By: Kirpass Kaur
A group of students from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) presented their startup at the Boost 2024 Ideation Camp, where entrepreneurs, post-secondary students, and researchers had an opportunity to provide a tech-based solution to impact one of the following areas according to the application: population growth i.e. affordable housing, mobility, food security, energy poverty, social isolation of older adults, climate, etc.
Students from UNB made a remarkable piece of tech with the idea of connecting vendors with an abundance of food with local organizations. The idea is to reduce food insecurity, and reduce food wastage. If a lot of food is being thrown out anyway, there might as well be someone fed with it.
The team consisted of CEO Vivek Sharma, COO Sarah Mandlekar, and CTO Manideep Kuncharam.
A study done by the Canadian Income Survey in 2021 found that New Brunswick has the second highest (22%) rate of food insecurity. The same study also indicated that food insecurity was found to be higher in Indigenous families, racialized communities and immigrant families. No follow up surveys have been released by Statistics Canada, hence there is no data indicating if this statistic has changed.
The winning team has taken an initiative to combat these statistics. With the homeless population growing in Fredericton, and the prices of groceries skyrocketing; this could bring about a significant change in the community if applied.
