CLEVELAND, Ohio — How can professional sports teams source more sustainable products? And how might we deliver nutritious food to Cleveland neighborhoods that don’t have much to choose from?
On January 29, GiveBackHack partnered once again with the Veale Youth Entrepreneurship Forum (VYEF) to help over 80 high school students design projects that answer these questions—the largest group in event history. A new search algorithm for sports suppliers and fresh food served out of a van were just a few of the ideas that bubbled to the top.
As a part of this year’s hackathon, students were paired with experts in education, workforce development, sustainability, food justice, and fashion. They represented organizations like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, and Progressive.
Students and experts worked together to uncover gaps in problems like food insecurity and homelessness that current solutions don’t quite fill. Then, using the Design Thinking framework, they built simple prototypes of ideas they were most confident about. One group built a diorama of a low-cost housing unit. Another demonstrated their education service through a short skit. Finally, the teams presented their projects to a panel of judges and the top three teams were awarded prizes provided by VYEF.
Here are the top three teams:
- Mobile Market: Nutritious food brought directly to food deserts
- Connect 2 Serve: One platform for all opportunities to work in social impact
- Safety Stops: Making the conversation about violence at school mainstream
Thank you to everyone who was involved this year, especially our volunteer experts: Feras Deiratany, Greg Myers, Danielle Doza, Benjamin Colas, Mallory Masarik, Tahlayah Morrow, Ian Meadows, Kelsie Fields, and Adam Morris.
If you’re interested in cultivating innovative thinking like this at your school or organization, drop us a line at hello@givebackhack.com.
