World hunger has always been a problem. In America, we see food everywhere: in the restaurants that line streets, in the hands of people walking hurriedly to work, and in the trash can. One app strives to take the food that might end up in that trash can and place it on the plates of hungry citizens.

FlashFood is an app thought up by a group of students at Arizona State University. After seeing perfectly good food being thrown out around campus, students Ramya Baratam, Steven Hernandez, Katelyn Keberle, Eric Lehnhardt, Loni Amundson and Jake Irvin came together with an idea.

If restaurants, caterers, and others who have excess food want to get rid of it, they can choose to tell FlashFood that they have food they do not need, instead of throwing it in the trash. They will then be connected with a local food shelter. Through the app, they will coordinate a time and place to pick up the food.

Because many restaurants and groceries have strict freshness standards for their food, they are likely to end up throwing it out even though it is still safe to eat. This has resulted in 40 percent of American produce going to waste in 2013, according to the National Institute of Health.

And it’s getting worse. In 2012, Americans threw away about $180 billion worth of food, an increase of 8 percent since 2008. Clearly, restaurants and groceries aren’t the only ones wasting. It is estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that each citizen throws away about 20 pounds of food each month. This is about $2,275 worth of food for a four person family.

An app like FlashFood will make it easy for people to reduce this waste and put it in the stomachs of those who need it. Though it is still in the pilot stages, it won Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a student technology competition. They hope to have it up and running in a year.

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