The mission of the Libre Food Pantry is to offer free and open-source software to manage the logistics of operating a food pantry. The project is developed using agile values and adhered to FOSSisms which are a collection of quotes that relate to open-source software development. The code of conduct of the Libre Food Pantry is to not tolerate discrimination of any form and to operate with a strict equity policy. Those who contribute must follow the GPLv3 and attributions must follow the CC-BY-SA 4.0 where each sign-off follow the Developer Certificate of Origin 1.1 schema. The Libre Food Pantry acknowledgments detail the sponsors, software, clients, people, and institutions that make the project possible. A major sponsor is AWS which provides free hosting for the project. I chose to write about these details to familiarize myself with the details of the development process of this project.

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

The LibreFoodPantry.org site allows for an easy onboarding, which is something I have been thinking a lot about this close to graduation.  The project is very well defined and spans a good number of educational institutions. I like that is not own by one but multiple responsible parties which to me lends it credibility. It was interesting to see the term FOSS mentioned with emphasis and I wasn’t sure what it was although I probably had used more than a few tools that meet the criteria. Contributing to a free and open source software that has charitable goals is a great way to learn and feel good about it.

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

If you haven’t known yet, let me introduce this open-source software, LibreFoodPantry, from a group of professors from Worcester, Massachusetts. If you also weren’t familiar with the term open-source software, don’t let the term intimidate you, it is nothing but illustrating that the software is free to use and open for improvement. This project goal not only is a way to let students interact with practical problems but also helps local food pantries serve their guests.

Since this is an open-source repository, students can keep improving the software under its license, learn new materials and develop something that benefits the community. Currently, the project is still in the development phase by the time this blog is uploaded. Hopefully, by the end of this May, we can see its first launch to the community. 

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