Ania, Martyna, Summer and Madieson's Story

In 2024, Ania, Martyna, Summer, and Madieson from St Paul’s RC Academy in Dundee took part in our App for Social Action course. They entered our 2024 Showcase with their app idea ‘Hungry Elephants’, which was designed to provide healthy recipe inspiration for users of food banks, helping to make the most of available ingredients and reduce food waste.

The team used their personal experiences as inspiration for the app, recognising that there was a need for the app within their community as one of their brothers volunteered in a local food bank. Ania said, "It does feel good that you can actually address what you care about. It feels like you are actually able to change something in the world and solve the problems".

Taking part in the course boosted the team’s confidence significantly. “We’ve overcome our fear of presenting our idea… this was a great opportunity to boost our confidence,” said Madieson. The team worked closely together to develop their app idea, and prepare and deliver their pitch to a panel of industry professionals.

Hungry Elephants was one of three shortlisted ideas in the 2024 Showcase Ethical Innovators category, supported by Sage. After delivering a confident and passionate presentation that impressed the judging panel, they were named Judge’s Favourite. Madieson said, “I’m really proud of me and our team and our app, the pitch went better than expected, I like that we did teamwork, we worked together really well”.