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Pre-ordering System For The Non Profit Organization Fighting Food Insecurity

Duration: 2020

Customer location: The US

Industry: NGO

Services: Custom Software Development ● Mobile App Development

Tech stack: Angular ● AWS ● Node.js ● PostgreSQL

Dedicated team behind the project

Andrew

Tech Lead

Vasyl

Engagement Lead

Andrii

Software Engineer

Anastasiya

UI/UX Designer

Taras

QA Engineer

The client

Our client is a non-profit organization from the United States currently fighting food insecurity in the five boroughs of New York City. When the project started, there were long queues to get food, which created a massive problem for our client. To help pantry admins manage reservations more efficiently, the pre-order system had to be developed.

The challenge

Since the target audience is mainly smartphone users who are over 60 years old, the platform has to be simple and easy to use, with as few steps as possible. Scalability was one of the most important considerations while developing the solution because the project has already been getting a lot of attention. Also, the system needed integration with various third-party solutions and APIs for location tracking and various message services.

What was done

We developed an app where people can easily reserve hot food or pantry boxes at the nearest location. Also, we enabled booking ID activation via SMS. Fast food distribution is no longer a problem – the food is given in allocated time with no lines.

Implemented features:

Location-based search

The Google API was integrated to show users only a couple of available stations closest to them. This should prevent long queues at food pantries and reduce the load in specific locations. Also, the search is limited to the previously selected borough.

SMS confirmation

To ensure that users always have access to their reservation, regardless of the internet accessibility, they receive a booking ID via SMS after making a reservation on the website. To provide a messaging service, we have integrated a third-party’s API.

Limited reservations

To stop people from excessive food stockpiling, we limited the number of boxes a phone number can reserve per week.

Additional features

The dashboard for admins allows them to edit location details, set distribution dates and times, and track reservations. There’s also a super admin role to manage all locations, other admins, and reservations.

We made it possible for all admins to easily download reservation reports for their station; the super admin can download daily reports for all reservations.