Keytree helps charity fight food surplus with interactive web tool
Feb 10, 2015 • News • keytree • charity • Software and Apps • software and apps
Enterprise technology expert, Keytree has developed an interactive tool for food charity Plan Zheroes, to help address food waste in the fight against UK food poverty.
Launched today, Plan Zheroes’ new platform acts as a social network where relationships are built between food businesses and charities to ensure communication is quick and simple and food reaches those in need, safely and conveniently.
When an organisation has surplus food to donate, they can now sign into a secure site, upload their information, and nearby charities will instantly receive a notification of the available food. Charities can then claim the food online, and a network of local volunteers and transporters can help transport the food where required.
The platform is designed in a highly scalable way to grow with the charity. It offers a complex mapping feature and hosts communities within a website to help build relationships between food businesses, charities, local community groups and volunteers to speed up the process of regular food giving.
We decided to create a responsive web solution to keep ongoing costs for the charity down so maintenance is done across a single platform rather than a website,
“It also works on all devices through either an iOS or Android app. We are now considering working on a standalone app and the use of SMS functionality to enable those volunteers without smartphones to also take part in the process.”
Whilst 13 million people are living in poverty in the UK, 650,000 tonnes of perfectly good food is thrown away by food businesses. Plan Zheroes seeks to address this by inspiring food businesses to give their surplus food to those who need it so it will never go to waste.
Maria Ana Neves, Co-founder and CEO of Plan Zheroes said: “Keytree has included some unique and highly innovative functionality to address a very complicated collaboration structure. The user experience and user-centric design is ideal for those who will use the site. The team also unlocked valuable insights such as bringing volunteers and transporters into the map and transforming the new platform into a social network.”
“The launch of our new platform is the important next step on our journey to fight food poverty and the devastating effect it is having on people in the UK. It allows a better connection between local networks of businesses, charities, volunteers and transporters, making the process simpler, quicker and more intuitive. With Keytree’s offer of pro bono help we can now further expand the network to support even more people in need of food.”
The Plan Zheroes website can be found at www.planzheroes.org
Plan Zheroes currently works with a wide range of food businesses - including restaurants, catering companies, cafes, food shops, schools, supermarkets, hotels and food markets – all of which can now register on the Plan Zheroes website and forge links with charities and local community group. Plan Zheroes partners include Borough Market, Paul UK, Le Pain Quotidien, Gail’s bakery, the Langham Hotel, catering company Squid & Pear and Budgens. Charity partners include Red Cross UK, Look Ahead, the Marylebone Project, New Horizon and The Abbey Centre.
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