An app connecting grocers to budget-conscious consumers, encouraging them to work together to prevent food from going to waste, was the big winner in the 4^th annual CNT Urban Sustainability Apps Competition held last weekend. The competition connects community members and coders to solve real neighborhood problems using mobile technology.

This year, the products designed were more sophisticated than ever, thanks in large part to the increased mentorship and opportunities to begin working before the competition weekend, CNT Senior Vice President Steve Perkins said.

First-place winner Purshable builds demand for close-to-expiration food that grocery stores normally throw away by marketing it at a discount to low-income and environmentally conscious consumers, which has the added benefit of allowing grocers to earn new revenue. Elizabeth Zubiate, part of the Purshable project team, said there are about 506 grocery stores in Chicago and estimated that they throw away about $15 billion in unsold perishable food items. 

“We aim to simplify the process for grocers to donate that food, resulting in zero waste,” Zubiate said.

The first runner-up was TechSpace, an app that connects technologists with tech-friendly spaces in neighborhoods interested in hosting them.

Finally, the second runner-up was Fresh Eats, an app that builds demand for fresh produce in convenience stores in low-income communities by allowing residents to tag and track their availability.

One highlight of this weekend’s event, which corresponded with the National Day of Civic Hacking, was a visit and talk by D. J. Patil, White House Deputy CTO and Chief Data Scientist, as well as a presentation by the U.S. Census Bureau of their new data portal City SDK.

In his speech to competition participants, Dr. Patil spoke about the importance of using data responsibly while also making it work for everybody. He called the urban apps competition an “incredible” event.  

The event was made stronger by Microsoft’s involvement as a presenting sponsor.

“This year, we're grateful to have Microsoft as our presenting sponsor,” Perkins said. “Microsoft has been a wonderful partner in all this, having a presence at our community meetings, providing software and expertise -- this year was substantially stronger because of Microsoft’s involvement.”