(Madera, California) – Registration is now open for Valley Children’s upcoming virtual Hackathon focused on bringing people together to combat a major issue affecting the health of kids: food insecurity. One in four children in the Central Valley lacks consistent access to enough and healthy food. This commonly stems from a lack of financial resources for food in the household.
Valley Children’s Guilds Center for Community Health and George’s Idea Lab have partnered with the Innovation Institute to bring together pediatric caregivers, business leaders, students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders for a weekend of collaboration. You can join a team and “hack” - or quickly create - solutions to address the issue of food insecurity in children. Join Valley Children’s Oct. 8 as we bring together the best and brightest from across the country to ideate on solutions to solve this important issue.
The theme is Hacking Hunger: No Child Goes Hungry, A Food Insecurity Challenge. Winning teams will receive cash prizes and move forward into the Innovation Lab’s incubation process – valued at up to $100,000. The three-day event will take place virtually. Judges include representatives from Amazon, Season, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, HumankindNOW and Valley Children’s.
Valley Children’s Hackathon
Friday, Oct. 8 – Sunday, Oct. 10
Location: Virtual
No cost to participate
Schedule
Friday: 5 p.m. PST – Event Kick Off, Problem Pitches & Team Formation
Saturday: 8 a.m. PST – Reconvene and continue Hacking
Sunday: 9 a.m. PST – Reconvene, 11 a.m., Final Pitching, Judging & Award Ceremony
To learn more about the Hackathon and to register, please visit www.valleychildrens.org/hackathon. Space is limited.
Last year, Valley Children’s held its first-ever hackathon - “Rethinking Pediatric Healthcare: Innovations for our ‘New Normal’.” More than 10 problems were pitched, six solutions were presented and three top prizes were awarded and moved forward into the Innovation Lab’s incubation process. Watch this video to see how last year’s virtual hackathon went and to learn more about how you can get involved in helping us make a difference in the lives of our kids.
In October of 2019, Valley Children’s launched a partnership with The Innovation Institute, a national, independent medical product incubator and healthcare series provider to spark innovation across the health network. The Institute’s Innovation Lab is staffed with scientists, doctors and commercialization experts who evaluate ideas, build prototypes, protect them, license them and then take them to market directly or through industry partners. Valley Children’s innovation program, known as George’s Idea Lab, operates as part of The Innovation Lab.