Paper Key : IRJ************662
Author: Sanket Prakash Kakad,Anishka Prasanna Gaikwad,Suraj Vasudeo Amrute,Parul Gajanan Nemade
Date Published: 02 Apr 2024
Abstract
Food loss and wastage is a major sustainability challenge, with severe economic, social, and environmental consequences globally. This paper discusses the design, implementation, and evaluation of a real-time web application to effectively manage surplus food from hotels, restaurants and caterers to enable donations to food banks and charities. A technology-enabled solution can efficiently match food donors and hunger relief organizations while tracking donations and providing analytics on key metrics. Qualitative techniques and data science methodologies are used to formulate system requirements, develop application architecture, and assess performance during pilot trials. Results indicate the app enables over 80% increase in food donations resulting in 74,500 additional meal servings for the underprivileged over a year. Other major achievements include 21.3 tons of CO2 avoidance by diverting food from landfills and Rs. 8.6 Lakhs savings in logistics costs for participating non-profits. The success demonstrates feasibility of using software innovations combined with food bank partnerships as an inclusive, sustainable strategy to reduce food insecurity through enhanced coordination between hospitality industry and social sector. Policy recommendations and future research direction are discussed to scale impact.