V3
PRODEGA Through The Lens of the System
In the fall of 2014, Chisun Rees, Leah Cabrera, and I came together around the interest of exploring how design can amplify opportunities for behavioral change to reach more desirable futures. Our individual interests are represented in Prodega as three volumes of a series: Volume One: Through the Lens of the Individual, Volume Two: Through the Lens of Stakeholders, and Volume 3: Through the Lens of The System.
Ashley Graham 4
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“We can’t impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.” John Thackara, 2006: 216
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rodega is the result of applying design thinking and the design process to a call for new ideas within the convenience store industry in New York City, the bodega. In an effort to bring healthy choices to a market place traditionally known for its unhealthy offerings, Prodega approaches behavior change by focusing on bodega owners. By understanding their needs and reframing risks, the service introduces marketable opportunities for healthy offerings that simultaneously provide realistic choices and streamlined access to bodega customers. By understanding causalities between socioeconomic systems and food conditions on the ground, we can adapt insights into real criteria to inform the service offered by Prodega and measure its impact over time. Prodega: Through the Lens of the System examines at designs’ ability to uncover and negotiate the complex problems and relationships within food systems in Central Harlem and the Bronx through the entry point of the bodega. The system lens highlights how multiple stakeholders connect to existing infrastructure and influence what food is present an affordable. The designled process has the ability to identify what processes are negatively influencing availability. Through identifying these gaps, we created alternative links to bring healthy offerings to Central Harlem and the Bronx. By envisioning a better system based on insights from the existing, realistic criteria can be introduced to mutually benefit the motivations and needs of people and enterprise. As designers, we have the abilty to use our disciplinary capabilities and materialize such strategies. Through social, economic, and spatial tools, we used design to lead the process of understanding the landscape of food security in Central Harlem and the Bronx to prototype an alternative. By working directly with primary influencers in the food system, we constantly scanned and questioned what new insights could serve as incentives to align the needs of multiple stakeholders and facilitate the behavior changes necessary to sustain a more fresh and nutritious food stock. By understanding the challenges that bodega owners, regulators, distributors, and customers face, we can frame and build opportunities for each to contribute to enhancing a better future for all. Prodega is a service that embodies this opportunity by sitting at the intersection of health, nutrition, food, and consumption; and incentivizing behavioral change by distributing risk and developing new market demand among key stakeholders in the system: bodega owners, food distributors, and local customers. By designing for food conditions and bodegas within their systemic contexts, we have created a service that fills a gap in current offerings in East and Central Harlem and the Bronx. The service aims to improve the systemic health of communities by designing for social and economic realities. By applying the lens of the system, service connects to the surrounding economic and social operations, increasing its resiliency and capacity to scale in the city.
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Ashley Graham 6
01 02 03
THE NEED
1.1 Food Security 1.2 The Context 1.3 Prompt from DCA
8 12 14
THE BODEGA
2.1 Identity 2.2 Systemic Role
THE QUESTION
3.1 Our Question 3.2 Hypothesis 3.3 Process and Learnings
18 21
22 23 24
04 05 06
PRODEGA
4.1 How it Works 4.2 Phases and Touchpoints
37 42
FUTURE VISION 5.1 Social Mission 5.2 Setting Goals 5.3 Theory of Change
THE OUTCOME
6.1 Perspective on Design 6.2 Why This Matters 6.3 Design as a Compass
50 51 53
58 59 61
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01
THE NEED Through The Lens of the System
1.1 Food Security: An Urban Challenge
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Unfortunately, the bodega business model lends itself to selling non-perishable foods that are often unhealthy. Bodega owners have thin profit margins and severe cash constraints, making them unlikely to take risks. Fresh produce is inherently risky because of its relatively high price and short shelf life. “Sometimes I bring a box of apples,” Hilou said, “but I throw half of it away. Not worth it.”
Ashley Graham
Ibrahim Hilou, “The Healthy Bodegas Initiative: Bringing Good Food to the Desert”, The Atlantic
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Fresh Bodegas, one of many initiatives to bring fresh produce to the bodegas of deprived areas.
