Anyone who’s hosted or attended a meeting or event that includes food is familiar with that sense of guilt at seeing tables full of leftovers that will go to waste. Surely there must be hungry people somewhere who could benefit! Thanks to some creative computer science and business alumni (who were students at the time), there’s an app for that!
The Hungry Hawks mobile app and web interface allows hosts of Lehigh meetings and events to advertise the availability of leftover Lehigh-catered food. This not only reduces food waste, it also helps with food insecurity on campus. Students looking for free leftover food can view active events in the app or on the web and show up to help themselves.
Hungry Hawks is the brainchild of Connor Greene ’22, Dave Jha ’22, and Joshua Yang ’22, who were all sophomores when they approached Lehigh’s Office of Sustainability with their idea. Yang was especially familiar with the dilemma of wasted food from events he hosted for the Korean Student Association.
Working with a team that included members from Sustainability, Library & Technology Services, and Lehigh Catering, the students met regularly to brainstorm, troubleshoot, and determine a path forward. Greene developed the web application and database, while Jha and Yang developed the mobile app.
"What has been particularly meaningful is students dealing with food insecurity telling us how the platform was the reason they were able to have a solid meal.”
“Security and usability were our two main concerns,” said Greene, who is now a software engineer with Susquehanna International Group. “We wanted to ensure that the platform is fully accessible by the Lehigh community.”
Jha, now a software engineer with Netflix, said that when the trio started the platform as students, they had no idea if it would succeed, much less continue to benefit the Lehigh community after they’d graduated. But continue it has.
“It’s been very successful,” according to Audrey McSain, director of sustainability. “There are multiple posts every single week, and sometimes multiple posts in a day. People are surprised to learn about food insecurity at Lehigh, but it definitely exists. It’s been wonderful to see a student-led project grow and progress into something that benefits a lot of people.”
“What has been particularly meaningful for me is students dealing with food insecurity telling us how the platform was the reason they were able to have a solid meal,” Jha said. “I’m particularly thankful that the Lehigh community has embraced this platform, and that faculty, students, and staff continue to think of us when seeing leftover food and are able to give back to the community.”
Greene, too, is happy their idea has had such success. “We're excited to see where the new group of student developers will take the project and how they will continue to make an impact on campus.”
Hungry Hawks Fast Facts
During the 2022-2023 academic year:
- Hungry Hawks listed 358 leftover food events.
- More than 1,000 Lehigh students logged into the platform at least once.
- There were more than 31,000 interactions with the app, including viewing the feed of leftover food, posting, or seeing details of a post.
- Lehigh faculty and students posted food from catered events, club meetings, and recruiting tables.