More than 1,100 elementary school students at risk of going hungry are guaranteed a meal every week thanks to the work of a small Lakeland nonprofit called KidsPack.
KidsPack distributes food donations to students across three counties and the logics can be daunting 鈥� and expensive. That鈥檚 why four IM体育官网 students are volunteering their time to update KidsPack鈥檚 technology.
Two of them 鈥� Elijah Campbell and Joshua Rentrope 鈥� are developing a web-based program to help KidsPack track their volunteer hours. The other pair 鈥� Nadia Hasan and Zane Aleck 鈥� is creating both a mobile app and web-based program that will allow volunteers to quickly and accurately scan and catalogue food donations. Currently, both tasks are done on paper.
鈥淓fficiency is very important and the way they鈥檙e streamlining everything is amazing,鈥� says Michael Fied, who supports KidsPack鈥檚 IT operations. 鈥�(The students) are investing back in the community and it鈥檚 amazing to watch.鈥�
For a small nonprofit subsisting on grants, donations and the generosity of volunteers, the work done by the IM体育官网 Poly students is a game changer. Start with the volunteer tracking program, which Elijah and Josh are calling Empact. KidsPack relies on a team of nearly 500 volunteers spread out over 17 different locations to pack and distribute the food. A bulk of those volunteers are students who use KidsPack to log community service hours. Tracking all of those hours on paper is inefficient and undependable. KidsPack also relies on volunteers to check their email for service opportunities, which can be a challenge for the nonprofit鈥檚 other main source of volunteers: retirees. Empact solves all of these problems with a user-friendly, online interface that seamlessly validates service hours for schools.
鈥淭here is a dollar value attached to volunteers,鈥� explains Executive Director Patty Strickland. 鈥淏y increasing our accuracy, we鈥檒l be able to not only track hours, but demonstrate need when completing grant applications.鈥�
The second half of the student projects is tracking food donations. The beneficiaries of KidsPack鈥檚 work are school children federally registered as homeless or at-risk of food insecurity. KidsPack supplies meals to these children at 73 schools, thanks in large part to food donations. All of the donations are housed in a large warehouse, where volunteers have to inventory each box and can. Right now that鈥檚 done with pen and paper. Nadia and Zane are changing that by creating a database system that logs donations through barcodes, using either a smartphone or a barcode reader. While there are already programs on the market that can perform this task, the cost is prohibitive.
鈥淚f it鈥檚 a choice between faster computers and software or one more child fed, we鈥檙e going to add a child every time,鈥� Patty says.
For the students, putting their tech-savvy skills to good use is a no-brainer. Elijah鈥檚 father runs a nonprofit in Orlando and he鈥檚 seen firsthand how paperwork discourages volunteers.
鈥淧rograms like Empact incentivize students to put in more hours,鈥� he says.
Nadia echoes Elijah鈥檚 motives.
鈥淭his is part of being human. We need to help each other and build a stronger society,鈥� she says.