Meet the 3.0 Finalists: The HungreeApp (USA)

What energizes me most about participating in the FoodTech Challenge is the clarity of purpose shared by this cohort. No one here is simply optimizing efficiency; we are collectively pushing the global food system to evolve. Bringing The HungreeApp into this arena is deeply meaningful because our work was born in communities where hunger, isolation, and waste sit side by side. To have that lived reality recognized on a global innovation platform signals something powerful: the communities we serve, from the US to Nigeria to Colombia, are not footnotes. Their ingenuity belongs on the world stage.

HungreeApp’s impact has been tangible, community-powered, and fast. Households, gardening communities, restaurants, schools, local governments, and disaster-relief teams are engaging on the platform, redistributing thousands of surplus servings in real time, and reducing edible waste while strengthening social ties. In the United States, thousands of individuals are engaging on the app, sharing meals that are not just calories but lifelines for families facing uncertainty and diverting resources away from landfills. Media recognition has been encouraging, but nothing compares to witnessing in-app conversations between strangers expressing gratitude for simple human kindness.

Across the United States, Latin America, and Africa, partnerships with schools, NGOs, and municipalities are enabling structured recovery systems that connect surplus food to families who need it most…without stigma, bureaucracy, or barriers. These efforts confirm something we’ve seen everywhere we go: communities are not short on generosity; they are short on tools that make sharing easy, dignified, and safe.

What I hope to amplify through the Challenge, focusing in the UAE and the Global South, is a reframing of food-waste reduction as community infrastructure, not charity. Hunger, waste, and disconnection are symptoms of systems that don’t talk to each other. The HungreeApp functions as connective tissue—a digital infrastructure layer that enables households, institutions, and entire cities to coordinate surplus and need within minutes. The impact potential in emerging markets is enormous, not because resources are lacking, but because social trust is strong and community networks are already culturally embedded.

Looking ahead, my aspiration is to scale The HungreeApp far beyond traditional food-recovery models. We envision a global ecosystem where surplus redistribution, community empowerment, and sustainability goals are supported by the same technology, accessible today in more than 60 languages and expanding toward 100+. Our aim is a world where edible food waste becomes a solvable logistics problem, not an inevitable one, and where communities everywhere can rely on a modern extension of traditional support systems, powered by technology, but anchored in human connection.

With the FoodTech Challenge, “Sharing. Made. Simple.” is not just our slogan; it is a reality we can deliver to humanity.

John Akinboyewa

Founder and Chief Humanity Sharing Simplifier