FoodRescue AI: Mobilizing Real-World Volunteers with Local Open-Weight Routing Agents

Aditya Nakhale — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:22:03 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass

What I Built

FoodRescue AI is an automated rescue and dispatch platform designed to prevent edible food from ending up in landfills while mobilizing volunteers into the physical world.

Rather than keeping community members glued to screens or browsing endless feeds, FoodRescue AI's objective is to make the digital experience under 60 seconds so people can head outside, navigate their neighborhoods, and deliver food to shelters. When commercial kitchens, restaurants, or event venues log surplus food, the system evaluates urgency, batch-allocates geographically aligned pickup points, and delivers precise dispatch itineraries straight to active local couriers and volunteers.

Demo

Repository Walkthrough: Check out the architecture, schema setup, and distance calculation services directly on GitHub.
Demo Video / Live Link: (Add your hosted demo URL or screen recording link here)

Code

The project is open source and hosted on GitHub:

AdityaNakhale / FoodRescuAI-SpringBoot

#FoodRescuAI-SpringBoot ##Food Rescue AI is a smart web-based platform that connects food donors with nearby NGOs to reduce food wastage It uses location-based intelligence (latitude & longitude) to allocate surplus food efficiently. Donors can post food details while NGOs receive optimized assignments based on distance and capacity. The system is built using Spring Boot, MySQL, and Thymeleaf It ensures fast, fair, and real-time food distribution. The goal is to create an efficient food rescue network and support communities in need.

#Technologies Used -Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Thymeleaf -Backend: Java, Spring Boot -Database: MySQL -Tools & APIs: Google Maps API (for location handling), REST APIs

#Key Features 🔐 Secure login system for Donors and NGOs 📍 GPS-based location tracking (Latitude & Longitude) 🤖 Intelligent food allocation algorithm 📦 Real-time food donation posting and management 📊 Dashboard for tracking donations and requests 📁 File upload support (for NGO verification) ⚡ Fast backend…

View on GitHub

How I Built It

The architecture focuses on fast local processing, predictable allocation routing, and an accessible mobile UI:

AI Urgency & Triage Logic: Analyzes incoming donation parameters (spoilage windows, storage conditions, packaging type) using open-weight language models via Ollama to determine triage priorities and create concise pickup instructions.
Backend Service: Engineered with Java 21 and Spring Boot, featuring transactional persistence via Spring Data JPA and relational storage powered by MySQL.
Geographic Distance Routing: Integrates geographical distance evaluation to cluster nearby food pickup locations, matching them with local shelter drop-offs and volunteer operational radii to minimize transit delays.
Volunteer Web UI: Designed with Thymeleaf and Tailwind CSS, built mobile-first with high daylight readability so volunteers can easily read dispatch cards while walking or cycling outdoors.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Zero Ongoing Cost for Non-Profits: Grassroots shelters and food rescue programs run on constrained budgets. Relying on closed, pay-per-token proprietary APIs creates continuous overhead. Open-weight models and self-hosted tools run at virtually zero operational inference cost.
Privacy for Vulnerable Communities: Food rescue logistics handle residential pickup addresses, shelter locations, and recipient identities. Running self-hosted open-source software ensures that community data never leaves trusted local environments.
Edge Resilience: Community aid must continue even during internet dead zones or regional server disruptions. Open-source stacks can be deployed locally on laptops or offline edge servers without external cloud dependencies.

Prize Categories

Best Use of Gemma (Structured triage and urgency ranking)
Best Use of Render (Cloud deployment and backend hosting)

DEV Community: Aditya Nakhale