Arcadia University has teamed up with Caring for Friends’ Meals for Homebound Client Friends to provide evening meals for homebound seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Caring for Friends (CFF), a foodbank in Northeast Philadelphia in operation for nearly 50 years, includes the help of Arcadia MBA alumnus Jeff Frazier (pictured far right), who began delivering meals with CFF as part of his volunteer work with the Glenside-Abington Rotary.
A core component of CFF focuses on delivering home-cooked meals to the homebound on a bi-monthly basis. The volunteer drivers then spend some time with the recipients.
Frazier is tasked with developing the Cheltenham, Abington, and Willow Grove areas. This spring he engaged Arcadia’s Computer Science Department, overseeing the initial phase of a probable two-year series of Senior Capstone Projects.
This series of Capstone projects is the first effort of the newly formed Arcadia University Alumni Business Network (ABN), which integrates undergraduate business and computer science students with MBA graduates to further the goals of Caring for Friends and other causes in the area.
The initial phase of Capstones was to design the framework for a web-based mapping program with two computer science seniors, Steve Alverez and Kevin Abraham, under the supervision of their Associate Professor, Dr. Yaxian Jia. The first series of Capstone presentations took place on Thursday, April 27.
“The goal of the multi-pronged project is to develop a more efficient food distribution mechanism for the Meals for Homebound Client Friends,” Frazier said.
“In the long term,” Frazier continued, “this meals program could be scalable and used as a model nationwide, and possibly through Rotary International.”
Steve Alverez (pictured center right), who focused more on coding the project’s mapping elements, said, “it was a pleasure to work alongside Kevin, Professor Jia, and Jeff Frazier. I’m excited to see where this project will be in the coming year and I’m hopeful that it becomes an important tool for the Rotary Club and Caring for Friends.”
Kevin Abraham (pictured center left) focused on the aesthetics and integrating functionalities. Kevin said he was grateful to work on this project because “it is for a great cause, and I hope that this app can keep growing and help lots of people who are hungry.”
Dr. Jia (pictured far left) helped bridge the gap between Frazier’s ideas and what the two students could reasonably accomplish during their last semester.
“The learning components in this project are fascinating,” Dr. Jia said. “Visiting the facility, meeting with our clients, transforming Jeff’s ideas into technical implementations, communicating effectively, and balancing priorities.”
Dr. Jia was grateful for the opportunity for “this service-learning opportunity that Caring for Friends provided for our students.”
For more on Caring for Friends, you can visit their website.
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