Last month, our Community Tech project came to an end after two years of research, development and testing of the new vouchers function on the Open Food Network. Funded by Power to Change, we’ve worked with the team at the Open Food Network on the project, which has made this new feature available to users of the platform around the world.
Since launching last year, we’ve been able to share 35 vouchers with households in our local community in need of some extra support, including those referred to us through Callington Food Bank and Tavistock Food Bank, and our own Grow, Share, Cook project as well.
Each recipient has been able to log on to our shopfront, browse and order from our huge choice of local produce and wholefoods; pay using their voucher code, and then have their order delivered to their home. We're able to offer these vouchers thanks to the generous donations of our Food Hubs customers, who contribute towards our donations fund every week.
"The term community tech means any hardware or software that delivers benefit to a community group, and which that community group has the authority to influence or control." - Power to Change
An important part of Community Tech is shared learning, so as part of the project we also co-hosted a global webinar with the Open Food Network to introduce the new feature to users across the world. If you use the platform for your own hub or sales and are interested to learn more, you can view the webinar here:
What’s next?
Although our project has now come to an end, the benefits of this work will continue to be felt not only by our community, but by Open Food Network users everywhere! Further work on developing the function is already underway, as OFN Australia have secured funding to continue improving and expanding the functionality of vouchers. This work includes creating a new app called VINE, which will allow vouchers to be created with unique codes and QR codes, to set expiry dates and to allow partial redemption. These new features will allow us to use vouchers in new and different ways, bringing more benefits to recipients, customers and food hubs too.
Read an article from the Open Food Network about the project here:
To find out more about Community Tech and the other projects supported by the Makers and Maintainers fund, click here >
Comments