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Hacking Hunger: TASK & MIT Make it a Team Effort
MIT Hackathon event generates innovative solutions to complex issues
Recently, TASK hosted 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 was run by the MIT PKG Center for Social Impact, was 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.
The hackathon participant groups worked through one of two problems, posed by TASK:
1. Develop a patron feedback communication platform to alleviate the soup kitchen’s strain to gather real-time feedback and respond to emerging needs in our rapidly-evolving world;
2. 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 worked through root-cause analysis, ideation brainstorming, prototyping and storytelling before the pitch and judging portion of the event. This was the first time that students and alumni hosted a hackathon off campus, with students and organizers traveling to TASK from MIT’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, home base. In early 2026, MIT will also provide two student interns to work with TASK to help implement the winning proposal.
“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.
Read More
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TASK’s Hunger Relief Impact Report