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cross the country, there are zip codes where nutritious and affordable foods are scarcely purchased and rarely found. These areas have come to be defined as food deserts and are often home to low-income and impoverished residents. The United States Department of Agriculture defines defines food deserts as “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers.” The lack of economic demand and resources lead to systemic neglect of these areas from food corporations and enterprises due to business viability issues. As a result, organizations like the Economic Resource Service have begun to map food desert conditions and work in parallel with initiatives like First Lady’s Let’s Move Campaign to incentivize social change around food access through social media, guidelines, medical organizations, and online resources for the American people.1
At first glance, how we get our food may seem fairly black and white. We walk or drive to our local grocery store, restaurant, or convenience store and choose what we want and can afford. We ask questions like: “how much is this?.. Will it taste good? Sometimes we ask, “is this healthy? What country did this come from? Will my partner or kids also like this?” These are all personal, albeit valid and important questions, but there are other questions to ask that put food choices under a different microscope. We could ask, how does this purchase affect what is available in my local store? Does this manufacturer or distributor care to provide the highest level quality food to my neighborhood? (maybe add one more question here) These are questions about the quality of food systems which directly affect what is available to each individual, controlling their health and wellbeing.
Ashley Graham
The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food describes food systems as “all those activities involving the productions, processing, transport and consumption of food.” Food in the twenty-first century is a global industry controlled by government regulation, economic demand, the decisions of industry barons, political conflict, and environmental factors of availability and quality. If we want to improve the condition of food desert communities on a systemic level, then we must ask critical questions about how participants in food systems can influence the nutrition and affordability available to individuals and families.
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1. Let’s Move Campaign. http://www.letsmove.gov/eat-healthy
“we are what we eat.”
This is even more evident in lowincome neighborhoods. While fresh
organic produce maybe be available in middle and upperclass neighborhoods, such food is not available to many populations in New York City.”
Adi Segal, Consilience Journal, Vol. 3 Iss. 1 (2010), Columbia University 01 THE NEED
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In New York City, one of the wealthiest places in the world, approximately 1.3 million people go hungry everyday. As the saying goes,
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A Corner Store in Central Harlem
Ashley Graham
1.2 The Context
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Our context is in Central Harlem and the Bronx, where one of the key concerns is that residents rely on smaller grocery or convenience stores for a large portion of their diet. Due to a lack of economic incentive, larger grocery stores with the supply chain influence to provide affordable fresh foods are few and far between. Although the small business food providers have filled a gap, most do not provide fresh, low cost produce that are part of a healthy, balanced diet and lifestyle. Given that 2/3 Central Harlem residents buy their grocieries at local bodegas, this is a problem. “Recent studies have found [that there is] a direct correlation between a lack of access to healthy foods and health risks, including obesity.�2 In Central Harlem, the obesity rate is 29%, significantly higher than the 22% city average. Interestingly, the USDA does not consider Central Harlem and the Bronx food deserts, because the definition includes a national standard for transportation access. If residents of Central Harlem and the Bronx have access, albiet socially and economically disconnected, then the focus of the problem might shift
to affordability. The problem might be less related to the issue of physical access to healthy foods, but rather the abundance of cheap, unhealthy options, particulary in impoverished neighborhoods. Both small convenience store owners and fast food restaurants have economic obligations to sell what customer demand through consumption behaviors. If the cycle of cheap, poor quality food supply and demand continues, the ability for impoverished neighborhoods to maintain a stock of fresh produce and staples will decrease. the Food Retail Expansion to Support Healthy (FRESH) Tax Initiative show the dire need for increased quantity and quality of food supply in New York City. While produce oriented grocery stores could alleviate these problems, there are a lot of economic and behavioral barrriers. Within this context, the small convenience store owners are actually better equipped and agile to participate in change and grow their businesses through the fresh food market. 2. Healthy Bodegas Initiative, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Precedent Analysis: Food Retail Expansion Support Health (FRESH) “In response, the City, in partnership with the City Council, has established the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health, or FRESH program. FRESH, an initiative of Mayor Bloomberg’s Five-Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, promotes the establishment and retention of neighborhood grocery stores in underserved communities by providing zoning and financial incentives.”
