Twin Cities Food Justice rescues food — ripe produce, day-old baked goods, and other items that would otherwise be thrown away — and brings it to shelters and community centers that feed hungry people. And they do this as a grassroots organization run entirely by volunteers.
To schedule volunteer shifts and food rescues, TC Food Justice was using an open-source application created by Boulder Food Rescue, a national leader in the field. However, the app didn’t meet all of TC Food Justice’s specific needs, which meant the already busy staff had to do a lot of manual scheduling and communicating.
The Software for Good internship cohort met with the TC Food Justice team weekly to understand their process, and updated the application to make scheduling volunteer shifts simpler and more seamless. Making the app more efficient has allowed TC Food Justice to scale their efforts, getting even more food to people and organizations who need it.