Judge prep for the Food Gap Finder
You don't need to know how the code works to present this well. This page covers what to say, where every number comes from, and model answers to the questions judges are most likely to ask. Read the first two sections and skim the rest.
The 60-second explanation
Say this almost word for word if you're nervous. It covers everything a judge needs before the demo.
Nova Scotia has the highest food insecurity rate in Canada, and about one in four people using food banks now have a job. But most food banks in Halifax are only open during the working day.
We took Feed Nova Scotia's real opening hours and Halifax Transit's real bus timetable, and asked: from every neighbourhood, at every half hour of the week, can you get to a food bank by bus while it's open?
The answer: about 8,500 people in high-need neighbourhoods live near a bus but have no food bank they can reach after work or on a weekend. Our app helps residents find what's open when they can actually get there. It also shows Feed Nova Scotia where the gaps are, and the cheapest fix: one extra evening session at one existing food bank, which would cover about 5,300 of those people.
Where the data comes from
Everything is free, public and official. Nothing is made up except the pilot cost estimates, and those are labelled.
| What | Source | What it tells us | How to say it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food banks and their hours | Feed Nova Scotia's "Find Food" page (feednovascotia.ca) | 39 food programs in HRM (28 food banks plus meal programs), with addresses and the days and hours they're open | "These are Feed Nova Scotia's own published hours for their member food banks." |
| Bus schedule | Halifax Transit's official timetable data (called GTFS, the same feed Google Maps uses) | Every bus route, stop and departure time for the current fall schedule | "We used the same timetable data Google Maps uses for Halifax buses." |
| Where people live | Statistics Canada 2021 Census, via HRM's open data portal | Population of 2,803 small census blocks and 604 neighbourhoods | "Population comes from the 2021 Census at the neighbourhood level." |
| Who's in need | Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation 2021 (Statistics Canada), via HRM open data | A 1–5 score for each neighbourhood on economic hardship. We count 4–5 as "high need". | "We used Statistics Canada's deprivation index to find the neighbourhoods under the most economic pressure." |
| Streets and map | HRM open data (street network, community boundaries) | The map, and the street address search | "The map and address search use HRM's own street data." |
| Big-picture stats | Statistics Canada Canadian Income Survey (via NS Finance); Food Banks Canada HungerCount and Feed NS | 26.2% of Nova Scotians food insecure in 2024. Food bank visits up 82% since 2019. About 1 in 4 clients employed. | Quote these on the problem slide and name the source. |
How the app works, in plain language
- We plan a trip like a transit app would, about 24 million times. From each of 2,803 census blocks where people live, we plan a bus or walking trip to each of the 39 food programs. We do it every half hour from 6 AM to 9:30 PM, every day of one week. Each trip includes the walk to the stop, the wait and transfers.
- A trip only counts if the food bank is open when you arrive. That means 45 minutes or less door to door, and arriving at least 15 minutes before closing.
- We add up the hours per neighbourhood. "Open & reachable hours" is how many hours a week you could leave home and reach an open food bank. "After-work hours" counts only weekday evenings from 5 PM plus weekends.
- We combine that with need. The gap score (0–100) is high when a neighbourhood is high-need and has few reachable hours.
- We test fixes. We tried adding one Thursday 5–7 PM session at every food bank, and parking a mobile pantry at every bus stop. Then we ranked them by how many high-need people get their first after-work option.
- The resident app uses the same results. When someone enters an address and a time, the app looks up the pre-calculated answer for that neighbourhood and time. That's why it's instant and works without internet.
Questions judges are likely to ask
Each card has a short answer, where to point in the app, and a fallback line if they push further.
The problem
Why does opening hours matter so much? Isn't distance the real issue?
Distance is part of it, but most people in Halifax's core are close to a food bank. The gap is timing: about 87% of the time a food bank is open and reachable falls during working hours. A food bank that's 15 minutes away is no help if it's only open Tuesday 10 to 12 and you're at work.
Show: Find Food → 330 Lacewood Dr → Tuesday 8 AM (options) vs Thursday 5:30 PM (none).
How do you know those 8,573 people actually need food support?
We don't know about each household. We know they live in neighbourhoods Statistics Canada rates in the top two levels of economic hardship. It's an area-level estimate, and we say so. The pilot is how we'd test it on the ground.
The data
Where does your data come from? Is any of it made up?
All of it is public and official: Feed Nova Scotia's published hours, Halifax Transit's timetable, the 2021 Census and Statistics Canada's deprivation index. The only estimates are the pilot costs, and they're labelled as estimates in the app.
Show: Partner Insights → "How this is calculated" box at the bottom.
How accurate are the travel times?
They come from the official bus schedule and include walking to the stop, waiting and transfers. We spot-checked trips we know, for example Lacewood to the Gesner Street food bank. Real-world delays and full buses aren't included, so if anything, real access is a bit worse than we show.
