Dignity
Start with the people behind a need, and respect their lived experience.
The Be Good Project · Founder profile
Apollo Rimando
Founder & Nonprofit Leader
Building practical ways for people to help one another, through community, volunteerism, and technology.
Lived experience
A personal reason to act.
Apollo Rimando founded The Be Good Project in Seattle in 2012 after personally experiencing hunger. That experience helped shape his commitment to practical support, dignity, and a community where people can help one another through difficult times.
Loss and resilience
When the building was lost,
the mission remained.
BGP operated from donated office space and ran a food-bank operation. A fire destroyed the space and the food-bank operation. The organization could not recover the donated office space and lost its operational base.
Without sufficient funding to rebuild a traditional operation, Apollo saw technology as a way to continue BGP’s mission. The shift was a practical response to limited resources: find another way to connect people with support.
A collective effort
Technology built with people.
Volunteers and collaborators contributed their skills to Banana App and other BGP project work. Designers, developers, project coordinators, and community contributors helped turn ideas into practical work. Their contributions are central to the story.
Apollo’s role brings together mission, direction, relationships, and community perspective. The technology work reflects the efforts of many people, not one person working alone.
The next chapter
Restarting with purpose.
After a brief rest, BGP is restarting and preparing to publicly launch MVPs. These early versions are part of a renewed effort to explore practical responses to community needs.
BGP remains a small nonprofit and is not yet fully funded. Continued support can help sustain the people, resources, and collaboration needed to move the work forward.
Our focus is on learning, building responsibly, and reporting progress accurately as the work develops.
Mission and values
Common good, built together.
Collaboration
Recognize the volunteers, contributors, and communities who make the work possible.
Practical service
Connect community knowledge with useful tools and responsible action.
Historical background
Read more about the journey.
These sources document earlier stages of BGP and Banana App. They provide historical context rather than evidence of current app availability or current impact.
DemocracyLab: Banana App Decentralizes Food Distribution (July 13, 2020) ↗
DemocracyLab: Banana App - Using Technology to Help Hunger Problems (May 2, 2020) ↗