Thea’s Pantry helps provide food and other essentials to students, staff, and faculty in need. The pantry was established to help students who experience food insecurity, to allow them to focus on their studies and complete their education. In regards to researching more on Thea’s Pantry, it’s surprising how many different systems, components, and features are involved with the systems architecture. There are a few different systems including GuestInfoSystem, InventorySystem, ReportingSystem, IAMSystem, and EventSystem, that each have their own separate components and features that each complete their own specific tasks. I selected this for the reasoning that many individuals believe that these type of systems can be constructed and running easily and quickly. In actuality when creating these complicated systems involves lots of trial and error, testing, and lots of work to ensure every system and component is running efficiently, correctly, and used as intended.

LibreFoodPantry is a project that is being constructed primarily by instructors and their students. What is interesting about this is that not only Worcester State students are participating in this project. Students from Nassau Community College, Western New England University, and Worcester State University are all participating in this project. Anyone can work and contribute to this project, adding new features or improvements or addressing known issues within the system. A singular individual may not know how to address every problem or issue. Therefore having the capability to interact with other people working on the project and having others review work can be extremely beneficial and help anyone learn more than what they previously knew.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Conner Moniz Blog by connermoniz1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Exploring LibreFoodPantry and Thea’s Pantry

LibreFoodPantry is a community building free and open source software for food pantries. Thea’s Pantry is the food pantry provding food and other essentials to the Worcester State community,

LibreFoodPantry

When familiarizing with LibreFoodPanty, I found the Coordinating Committee page to be be the most interesting. This is because it shows the different universities that are working together to create software for food pantries. Those working with LibreFoodPantry are Nassau Community College, Western New England University, and Worcester State University. These three universities working together strengthens the Mission statement of LibreFoodPantry by being three smaller communities coming together to make one larger community who believes software can be used to help society.

Thea’s Pantry

While exploring the Thea’s Pantry Gitlab group, the architecture of the entire system is what I found to be most interesting. Thea’s Pantry uses a microservices architecture which involves breaking down the system into smaller subsystems. In the context of Thea’s Pantry, there are 5 total systems being used where two of them are from a third-party. Each subsystem is composed of features which uses components.

I found the architecture to be most interesting because we will be working on different parts of the system; therefore, understanding how the system is composed and how it functions would be helpful.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Zack's CS Blog by ztram1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For my capstone class, I needed to familiarize myself with these before working on the project.

With regard to the LibreFoodPantry docs, I think the organization structure is fairly interesting. It’s a great idea to give students a direct opportunity to engage in FOSS development in the real world and actually take part in something. It’s good for experience regardless of where students decide to go with their education. Not to mention that this is an actual piece of software being used across multiple campuses for a good cause.

We’ve spent a fair amount of time with an older version of Thea’s Pantry for one of my previous courses, but I didn’t get to really look at the actual up to date repository. It’s interesting to see all of the individual systems that combine into a full Microservice structure. With regard to the documentation, I found it fairly admirable to have a piece on inclusivity in the Computer Science space. It really is important to allow people who are interested in the space to feel welcome instead of outcasted and feeling like they don’t belong, whether by intention or not. As the documentation says, these perspectives are definitely an important addition so that software can be even better, I recall statistics that show a more diverse team tends to make a higher quality product.

From the blog CS@Worcester – V's CompSCi Blog by V and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I find the Code of Conduct outlined by LibreFoodPantry particularly interesting. It establishes a commitment to maintaining a harassment-free and inclusive community for all members, emphasizing values such as empathy, kindness, and respect. The use of specific examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, along with a clear enforcement process, contributes to making a positive environment within the community. I chose to write about this because it reflects the project’s dedication to developing open-source software and to create a supportive and diverse community. The emphasis on social good and the proactive approach to ensuring a welcoming atmosphere align with the broader mission of using technology for society better.

Regarding Thea’s Pantry, the user stories caught my attention. Specifically, the process of handling guest visits, including the registration of new visitors and the streamlined checkout system, stood out. The attention to detail in managing inventory, tracking guest visits, and handling new donations showcases a well-designed system to efficiently serve the community. I chose to write about this aspect because it highlights the practical application of the software in a real-world context, demonstrating how technology can enhance the operations of a food pantry and contribute to a more organized and effective service for both staff and visitors.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Site Title by rkaranja1002 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I’m starting my (hopefully) last semester in Worcester State’s Computer Science program, and the focus of our capstone course will be contributing to the microservices supporting Thea’s Pantry at Worcester State University. Thea’s Pantry is using a guest frontend, reporting and inventory system built by the LibreFoodPantry humanitarian free open-source software community. LibreFoodPantry is managed by a coordinating committee and a board of trustees, and has adopted a Code of Conduct modeled after the Contributor Covenant. I hadn’t heard of the Contributor Covenant before reviewing the website for Thea’s Pantry. The Contributor Covenant provides a general set of community guidelines that foster a respectful and welcoming space for collaborative open-source software development. I have previously learned that a policy of enthusiastic inclusivity and openness is essential to an open-source project’s success, but I hadn’t realized that such a policy would consequently necessitate the creation of a robust code of conduct for the project’s contributors.

In the Software Design & Architecture course I took last semester, I learned about semantic versioning in software and how it’s used to keep track of a software’s present state even after many alterations to the source code. In order for Gitlab to correctly increment a commit’s semantic versioning number, contributors to Thea’s Pantry are expected to attach commit messages to their work that adhere to the Conventional Commits standard. The Conventional Commits standard requires developers to include a type of change such as “fix” or “feat” at the beginning of their commit message. “Fix” commits signal a patch, and will increment the rightmost semantic versioning number, while “Feat” commits signal a feature update that would be reflected by an increase in a middle semantic versioning number. If a breaking change will be introduced, that would be notated by either a “BREAKING CHANGE:” footer, or a “!” appended to the commit type.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Michael's Programming Blog by mikesprogrammingblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The Libre Food Pantry project and Thea’s Food Pantry at Worcester State University both represent impactful initiatives addressing food insecurity, each in their unique way.

1. The Libre Food Pantry Initiative: This initiative brilliantly merges technology and social welfare. By focusing on developing free and open-source software specifically for local food pantries, the Libre Food Pantry is a stellar example of how technology can be leveraged for social good. This initiative stands out for its innovative approach, where software development directly contributes to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of food pantries. Additionally, the project’s commitment to inclusivity, diversity, and a healthy community ethos, as reflected in its values and code of conduct, marks it as a progressive endeavor in both the tech and social service sectors.

2. Thea’s Food Pantry at Worcester State University: Named in honor of alumna and Holocaust survivor Thea Aschkenase, this campus-based service is a testament to community solidarity and support. It addresses the critical issue of student food insecurity, offering food and essentials to students, staff, and faculty in need. Operating from the Student Center, Thea’s Food Pantry provides confidential assistance, ensuring that members of the university community can focus on their academic and professional pursuits without the burden of food scarcity. The pantry’s operation, supported by student volunteers from various clubs and departments, including the SNAP practicum and the Urban Studies Club, is a wonderful example of campus community engagement and support.

Both initiatives, through their respective approaches, demonstrate the power of community-driven efforts in addressing fundamental human needs. The Libre Food Pantry’s focus on technology as a tool for social good, and Thea’s Food Pantry’s direct support to the university community, each highlight the importance of tailored solutions to societal challenges.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Kadriu's Blog by Arber Kadriu and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.