Click to Feed. Mobile Phone Applications’ Role in Improving Food Access in Romania

Abstract

This paper explores the role of digital tools in surfacing and encouraging action against instances of social injustice in Romania, with a focus on food access. Starting from an analysis of developers/owners’ motivations in creating a series of mobile phone applications combatting food waste, this research looks at digital tools’ role in promoting the redistribution of surplus food items that would otherwise go to waste. While acknowledging the limited scope of this endeavor, it is my suggestion that this form of Internet-based food activism is in its incipient stages in Romania and that it does not necessarily aim or have the force to induce social change for the moment.