The census is from 2021. Isn't that out of date?
It's the most recent census. Food bank hours and bus schedules are current (fall 2026). Population has grown since 2021, so the real number affected is probably higher, not lower.
What about food banks that aren't part of Feed Nova Scotia, or community fridges?
Good point, they aren't included. We used Feed NS members because they publish standard hours. Adding other programs only takes a row in a spreadsheet. Three Feed NS programs list no hours, and we treat them as closed.
The solution and cost
Why one evening session instead of something bigger?
It's the cheapest thing that measurably helps. It uses a building, volunteers and food supply that already exist. One Thursday 5–7 PM session at Halifax West Ecumenical (Gesner St) gives 5,354 high-need people their first after-work option. We also tested a mobile pantry, which reaches slightly more people (5,569) but needs a vehicle.
Show: Partner Insights → Pilot cards.
What does it cost, and where do the numbers come from?
The calculator uses placeholder estimates: $150 a session for 8 weeks is about $1,200, or roughly $6 per household visit at 25 households a session. These aren't confirmed with a food bank yet. The point is that the cost is in the thousands, not hundreds of thousands, and the calculator updates live.
Show: change "Households served per session" in the calculator.
How would you know if the pilot worked?
Count visits to the evening session, the share of first-time households, and whether they come from the target neighbourhoods. If fewer than about 10 households a session come after 4 weeks, we'd move the session or switch to the mobile pantry.
What about rural HRM?
About 100,000 people have no bus stop within 800 m, mostly on the Eastern Shore and in rural areas. Changing food bank hours can't fix that, so we show them separately. Their fix is community transportation or delivery.
The product
Isn't this just another food bank finder? 211 and Feed NS already have one.
Those show where food is. Ours shows when you can actually get there, using real bus times and opening hours. More importantly, the partner side is a planning tool for Feed NS and HRM, and nothing like it exists now. The resident side could plug into 211 rather than compete with it.
Who maintains this after the hackathon? What does it cost to run?
It runs as a simple website with no servers or database, so hosting is essentially free. When Halifax Transit changes its schedule (about four times a year) or Feed NS updates hours, someone reruns three scripts, which takes under a minute. Feed NS already maintains the hours data.
What about privacy?
No accounts, no logins and no personal data are stored. Address searches happen inside the browser and aren't sent anywhere. All the analysis is at neighbourhood level.
How does this connect to RBC?
It's a low-cost, data-driven intervention that a community partner can run, the kind of project RBC Foundation funds. It also shows our team turning public data into a decision someone can act on, which is what we'd be doing in an analytics role.
What would you build next with more time?
Three things: real pilot costs from a food bank, adding non-Feed NS programs through 211, and real-world bus reliability data. Longer term, the same engine works for other services like clinics and libraries, which was Ali's original vision.
If you get stuck
- Don't know the answer: "That's a fair point. We haven't tested that yet, and it would be part of the pilot." Then move on.
- Challenged on a limit: "We list that limit in the app." Then point to "How this is calculated" on Partner Insights. Owning the limits builds trust.
- Asked a technical question: "We plan a bus trip from every neighbourhood to every food bank, every half hour of the week, and only count it if the food bank is open when you arrive." That one sentence answers most technical questions.
- Asked about a specific number: click the neighbourhood on the Partner Insights map, and the panel shows its numbers.
- Hand it over: "Jacob built the data pipeline and can follow up with details." That's fine to say.
Key terms
- GTFS
- The standard format transit agencies use to publish schedules. Google Maps reads the same file.
- Census block / dissemination area
- The smallest areas Statistics Canada reports on. A dissemination area (our "neighbourhood") is roughly 400–700 people.
- CIMD
- Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation. Statistics Canada's measure of hardship by area, with 1 (least deprived) to 5 (most) on economic dependency.
- High need
- A neighbourhood in level 4 or 5 of the economic dependency score.
- Open & reachable hours
- Hours a week you could leave home and reach an open food bank within 45 minutes.
- After-work hours
- The same, counting only weekdays from 5 PM plus weekends.
- Gap score
- 0–100. High when a neighbourhood is high-need and has few open-and-reachable hours (20 or more hours a week counts as enough).
- Feed Nova Scotia
- The provincial food bank network that supplies member food banks and publishes their hours.
- JustFOOD
- HRM's food strategy, approved by council in 2023, with Part B in 2024. It's a natural partner for the pilot.
If the demo breaks
- Refresh the page. Everything loads from the site, with no logins.
- Still broken? Click ▶ Take the 2-minute tour. It runs the full demo automatically, and you can narrate over it.
- No internet? Open
index.htmlfrom the repo on a laptop. It works offline, except "Use my location". - Load the app on a second laptop or phone before you present, just in case.
Numbers as of 27 Oct 2026 data pull. Feed NS hours, Halifax Transit fall 2026 schedule, Census 2021, CIMD 2021.