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The Hometown Food Security Project has launched an innovative mobile app designed to transform how our community addresses food insecurity.

This tool connects all community members with food resources and volunteering opportunities, and collects critical data, representing a new approach to understanding local hunger challenges.

The free app, available for both iOS and Android devices, serves multiple crucial functions.

Through an interactive map with real-time updates residents can find the nearest food pantries, community meals and food resources. Using push notifications, the app can communicate with users in real-time about items needed at pantries, mobile food pantry locations, and where volunteers are most needed.

Breaking down language barriers, the app is available in eight languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, Burmese, French, Tagalog, Amharic, Karenni, Anuak, and S’Gaw Karen, reflecting the diverse makeup of our community.

Only a few months after launch, the tool has already garnered hundreds of active users and five national awards for “best Use of technology,” and “mobile apps for public service among others.

“What makes this app truly unique is that it’s not just for those seeking assistance — it’s designed for everyone in the community who wants to be part of the solution,” says Craig Gundersen, the Snee Family Endowed Chair at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty and a professor in the Department of Economics at Baylor University. “It encourages volunteerism, and it is also a way of gauging the amount of need and whether food insecurity is improving or decreasing.”

The data-gathering aspect of the app represents a significant advancement in understanding local food insecurity. Currently, providers rely on county-level data that has a two-year lag time. The novel approach of the Hometown app enables current snapshots of food insecurity rates at a more granular local level, crucial to the coalition’s goal of eliminating hunger in Mower County.

“The app makes clear just how much good will and generosity there is in our community,” said Molly Lanke, Co-lead of the Hometown Food Security Project and Executive Director of United Way of Mower County. “The interactive map is full of dozens of resources, each one of those represents volunteers and organizations giving back to the community.”

Community members can download the Hometown Food Security Project app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Whether seeking assistance or looking to help, every download contributes to building a stronger, more food-secure Mower County.

For more information about the Hometown Food Security Project and the new mobile app, visit https://hometownfoodsecurity.org/ or https://hometownfoodsecurity.org/app/

This app is unique because it is the first one to address these three critical functions together, and to embrace the entire community approach to addressing hunger:

• Connecting people with free food and resources near them

• Connecting people who want to help with current volunteer and donation opportunities

• Collecting real-time food insecurity data, using a novel, enhanced version of the USDA screening questions.