Problem

On an average, campus events waste nearly 10 liters of edible food daily at Seattle U, while many students still go hungry. The real challenge - repurposing surplus food safely and instantly without added risk.

Vision

Snack’nU connects event kitchens with students in need, turning surplus food into opportunity.

Our mission was clear:

●   Detect and publish surplus food availability in real time.

●   Notify students instantly.

●   Enforce food-safety through timing based pickup windows.

The result: a lightweight, privacy-first web app where food redistribution happens within minutes, not hours.

Engineering Approach

I led both the frontend architecture and user-facing experience, taking Snack’nU from sketches to a working product.

v1.0 - MVP Build

● Built the React-based front-end, integrating with backend APIs for live food listings and student authentication.

●   Engineered an in-app chat module and allergen menu to test early feature interest.

● Managed component-state flow using React Hooks and Context API to maintain fast, predictable UI behavior.

● Conducted usability tests with students, which exposed feature bloat and performance overhead.

v2.0 - Refined Production Version

● Refactored the codebase into a modular architecture, eliminating unnecessary dependencies and optimizing for load time.

●   Implemented a 30-minute pickup timer backed by database-validated timestamps to enforce food-safety rules.

●   Incorporated Seattle University’s Single Sign-On (SSO) to eliminate direct handling of student data and enhance privacy compliance.

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Outcome & Impact

●   150+ meals redistributed across campus events in pilot phase.

●   30% faster UI render and smoother state transitions post-refactor.

●   Strong stakeholder approval from Chartwells for meeting food-safety standards and ensuring secure student data handling.

Users described the experience as:

“I didn’t even have to think, I just got a ping and picked up fresh food before class.”

Reflection

Snack’nU taught me to balance engineering scope with user value.

The transition from v1.0 to v2.0 wasn’t about adding more code - it was about engineering clarity, simplifying architecture, and aligning every line of logic with the mission: reduce waste, feed people, and keep it safe.

Tech Stack: React 18, Node.js, Express, Firebase (Realtime DB), REST APIs, HTML/CSS, Figma, Docker