Easy Greens: Fresh food at your convenience
Design Prompt
I was part of the founding team for a new food start-up in the Calgary area that focuses on providing affordable & local food through conveniently placed fridges across the city of Calgary. The company came to be as part of an 8-week Design Thinking incubator whose aim was to launch programs that bolstered food security and education in the Calgary region. I was excited about the opportunity to bring fresh salads, wraps, and juices to the streets of Calgary and to change the conversation around food accessibility across the city.
Empathize, Define, and Ideate
Expert Interviews
Our program began with an in-depth analysis of Calgary's existing food system. We brought in experts from across the industry, including Grow Calgary, The Alex Community Food Centre, YYC Growers, and The Calgary Food Bank. They each describe the purpose for their organization, what challenges they were facing, and what their vision was for a sustainable and accessible food system in Calgary.
Define the Problem & Discover Solutions
We began to define the problem by targeting demographics that would be most vulnerable to food accessibility issues. This included shift workers, health nuts, immigrants, and so on. We then went through each demographic and began listing issues that face their group specifically, be it nutritional education, proximity of grocery stores, irregular eating patterns, and so on.
Prototype & Test
Solution Identification & Presentation
After analyzing the responses, we began eliminating redundant responses and combining similar issues so that we could begin identifying shared needs and overlapping frustrations with the existing food system. We eventually ended up with 5 distinct projects, one of which involved the distribution of local produce across Calgary through the placement and operation of refrigerated vending machines in high traffic locations including transit stops, libraries, gyms, and universities.
After refining our idea further, we had the opportunity to participate in a pitch competition to present our idea to a panel of judges that represented key players in Calgary's food ecosystem. Although we didn't have a prototype to test, we were able to clearly articulate our solution to the participants at the event and received valuable feedback from the judges as well as the audience, with whom we were able to interact after the presentation.
Iterate & Implement
In the months following the pitch competition, we have worked hard to create partnerships with key players in Calgary's food system and have launched a crowdfunding and sponsorship campaign to launch our first machines by fall 2019. We continue to iterate on our idea as we learn from competitors, engage with local producers, and receive feedback from industry experts.
I created a website that shared our story and incorporated our branding from our marketing materials, social profiles, and pitch deck. I designed and built the website in Webflow, and it has been a key messaging platform to guide interested parties to our crowdfunding campaign and sponsorship opportunities. I have also used Google Analytics to measure our traffic and the effectiveness of our various ad campaigns.
Visit the website at easygreens.ca to learn more about our story and to track our progress!
