Girl Code

Everything You Need to Know About Feasted, Our Codeathon Winner

The NYC tech community assembled to brainstorm with the winner of Clinton Foundation's Women's Healthy Codeathon Series.

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

When it comes to supporting motivated and hardworking women, we're always game. That’s why SELF was thrilled to serve as the official media partner at the Women's Health Codeathon series (one of three across the country) back in August. What is that, you ask? Essentially, it was an inspiring weekend hosted by the Clinton Foundation, Ace Hotel and Jawbone in which female developers and designers worked to build original apps around the theme of women’s nutrition.

The winner of #Code4Health was the group behind an app called Feasted (whom you can learn more in our November issue, on stands and online now!), with a mission to aid and improve the health and nutrition experience of families in need. Its core goal is to help busy moms who rely on nutrition-assistance programs for food by working in conjunction with government nutrition programs and food-donation centers. Talk about a #SELFMade project!

But as Lexie Komisar, associate director of digital health and innovation for the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative, put it, there are lots events that stop at announcing a winner and a prize; on the contrary, the Clinton Foundation is committed to “supporting entrepreneurs and visionaries and helping bring some of these amazing innovations to communities that need it most,” explained Komisar. And yes, while the Feasted app (@wefeasted) is totally brilliant, the concept still needs further development.

That’s where Luminary Labs, a strategy and innovation consultancy, came in. The strategy group’s CEO, Sara Holoubek (who was a judge back in August), wanted to take the project to the next stage, thinking “What would happen if we gathered together a highly curated group of the smartest people we know to support and network with an early stage idea,” such as Feasted?

In attempts to answer that question, Luminary Labs hosted its first interactive Lab Session last night, a gathering focused on synthesis and networking, concluding with new connections and a tangible plan.

Candace Williams, community and business strategist of Feasted, explained, “We’ve all been to an event where everyone puts sticky notes on a wall and everyone’s excited, but this has been pretty groundbreaking. I’ve literally thought about things that I never would have thought about.”

Luminary Labs gets high marks for assembling such a specific and esteemed group of minds from the NYC tech and business community to help develop an important app with a strong social mission, like Feasted. So, what did the event provide as an answer to Luminary Labs' question? When you gather a group of smart, supportive innovators, you can help solve some of society’s most pressing issues, is the answer.

RELATED

Image Credit: Paige DePaolis (2)