Four years ago, UMKC Enactus students discovered 1 in 8 Kansas Citians struggles with hunger daily. Meanwhile, over 40 percent of food produced in the U.S. is thrown away. For the past three years, the team of UMKC students has been manually transporting food from local cafeterias, including at UMKC and Rockhurst University, to food banks across the city.
In the spring of 2020, they developed an app that connects locally-owned restaurants and cafeterias with excess food directly to food banks serving Kansas Citians in need. And with that need growing due to coronavirus complications, the demand for food is higher than ever.
The app provides a safe, tax-deductible way for restaurants to donate food and help feed the hungry. Restaurants can post produce close to its sell-by-date, prepared food that hasn’t been used, is still in the kitchen, or was a leftover. A local food pantry can request it and work out a time to transport it. When the food is picked up, you’ll receive a form detailing the donation which can be used for tax purposes. You can learn more about the process on the FeedKC website.
“With the launch of the web application, the team hopes to see an increase in their number of community partners,” said Caitlin Easter, who inherited the project from the former project leader, Andrea Savage. “Our team has been working so hard to perfect our web application so that we could launch a product that we are truly proud of!”
Learn more about the FeedKC app online.