banks across several states as well as various food pantries. This communication needed to include details about the product, such as its condition, location, and quantity, so that recipients could quickly respond and indicate their interest in accepting the donation. To facilitate this process, the client required an app that would streamline communication and allow for efficient interaction between all parties involved.
The VRIZE team began development of the app with the use of Parse for both web and mobile platforms, although it's worth noting that Parse was shut down in 2017 and existed as an open-source solution. The app featured a robust database backend, which was essential given that many team members lacked a technical background. To bridge this gap, we also provided a process flow diagram that outlined the objectives.
We needed to assess what was feasible and cost-effective within a specific timeframe while accommodating various user environments, including truckers, growers, and food charity volunteers. This required us to define the necessary data points clearly and make informed decisions about them. For instance, understanding the packaging details and the pallets used was crucial, as it impacted both the chain of custody and associated costs.
We were successful in analyzing the client’s needs and providing viable solutions within a day or so, demonstrating our responsiveness and adaptability to their requirements.
