Welcome to Innovation Feast.

We’re thrilled to have you as our guest. To learn more about the 8 Eat.Think.Design. projects being presented today, please scroll down. Projects are described in the order that they will be presented.

To find out more about the course overall, you can visit the main course website. Enjoy!

Heart of the City

Heart of City Farmer’s Market (HOTC) is San Francisco’s only independent, farmer-operated non-profit market. With only three staff members, the market accounts for nearly 70% of all federal nutrition benefits (SNAP) spent at farmers markets’ in San Francisco – more than $200,000 annually. Market employees swipe electronic benefit cards through a terminal at the central market booth and provide tokens for SNAP funds. Tokens are redeemed with individual farmers, who are reimbursed by market administrators at the end of the market day. While this system works well for customers and vendors, it requires a tremendous time investment by market employees. Our team was inspired by the market staff’s dedication to the diverse community that HOTC serves. We wanted to streamline the administrative end of the token system so that market employees could focus their efforts on continued investment in the local community.

Team: Sika Gasinu, Nicole Danna, Justin Jones

Learn more: Heart of the City Farmer’s Market

Revolution Foods Ambassadors

Revolution Foods is a company on a mission to change the way America eats. At the core of their mission is not just selling products but more importantly, changing American eating behaviors to enable all Americans to live longer, healthier lives. Their brand awareness, especially in markets in which they do not serve schools, is low – but their brand story and mission is compelling for consumers, and their products solve a real need for parents. Our project is to increase their brand awareness through the design of a brand ambassador program. In order to design a compelling program for these loyal customers, we have conducted market research and ethnographic interviews, and studied similar ambassador programs that have shown effectiveness in this and other categories. Our final deliverable is a Revolution Foods ambassador program that leverages the brand story and mission in an implementable and effective way.

Team: Maya Tobias, Michael Kersten

Learn more about Revolution Foods: On the Web, @RevolutionFoods on Twitter, Facebook

Eat.Think…Zinc!

What does a ketchup pack have to do with a lifesaving treatment for childhood diarrhea in the developing world? A lot. By eliminating the need for clean water and measurement tools, Eat.Think…Zinc! has redesigned a cumbersome treatment strategy by adding convenience and delight for both the rural mother and her child.

Team: Jennifer Chaussee, Emily Claymore, Orianna DeMasi

Learn more: Clinton Health Access Initiative

Sariwa! Fresh

Sariwa is a celebration of farm-fresh, seasonal Filipino/American foods. We created a pop-up restaurant to help introduce people to healthier versions of familiar favorite dishes. Our dishes are inspired by the rich culinary traditions of the Philippines, joined with California’s unique flavors and homegrown, abundant produce. Come to share delicious fresh food and stories in good company.

Team: Aileen Suzara, Michele Beleu, Lila Iino-Rubenstein, Joyce Liu

Learn more: Sariwa (Fresh!)

Gardening in Gondar

Ethiopia is the grain basket of the world yet access to nutrient rich foods that can relieve malnutrition remains difficult and stunting rates have currently reached 44.4% of the population in Ethiopia. People in the rural areas outside of Gondar (particularly children) have been displaced from their families’ farm land and lack access to agricultural products and information for small scale vegetable gardening which could improve nutrition. The Kossoye Development Project has been successfully combating this lack of nutrient rich vegetables through it’s demonstration based gardening programs in the Kossoye village. Demonstration based education in communities is effective, however, it is difficult to scale and reach larger populations. For our project we focused on strategies to make home gardening education more accessible with the goal to disseminate actionable information about growing chard to children (8-12 yo) in Northern rural Ethiopia near Gondar.

Team: Darcy Craig, Stephanie Greer, Suhaib Saqib Syed

Learn more: Kossoye Development Program

City Harvest Mobile Market

City Harvest’s Mobile Markets provide rapid infusions of free fresh produce to five of the most food insecure communities in New York City. We worked with the largest market in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, which serves 300-500 customers on each market day. The Bed-Stuy mobile market is championed by passionate staff and volunteers who distribute more than 16,000 pounds of free food every 2 weeks. City Harvest first introduced its Mobile Market program 10 years ago, and has created an efficient and sustainable method for distributing large amounts of produce. However, as they work to improve the experience of their clients, City Harvest is interested in redesigning their distribution process.

Team: Laura Vollmer, Nancy Pham, Sowmya Srinivasan, Lauren Valdez

Learn more about City Harvest: On the Web, @CityHarvest on Twitter, @cityharvestnyc on Instragram

The Final Mile

Roughly the size of the state of West Virginia, Navajo Nation spans 27,425 square miles. It’s dry, rural, and remote, and the USDA has classified the entire nation as a food desert. An estimated 10 percent of Navajo Nation members have diabetes, and three times that number are estimated to have prediabetes. The COPE Project is working to find community-based solutions to change the landscape of healthy food access in Navajo. Our Eat.Think.Design team took the charge of designing a reliable and consistent mechanism to bring healthy food into remote Navajo communities. We landed at a prototype to understand consumer behavior. We are building a short-term pilot and a long-term business development tool for COPE to change the face of food access in Navajo.

Team: Christine Hamann, Shaon Barman, Sophie Egan, Eva Hansen

Learn more: Partners in Health: Navajo Nation, @PIH on Twitter, COPE Facebook page

Eat Drink Bayview

Team Eat Drink Bayview is working with the San Francisco Planning Department to outline an action plan for a Food Innovation District in the Bayview neighborhood. We used human-centered design to examine the goal of creating new business ventures and jobs by attracting food manufacturers and producers to the Bayview. We found that this would be most successful if implemented in conjunction with the facilitation of partnerships with and support from existing businesses, an accountable development approach, and a focus on the existing Bayview community and food culture. We identified specific goals for the branding of an “Eat Drink Bayview” District. This neighborhood branding brings together existing food and drink culture and retailers with new ventures near existing warehouses, around Islais Creek, and along the Third Street Corridor.

Team: Nora Gilbert, Alissa Bernstein, Tomás León

Learn more: Eat Drink Bayview Tumblr page, San Francisco Planning Department