Fast Food Market Potential Index and Supermarket Need Index, NYC Department of City Planning Demonstrates systemic food condition in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as parts of Brooklyn.
01 THE NEED
The program is open to grocery store operators renovating existing retail space, or developers seeking to construct or renovate retail space thatwill be leased by a full-line grocery store operator. Stores that benefit from the program must meet the following criteria: (a) Provide a minimum of 6,000 square feet (b) Provide at least 50 percent of retail space for a general line of food products (c) Provide at least 30 percent of retail space for perishable goods that may include dairy, fresh produce, fresh meats, poultry, fish and frozen foods; and (d) Provide at least 500 square feet of retail space for fresh produce. All grocery store site plans must demonstrate that they are in compliance with the above criteria.
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1.3 Prompt from DCA
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lthough healthy food access is a global and national issues, municipal governments and organizations are also working to alleviate food security issues in their own cities. This issue is not just about hunger, but also the health content of the food that is consumed. In food desert communities, there is a lack of grocery stores with the scale to provide affordable fresh foods. In New York City in particular, bodegas (small convenience stores) have filled the food gap. A 2007 survey by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that approximately 66% of food stores in East and Central Harlem are bodegas, while 8% are supermarkets.3 Unfortunately, these small businesses do not have the distribution network or incentives to carry the highest quality, fresh produce. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between poor diets, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. According to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, over 4 out of 10 children in East and Central Harlem Head Start and elementary schools are overweight or obese.The report also clarifies that these statistics are similar for the entirety of Manhattan, but the long-term health disparity becomes more evident in adulthood.4 In an effort to promote healthier communities and buying habits, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) is seeking ways to incentivize the sale of fresh fruits and vegetables in bodegas. This call prompted us to investigate how the bodega can serve as a context to amplify behavioral change towards healthier eating practices and impact the food system conditions across the city.
Ashley Graham
By understanding food conditions and bodegas within their systemic contexts, we can began to see gaps in the current food systems that feed into East and Central Harlem. This serves as an opportunity to improve the systemic health of communities plagued by food desert conditions, but also the economic health of small businesses and food economy, which directly controls food access. By applying the lens of the system, the investigation and potential project connects to the surrounding systemic operations.
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3. NYC Food Policy http://nycfoodpolicy.org/nyc-food-numbers-east-harlem/ 4. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/dpho/dpho-harlem-obesity.pdf
Despite the lacking food system conditions in Central and East Harlem, some initiatives have been introduced in recent years to bring fresh foods to the area. In 2009, the City Planning Commision proposed a tax abatement and exemption plan for approved stores in northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn, the southern Bronx, and downtown Jamaica Queens in an effort to bring distributors of fresh produce. Six years later, some development has occurred in highly dense and gentrified areas such as the 125th street corridor in Harlem. This plan also gave larger development footprints as incentive for supermarkets in residential areas. As a result of the change in government leadership, PlaNYC 2030, is no longer in action. This precedent led to the insight that policy-level plans should tie to existing resources and at the least incentivize existing businesses to improve their offerings instead of spending resources on 40 year plans that change with the tides of municipal leadership. (maybe insight is: Instead of focusing on a long-term plan, we approached the problem from the existing daily operations.) Although stores like Whole Foods are wanted by some residents in the Harlem neighborhoods, a 2009 New York Times article cites that stores like Morton Williams and Whole Foods still want to see greater demand from residents. Avi Kaner of the Morton Williams 12-store chain posed that,
“If you force distribution of a product to a population that’s not interested in it, or not educated in it, and the grocery stores can’t make a profit, they’ll eventually leave.”
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/nyregion/24super.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
01 THE NEED
While the article noted that Whole Foods Northeast President, Christina Minardi recognized that city zoning incentives are enticing but that Whole Foods stores “need a certain concentration of ‘people that live our lifestyle,’ which includes a concern for ‘what they’re putting into their bodies.’”Smaller stores already comprise 66% of food sources in Central and East Harlem and should be part of the future of food strategy due to their strong relationship with the diet and cultural norms of local residents and establish a new market of demand from the middle up.
