Service design
Date: 2018
Role: Adjunct Faculty & advisor, Northwestern University
Challenge
Two statistics taken together showed an opportunity for change: More than 41 million Americans, many facing challenges with mobility and transportation, experience a lack of access to affordable and nutritious foods. Meanwhile, 133 billion pounds of food go to waste in the US each year.
That information inspired the student projects in DSGN 401-3: Service Design to develop solutions to help Feeding America, the nation’s third-largest nonprofit, better distribute rescued foods from major retail stores to food-insecure community members.
Strategy & solutions
As part of my ongoing role as adjunct faculty at Northwestern, I co-lectured and ran the weekly design critiques of this 10-week graduate-level course. I guided four teams of five students studying in the Engineering Design Innovation (EDI) program at Northwestern University to create solutions to help the nonprofit better distribute rescued foods from retail stores. Teams conducted interviews, observed food distribution at local food pantries, visited grocery stores to talk with managers responsible for rescuing food and collaborated closely with Feeding America’s partner, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, through the process.
One group’s project, NeighbourFood, created a network of volunteers who receive charitable foods themselves but have access to transportation to deliver rescued food to other people in their community with limited mobility. Other solutions created during the class included a program to increase food donations by incentivizing grocery store employees with tangible benefits. Another group created Bridge, an online platform to connect food suppliers, volunteers, patrons, and agencies. A mobile locker food truck, enRoute, provided a discrete, secure, and convenient option for those facing food insecurity.
Outcome
The work was so successful that one project, Neighborfood, received Honorable Mention in the Design Management Institute (DMI) Design Value Awards, one of 12 groups from around the world recognized for delivering significant value through design and design management best practices. More importantly, this course was the beginning of my mentorship of students whom I still provide with career advice and professional connections. After the Service Design course completed, I began advising EDI students on their Master’s thesis projects from 2018-2020, and also advised students at the Institute of Design during their initial product design course with Martin Thaler from 2018-2019.