With the demand at food banks growing, UMKC Enactus students have developed a new app to help restaurants donate excess food to local pantries for people in need.

Three years ago, UMKC Enactus students discovered 1 in 8 Kansas Citians struggles with hunger daily. Meanwhile, over 40 percent of food produced in the U.S. is thrown away. For the past two years, the team of UMKC students has been manually transporting food from local cafeterias, including at UMKC and Rockhurt University, to food banks across the city. To date, they have created 6,000 meals for those in need.

Now they’ve developed an app that connect locally-owned restaurants and cafeterias with excess food directly to food banks serving Kansas Citians in need. And with that need growing, due to coronavirus complications of schools being shut down and some employees getting fewer hours, the demand for food is higher than ever.

The new app provides a safe, tax-deductible way for restaurants to donate food and help feed the hungry. Restaurants can post produce close to its sell-by-date, prepared food that hasn’t been used, is still in the kitchen or was a leftover. A local food pantry can request it and work out a time to transport it. When the food is picked up, you’ll receive a form detailing the donation which can be used for tax purposes. You can learn more about the process on the FeedKC website.

The app was developed by a member of the team and graduate of UMKC. FeedKC is currently recruiting both restaurants and food banks to begin using it.

“With the launch of the web application, the team hopes to see an increase in their number of community partners,” said Caitlin Easter, who inherited the project from the former project leader, Andrea Savage, earlier this year. “Our team has been working so hard to perfect our web application so that we could launch a product that we are truly proud of!”

Learn more about the FeedKC app online.

Check out the team's story on KCTV5.