At the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event in Philadelphia this past weekend, one team of hacker-activists decided to address the challenge of helping low income Philadelphians find fresh produce in their communities.

Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia

The team quickly identified a data source for retailers that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and were able to extract locations (including latitude and longitude) for retailers in Philadelphia. They were also able to pull together and compile lists for farmers markets, urban farms and community gardens.

All of these locations provide fresh, locally grown produce that is available to people receiving SNAP benefits. One challenge facing SNAP beneficiaries is quickly and easily finding the location of stores or retailers in their neighborhoods where they can use their benefits to obtain healthy, fresh produce.

Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia

The PhillySNAP team decided to address this issue – To do so, they turned to SMSified.

SMS (Short Message Service, also known popularly as “text messaging”) can be an ideal way to communicate with the widest possible group of users.

Almost all mobile phones are capable of sending and receiving SMS messages, whether they are newer “smart” phones with more sophisticated applications and web access, or older cell phones without these features.

Since location information can be delivered in a highly compact format, it is a good fit for SMS messaging.

SMSified’s powerful and simple to use REST API made it (pun intended) a snap to develop an SMS based application to that provides the locations of SNAP retailers and farmers markets.

The result of the team efforts can be viewed here. The PhillySNAP team was also recognized as one of the winners of the Philly RHoK event.

Congratulations to the PhillySNAP team and to all of the other participants and winners in RHoK events taking place across the country and around the around the world this past weekend.

©2011 SMSified. All Rights Reserved.

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©2011 Voxeo Labs. All Rights Reserved.

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