Meal Matchup
Project
Meal Matchup is an interactive, responsive, open-source website which helps facilitate leftover food to those in need by connecting UW dining halls to local non-profit organizations with help of student volunteers.
Started with a team of 3 designers and 3 developers and currently, we have 40 people working on this project
Meal Matchup is an award-winning project funded $21,000 by UW Campus Sustainability (CSF) and has been voted the top Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) project by the University of Washington’s College of Environment.
Design Question
How might we help reduce food wastage and facilitate food to those in need?
Timeline
12 months
Role
UX Designer, User Research and Usability Testing
Tool
Figma, Adobe Illustrator
Problem Statement
"Food waste is a global issue. In the U.S. alone, 40 percent of food goes to waste, worth about $161 billion. A 15 percent reduction in food waste feed more than 25 million Americans yearly and provide meals to the 15 percent of U.S. households who are food insecure" (USDA).
Firstly, Lets see the final product then I will show you the process.
Students are assigned to deliver leftover food to non-profit organization
Leftover food pickup location details and the initial temperature of picked up food is recorded
Delivery Details are provided to drop off the leftover food
Food delivered Receipt is delivered to Student Admin, Non-profit Organization Manager and UW Dining Hall Manger
Signature requested from the non-profit administrator as a confirmation for receiving the food
Research
We conducted Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design & Usability Testing. This helped us understand the pain points, decision-making criteria, and the limitations to use the website as a tool in helping food recovery practice.
We spoke to three managers from the university campus dining hall and 5 on-campus student groups and interviewed local food shelter representatives/ managers.
Research Insights
Inefficient Communication: UW dining hall interacted with local non-profits through phone calls and emails to check their availability to pick up the food from dining halls. This communication was inefficient, burdensome and time-consuming
Accountability: Due to lack of resources, sometimes the scheduled pickup of food is canceled in the last minute causing failure in the donation
Lack of Resources: UW dining hall and local non-profit had limited resources of vehicles and employees. They needed extra help to support the delivery and distribution of food
Our Approach
Initially, we focused on connecting the dining hall and food shelter one-on-one to deliver and pick up the leftover good food. Due to the shortage of resources and transportation facilities, at a non-profit organization, it was at times difficult to pick-up food from UW dining hall.
Hence, to solve this issue, we incorporated student volunteers and broadened our scope and connected three stakeholders (Campus Dining Hall, Food Shelter and Student Volunteers) which helped in redirecting food to the food shelthers
Design Goals
Stakeholders
Initial Wireframes
