Phase 1

Project Idea

To design a lightweight mobile tool to keep track of grocery home inventory purchased

Project Title

MyPantry

Project Description

It can be difficult when preparing meals or grocery shopping to remember what you currently have stocked in the pantry, deep freezer, or Lazy Susan. Anecdotally, it is a very common experience to need to run out for “just one missing ingredient” when cooking or baking. It can also be a challenge to keep track of when yogurt, fruit, vegetables, and milk will expire or go bad. Whether packing a lunch or preparing a meal, many people know the frustration of realizing that their perishable groceries have gone bad when it is too late to proactively do anything about it.

To solve for these problems, we propose a lightweight mobile tool that serves as a home grocery inventory. Scan barcodes or manually enter grocery items when purchasing groceries or putting them away. Enter expiration dates on perishable items to receive a notification or mark on a calendar when items are about to go bad or should be replaced. Have easy access to how much of each ingredient you have available before you start cooking or while you are at the store.

An optimized user experience could entail integrating the app with grocery apps like Meijer, Walmart, or Sam’s Club to automatically increase inventory when items are purchased. Additional integrations into meal trackers like MyFitnessPal could reduce inventory when food gets used.

The goals of this application are to make the experience as lightweight as possible so that users are more likely to stick with it; to grant maximum visibility into available quantities of groceries to ease meal prep and grocery shopping; and to automate inventory updates where possible to further reduce the burden on users.

Contributors

Alecia DelCore

Alex Druckenmiller

Zachary Pringle

Dylan Smith