New app compares grocery prices, discounts to combat food insecurity in Maritimes

A student-led initiative called Blyyss aims to help people access affordable groceries.

Conrad Scotchburn and Van Bernard decided they wanted to do something about food insecurity in Nova Scotia.

So, they created Blyyss, a website and app that puts together weekly flyer promotions and organizing price comparisons.

“Blyyss formed because we were worried, really, me and my friends, about food expenses,” said Scotchburn, founder and CEO of Blyyss Technologies Inc. “We’re in Nova Scotia, which has the highest food inflation rate in the country, and we thought that the current tools available to navigate these expenses were fragmented.”

Inspired by apps like Flipp, they said they wanted to add more resources for people, citing elevated numbers at Nova Scotia food banks and community fridges.

“You can have the peace of mind to know that you’re just taking advantage of all those existing sales that are hard to find,” says Scotchburn.

“We really allow our users to put in their whole list of items or meals that they want to create and get more of a holistic, recommended view on the best fit store for what they want,” he says.

“It’s for them. So really, that recommended view they get is really a best fit store for what they want, whether it’s groceries, whether it’s our access kind of resource map or the meals they want to create.”

The platform goes beyond just showing where sales are, it gives recipes and provides the cheapest options to get the ingredients, shows maps, store hours, accessibility and locations of grocery stores, foodbanks and community fridges.

The responses they’ve received so far have been positive.

“The community loves the app. I mean, we’re helping solve huge problems like food insecurity, where we are at a very high risk here in Nova Scotia,” said Bernard. “Collaborating with food banks and other stakeholders to allow people to eat, because hunger is a huge issue. And helping to be a part of trying to solve that problem is amazing.”

Scotchburn said they contacted food banks and non-profit organizations for their feedback before launching the platform. “We were framing the tool in a way that was complementary to the already kind of existing resources in the space,” he explained.

He said they’ve worked with organizations like Parker Street Food & Furniture Bank and Feed Nova Scotia in the process.

Parker Street’s food program manager Josie Young told CTV News she really liked the platform when they introduced it to her, calling it an important resource.

“We’re helping [people] as most as we can. But our boxes are supplementary, right?” she explained. “So, they really can’t have the expectation that the box that we give them is going to last them, you know, for a three-week period… now they’re going to have this source of information where they can go and get the rest of the groceries they need after they come to us in a more affordable way.”

For food banks, this is a vital tool at residents’ fingertips.

“Our food map allows people to see what food banks are open, they don’t have to be wondering where their next meal will come from,” said Bernard. “And they also allow people to volunteer through our app with those food banks.”

“We can be readily accessible to them. You know, on Tuesdays we are close to clients because we do deliveries for our clients who are immobile and cannot make it here,” said Young.

Creating this tool is dependent on user input, and Bernard said they’ve continued to see growth in users and stakeholders alike.

“The users have been amazing, they’re what keeps us running day-in and day-out,” he said.

“Whether it’s hearing stories about thanking us because we help them find where their next meal would be, or it’s, ‘I’m a single mom of four boys and you helped me create recipes.’ It’s amazing stories like that. They keep us running and it shows that we can do this to create a company where we can do it for the people, and that’s what we aspire to do,” said Bernard.

“I feel as if most stakeholders that I’ve approached, they’ve been a bit stunned,” he added.

“They’ve been shocked and impressed by not only the user interface of the app, but the initiative that we’re doing and the success that we’re having while doing it.”

A tool that is meant to make life simple, and affordable.

Bernard and Scotchburn continue make their platform easy, accessible and affordable for users.

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