Heeding Bowden’s advice, Ruth C. Fong ’15 submitted a proposal for BagIt, an iPhone app that lets students order bagged lunches from their dining halls. Until now, that service has only been available on the HUDS website.
“It’s somewhat inconvenient to stop what you are doing, open up your laptop, and browse through the website to order a bagged lunch, because the whole idea of getting a bagged lunch is to save time from your busy life,” Fong said.
Three CS50 students are currently developing a website, iPhone app, and texting service collectively known as Grilleboy which will let students order from dining hall grilles ahead of time.
“Generally, people are very busy,” said Morgan L. Paull ’13, one of Grilleboy’s creators. “This service would benefit those people who are late and unable to get food.”
Saagar M. Deshpande ’14 built a service called Menu Mate that sends students the HUDS menu for the day by text message for his CS50 final project last year. He has since changed the program’s name to Harvard Food.
Deshpande does not have a smartphone and therefore does not have access to the internet all day, but he said that students like himself should still be able to easily learn the day’s HUDS offerings before they enter the dining hall.
“My roommate is vegetarian, and I have some dietary restrictions, so I wanted something that would tell us whether to go to the dining hall or to eat out without having to check the HUDS website,” he said.
Over the summer, Deshpande collaborated with Tony Ho ’14 to make his service faster and to add additional features, including the option of receiving the HUDS menu by email every morning. Users can also follow Harvard Food on Twitter.
A computer science concentrator, Deshpande said he plans next to compile listings of campus events serving free food and notify subscribers about them by text message.
The goal is not just to satisfy students’ hunger pangs but to foster community. “Food helps to bring various people together,” Deshpande said.
—Staff writer Jane Seo can be reached at janeseo@college.harvard.edu.