Worcester County Food Bank: Improving the Check Out Process
Read more Worcester County Food Bank: Improving the Check Out Process
2 – Zero Hunger
El Buen Samaritano: Converting EBS to Digital Client Tracking
Project Description El Buen Samaritano (EBS) is a volunteer-based, non-profit food pantry fighting food insecurity in Worcester for over three decades. The food pantry will serve anybody who needs assistance. After many years of using a pen-and-paper system to track client demographic information, EBS collaborated with a past IQP team in 2023 to explore a new data collection system using PantrySoft. This new software could enable…
Worcester Community Fridges: Weatherizing and protecting fridge enclosures
Project Description Since the pandemic, Worcester Community Fridges has strived to fill in the gaps of food insecurity in Worcester by providing a public communal fridge where anyone can donate and take food at one’s leisure Due to the unique challenge of maintaining a fridge outdoors, our project was meant to explore ways to better…
El Buen Samaritano: Implementing Data Collection Software at El Buen Samaritano
Project Description For over 30 years, the El Buen Samaritano Food Program (EBS) has served the Worcester community by providing food and clothing to those in need. Since its founding, the organization has used a pen and paper system to track the resources they provide and collect demographic information on their clients which is needed…
Worcester Community Fridges: Following The Food – Developing a Data Collection Tool to Monitor Community Fridge Usage
Project Description This project aimed to better understand the usage of the Worcester Community Fridges by developing data collection tools for the organization. The main constraint was maintaining the hands-off, self-service mission of the fridges while still gathering a significant amount of data. We interviewed volunteers as well as researched similar projects done by other…
Transitioning El Buen Samaritano to a Digital Data Collection Platform
Project Description Through our project, we aimed to facilitate and simplify the food distribution and data management process for the local food pantry, El Buen Samaritano. By implementing a technological solution, we hoped to improve the inventory system that the organization is currently using. Shifting from the current pen-and-paper system to a digital system, the…
DoughBoyz: Cooking up a Sustainable Plan for Community Events
Project Description The project team researched and assessed the current operations of DoughBoyz. From this, they identified bottlenecks and areas of improvement where DoughBoyz can optimize their profits for use towards charitable events. The team developed several deliverables that will help DoughBoyz hold consistent Community Breakfast events. These deliverables consisted of a cost analysis spreadsheet,…
DoughBoyz: Redesigning the DoughBoyz Website
Project Description: The goal of our project was to help Justin Amevor identify the best way to grow his mission driven company, DoughBoyz, and apply improvements for his website to support his growth. Project Sponsor: DoughBoyz is a growing business with hunger relief, sustainability, and social justice in mind. Its founder initiated the idea of…
Worcester Regional Food Hub: Exploring Opportunities within the Nexudus System
Project Description Nexudus was implemented as a first stage in a bigger operations strategy for the Food Hub. The current project will identify and execute more potential for efficiency gains in the commercial kitchen at the Food Hub. The team will specifically look at the possibility of integrating some of the following processes into the…
Thrive Support and Advocacy: Designing a Food Pantry
Project Sponsor: Thrive Support and Advocacy Thrive Support & Advocacy, founded in Marlborough, MA, during the 1970s, is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering, advocating for, and assisting youth and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental disabilities (DD), and intellectual disabilities (ID). Our sponsor’s mission is to help their audience and their families not…