Trenton Area Soup Kitchen to host hackathon for MIT students and alumni
On Saturday, November 8, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) will host students and alumni from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a day-long hackathon event at the soup kitchen’s Escher Street dining room in Trenton.
The hackathon, which will be run by MIT’s Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Public Service Center, is an opportunity for current and former students to join together to analyze some of the most complex issues facing the soup kitchen today. The term “hackathon” combines the concept of “hacking” (creative problem solving) with the idea of a “marathon,” requiring participants to work collaboratively in a rapid and focused environment to achieve a certain goal. In this case, participants will break out into teams throughout the day and eventually come together to present their ideas to a panel of judges. The judges will eventually determine a winner, and MIT will provide two student interns to work with TASK in early 2026 to help implement the winning idea.
The hackathon participant groups will be working through one of two problems, posed by TASK:
- Develop a patron feedback communication platform to alleviate the soup kitchen’s strain on gathering real-time feedback and responding to emerging needs in our rapidly evolving world.
- Develop a predictive meal distribution model to create a system to dynamically forecast patron turnout, in order for the soup kitchen to better determine food ordering and staffing needs and reduce waste.
Throughout the day, participants will work through root-cause analysis, ideation brainstorming, prototyping, and storytelling before the pitch and judging portion of the event. This is the first time that students and alumni will host a hackathon off campus, with students and organizers traveling to TASK from MIT’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, home base.
Today, TASK is serving roughly 12,500 free, freshly-prepared meals each week at its Escher Street dining room and more than 50 community meal sites across Greater Mercer County, representing an increase of 20% more meals compared to the prior year. Over the past 12 months, TASK has served approximately 630,000 meals – the most ever in one year in its 43-year history. In addition, participation has grown across all of TASK’s programs and services.
“The last few weeks have shown how quickly the need for food can escalate in a place like Trenton, where so many people are living below or close to the federal poverty line,” says TASK CEO Amy Flynn. “The issues we are facing are complex and unprecedented, and the hackathon is an opportunity to think about our challenges and their solutions in modern and innovative ways. TASK is very excited to be partnering with MIT, the PKG Public Service Center, and the local MIT Club of Princeton for this hackathon event, particularly at this critical time.”
