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Development of the Food Pantry Box

Designing

December 2018 - January 2019

The first step was the design process, where the Food Pantry Box was created first as a computer model

Building

Feburary 2019 - March 2019

Once designed, the box was created out of 5 sheets of wooden boards, using the computer models as templates.

Electronics

April 2019 - May 2019

After building, the circuits were designed and wired for the box, and then programmed and calibrated.

Implementation

June 2019

The first Food Pantry Box was installed in its first location, in order to serve the Jefferson Valley community.

Designing

Creation of the Food Pantry Box started on the computer. Using Computer Aided Design software such as PTC Creo, a scale model of the box was created on the computer and many different designs were tested. Once a final design was selected, the images were rendered on Autodesk Inventor in order to present the box to different locations. That design was then used to make templates of all of the parts required.

Building

With the the templates made, the drawings are transferred to MDF 2'x4' boards. Then, they are cut out and then assembled according to the computer models.

Electronics

Ten distance sensors are placed in the box, one for each can row. They sense the distance to the nearest can and calculate the current stock, which is sent to the Raspberry Pi computer within the box.

Implementation

In June 2019, the first food box was installed in the Jefferson Valley Mall. On the first day, it was demonstrated at the mall's Sunset Market and set up that night.

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