The Technology Association of Georgia is mobilizing Atlanta's technology community on behalf of the Atlanta Community Food Bank as part of a weekend of great ideas and giving back to the community.

The festivities kick off on May 30th with the TAG Day of Service. Volunteers from TAG member companies will sort and pack food boxes in the Atlanta Community Food Bank's Product Rescue Center (PRC). PRC volunteers are an essential part of helping the Food Bank to distribute millions of pounds of food to those facing hunger and food insecurity in our community. Children 8 years old or older are welcome to participate.

The National Day of Civic Hacking Atlanta event will start on May 30th -June 1st and TAG is seeking “Civic Hackers” and others throughout Metro Atlanta to help develop solutions for the Atlanta Community Food Bank. The event is one of over 100 events taking place throughout the U.S. as part of National Day of Civic Hacking. Sponsored by Intel, this is a significant opportunity for government agencies, businesses, nonprofits and civically-engaged individuals to work together to solve complex social problems.

Participants gathering at the Atlanta Community Food Bank will use their diverse expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to make an impact on the food community and to improve access to food for those in need in the Atlanta market. Numerous participating government agencies include NASA, the Census Bureau, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Institutes of Health and Peace Corps.

The event is a call to action for anyone in Atlanta who wants to make an impact; anyone can get involved, irrespective of professional experience. Projects can address any challenge facing the community: from a mobile app drivers can use to report potholes, to platforms that address food and housing distribution for those in need. The civic hacking event at the Atlanta Community Food Bank will illustrate the power of open government practices, particularly where data is readily available to support meaningful collaboration between the public and private sectors.

“The Atlanta Community Food Bank is excited to be a part of this catalytic event. Bringing together thought leaders in the technology space and applying the powerful tools of innovation and creativity to the work of helping those in our community that live with food insecurity is an incredible prospect, and we look forward to providing a platform for this collaboration,” said Bill Bolling, Executive Director, Atlanta Community Food Bank.

National Day of Civic Hacking will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaboratively create new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology at events all across the nation. Communities that participate are able to leverage the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of those outside of government to drive meaningful, technology-based solutions to solve issues that are important to their communities.

“Civic hackers are engineers, software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists and concerned citizens who collaborate with the government and others to invent ways to improve quality of life in their communities,” Tino Mantella, TAG President and CEO, said in a statement. "TAG is proud to unite Georgia’s technology community and I strongly urge Atlanta’s best and brightest to participate in this endeavor.”

Individuals interested in participating in the TAG Day of Service event at the Atlanta Community Food Bank may contact Casey Dudek at casey(at)tagonline(dot)org.

App developers, coders and software engineers interested in contributing their expertise to TAG's National Day of Civic Hacking efforts for the Atlanta Community Food Bank may contact Heather Miner at heather(at)tagonline(dot)org.