The project I've been working on is called SnackScout, and it's all about helping the Penn State community find free food events. 14-15% of Penn State students have reported not being able to afford enough food to meet daily nutrition standards, and I want to use what I know to help out.

Since arriving at Penn State I've been tracking which clubs, church groups, and other organizations routinely host free food events, and I've put them onto a centralized calendar. Last spring I attempted to monetize this service as a way to pay for website costs, but found usage dropped dramatically. This fall, I'm hoping to re-open the website for everyone to use - entirely for free.

At first glance, the website is simple - just a site hosting three google calendars. However, behind the scenes I'm working to add automated scraping capabilities, user-generated events, and create a weekly highlights newsletter. I believe that these capabilities could cause this website to scale and reach far more people, which would serve to better alleviate hunger in State College. Yes, there are food banks, but not everyone knows about them or are willing to go to them. I believe that this is where a community-managed, centralized calendar of events can help out.