uMunch, a new and affordable food-ordering application (app), is set to launch in London, Ontario by January 2018.
Photo provided by uMunch Facebook page
High school friends and Western University alumni, Amir Rezvani and Arvind Rajah, decided to create an app that encouraged the idea of togetherness and affordability around food. Rezvani and Rajah came up with the idea for the app during their time as roommates at Western University.
“We lived as a group of five and always ate dinner together. Usually one person would order and we would all just pay him back so everyone didn’t have to pay delivery. It was cheaper that way,” said Rajah.
The app creators found that the concept of eating together brought their group of friends closer as well.
“It was a good experience. The idea [for the app] was born from this togetherness and the breaking bread together feeling…We wanted to create an app that encourages people to order together and save their money,” continues Rajah.
As advocates for students, the Western alumni travel to restaurants in the London area searching for deals that they can offer through uMunch. The app offers food options from various popular restaurants within London such as Burger Burger and Thaifoon.
“What we are aiming to do is not just provide the food for students that are looking to order, but we’re looking to provide more flexibility to students that are on campus,” said Rezvani.
The friends are planning to enforce a “hot-spot” destination, where students who order from the app can pick up their delivery from a designated spot on campus, such as the UCC.
Once the app is released, Rezvani and Rajah plan to find methods of distribution for uMunch that will bring the ordered food directly to the customer. The app also aims to eliminate delivery fees and processes as much as possible for its customers.
“We would do that through our own delivery drivers…We would have certain restaurants provide food for that day for lunch and we would have all the orders be ready at once and taken to campus,” said Rezvani.
“Instead of 20 cars going to campus, one car would take all the food to campus. This would really reduce costs and we would be able to cover that and make it free for students,” continued Rezvani.
Not only do the Western alumni aim to cut down on food delivery costs for students and other customers, but uMunch will be free to download as well.
“One thing we are really focusing on is saving students money. We know that for many students it is pretty tough, you have a lot of expenses. A lot of students, especially around exam time, don’t have time to make food and they tend to eat out, or not eat,” said Rezvani.
Looking into the future, the uMunch partners would like to allow for Western’s meal plan dollars to be usable on the app, but there will be more planning involved before being able to launch this initiative.
“Our goal is to eventually get to the point where the cost of ordering food from off campus becomes almost identical to actually walking to the restaurant here and ordering it,” said Rezvoni.
Keep your eyes open for the official launch of uMunch by liking them on Facebook.
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