Solutions from Ukraine: EPAM volunteers create foodbanking platform
During Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, food security has become one of the key factors in the country's resilience. Alongside efforts to preserve and develop the food industry, millions of tonnes of quality food that could improve the lives of people facing hardship go to waste in Ukraine every year.
The problem of food waste management can be solved through the foodbanking model, strengthened by effective digital solutions. This approach addresses not only social issues but also environmental ones. When food ends up in landfills, it becomes a source of methane emissions — one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases. Reducing food losses is a priority in global environmental policy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Foodbanking is a system of responsible food redistribution that enables products to be saved from destruction and delivered to those who need them most. These are products that have lost commercial value because of a short shelf life, packaging changes, or assortment updates, but remain certified and safe for consumption. In 2025 alone, the nonprofit organization FoodBank Ukraine saved and donated more than 4.5 million kilograms of food. That equals almost 10 million meals for more than 1.4 million people from frontline areas.
Photo source: EPAM
Warehouse infrastructure is one of the key elements of FoodBank Ukraine's work. It receives large batches of products from businesses, checks them, sorts them, and prepares them for further distribution to communities.
To improve the fund's operations, as in the commercial sector, modern digital management tools are needed. Over the course of a year, EPAM IT volunteers developed the relevant solution. The Digital FoodBank IT platform enables automated request processing, planning needs, controlling product stocks, and coordinating volumes of humanitarian cargo. This increases the system's transparency, efficiency, and scalability while reducing the workload on the fund's operators.
Fourteen IT volunteers from EPAM Ukraine participated in the development at various stages. They worked on the project for about a year — from the discovery phase to release and testing.
Technologically, the solution runs entirely on Google Cloud Platform services thanks to special terms for charitable organizations. The architecture has been optimized to keep the platform's current operating costs minimal for the organization. The partners plan to continue optimizing the solution and adding new system functions.
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1 of July 2026
