Six students and alumni from the school Brearly invented an application for smartphones that allows donors to purchase school Lunches for those who can’t afford them, tells DNAinfo.
The app «Food for Thought» works on the principle of «pay for other» where anyone can anonymously pay for lunch any student, explained 17-year-old Alissa Kapasi, a high school student from school Brierly, who along with his friends and came up with the app.
A beta version of their app should start operating in 2018-2019 academic year, and will be tested in three schools.
17-year-old Kapasi along with his friends Fiona Hsu, 16 years, ivy Mao, 16, Emma, Jan, 13, Gabriel Richard, 18, and Maya Whites, 14, won a grant in the amount of $ 2,000 for their project in the competition from the Allstate Foundation’s «Good Starts Young».
Their team is called «Team Fig» still competed with 287 other projects.
«Team Fig» really impressed us,» says Laura Freveletti, senior program officer of the Allstate Foundation. «They saw the problem and took responsibility in her decision. Alissa and her team knew they needed to find an innovative solution. And they found it.» Many parents already use online systems to pay for Lunches their children, and this app will work on the same platform.
The idea of creating such a project Alissa Kapasi pushed her volunteer experience. She participated in the program Breakthrough New York, which provided children from low-income families sandwiches for lunch.
«I was shocked,» says Kapasi. «Because usually when we talk about starving children, you mean third world countries».
Alissa said that approximately every fourth child in the city lives in a family that has problems with food. And approximately 76% of school districts have debt on school meals.
The students who developed the program, is optimistic, and hope that their idea can change the situation and will really help children in need.
