Nipping next door to borrow an egg from your neighbour has turned digital, thanks to the creation of a new app.
What started out as a university project for Monash University student, Joseph Sinclair, has turned into a reality. The 21-year-old from Melbourne created the Sprout app to make accessing food easy and affordable, while also encouraging sustainable food practices, as reported by Broadsheet.
With an estimated five million tonnes of food ending up in landfill each year in Australia, giving home growers the opportunity to share their produce with the wider community is a wonderful idea.
“I believe in giving everybody the opportunity to access fresh produce,” Sinclair told Broadsheet. “Having communities, especially in more rural areas… make their own fresh produce and share that with their community became a real passion.”
The app works by first pinning your location. Then, users are able to filter what they are looking for — the categories are fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, herbs and animal products — while also refining whether the items can be swapped, are free or require a fee.
According to Broadsheet, once these filters are selected, Sprout will show you a map with “sprouts” — people nearby who fit the chosen criteria. You’re then able to send the desired user a direct message to organise the sale or swap.
All money is dealt with outside of the app — so it’s up to you and the other person to organise the best form of payment — and Sinclair is encouraging users to practise social distancing when delivering items.
At the moment, Sprout is only focused on users in Melbourne and surrounding areas but it can still be downloaded in other parts of the country. According to Broadsheet, users have also jumped on the app in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and even overseas. The success of what you’ll find on the app is down to who is using it in your local area.
It’s only been roughly a month still the app launched and it’s still early days for Sinclair and Sprout, with Broadsheet revealing that while many people have downloaded the app, not many produce swaps have happened as of yet.
There is still a way to go for Sprout. The app is currently only available for iPhones, but Sinclair hopes to raise enough money via a GoFundMe to create an Android version. And, he also plans to add a photo feature to the app, so people are able to view the quality of the produce beforehand as well as a newsfeed, where users can share updates.