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Particular to bodegas, The New York City Center for Economic Opportunity and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene produced the Healthy Bodegas Initiative starting in 2005. The program brought healthy guidelines and price reduction incentives to bodegas for items such as 1% milk and basic fruits such as apples and bananas. The report defines the program as successful with metrics such as 15 pilot bodegas adopting 1% milk into their stock through reduced store prices and government stipends for store owners. These small pilots have not been able to sustain or provide major impact due to the temporary source of incentive for owners and customers to participate. When a group of health professionals from The National Center for Biotechnology Information conducted a review of the initiative, it found that although sales did increase by about 10% of those particularly discounted items, barriers included consumer demand and a lack of space and refrigeration.6 The case study led to the insight that stipend and discount-based incentives for implementing healthier foods are only as effective as the longevity of the initiative and the government funds to subsidize the new products. The pilot was however effective in point out the opportunity for bodegas, as a main source of food in many neighborhoods, to bring convenient access to healthier foods. This insight also led us to fame the service around the bodega owner, the person who decides what products to carry and can be a major barrier to or outlet for fresh and healthy food.
Ashley Graham
Healthy Bodegas Initiative Materials: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables and 1% Milk
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6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490666/
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) empowers consumers and businesses to ensure a fair and vibrant marketplace. DCA licenses nearly 80,000 businesses in 55 industries, inspects businesses, mediates complaints, and educates consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities. The Agency also enforces the Consumer Protection Law, the Living Wage Law and other business-related laws. Through its Office of Financial Empowerment, DCA offers innovative programs, safe financial products, and free services that will help New Yorkers with low incomes make the most of their financial resources. While focusing on consumers, many of the DCA initiatives and processes target businesses and working with owners and employees to benefit the consumer. The DCA is a great partner to work with towards incentivizing the sale and consumption of fresh and healthy food options because it has existing strong ties to small businesses and small business owners. The department also understands the business practices of the bodega owner while having the best interest of the customer at the forefront of their mission.
The Department of Consumer Affairs http://www1.nyc.gov/site/dca/index.page
01 THE NEED
The DCA has launched pilot programs with small businesses in the past and could serve as a municipal and systemic connection to positively influence the food system in Central Harlem and the Bronx through business practices and incentives for owners and customers.
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02
THE BODEGA Through The Lens of the System
2.1 The Identity
A Ashley Graham
When you think about New York City, what is the life force and the energy, the medium of the city that never sleeps? It is the bodega. Without the bodega, our 2 A.M. city streets would be dark and dormant. Imagine a city far less convenient .. but perhaps a bit healthier. While bodegas are the mainstay of late-night and hyper-local convenience consumption, the choices within them are often dismal. The non-processed consumption offerings are limited. Bodegas carry a burden of negativity through the sale of unhealthy offerings such as candy, sodas, and junk food. In many cases, they are the primary source of food and perpetuate unhealthy lifestyles. This issue is particularly chronic in neighborhoods without the economic demand to stock fresh produce and other perishables in the bodegas or the sparsely located grocery stores. While municipal healthy bodega initiatives in NYC have strategized
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Unfortunately, the bodega business model lends itself to selling nonperishable foods that are often unhealthy. Bodega owners have thin profit margins and severe cash constraints, making them unlikely to take risks. They want to ensure every inch of shelf space is filled with affordable goods of interest to their customers. Fresh produce is inherently risky because of its relatively high price and short shelf life.� Sarika Bansal
Long-term Residents
Federal Government
Regulators
DCA
Gentrifiers
Residents
Transient
Customers
Competitors Business Networks
Potential Residents
Bodega Owner
Business Consultants
Organizations Health Providers
Advocacy Groups
Community Groups
Creditors & Investors
Suppliers
Employees
Urban Farms
Distributors
Manufacturers
STAKEHOLDERS IN THE SYSTEM OF BODEGAS
Ashley Graham
Diagram: Stakeholders in the System of Bodegas
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to increase access to fresh and healthy options in these areas classified as food deserts, the demand for fresh produce has not increased to sustain such access. Bodega owners have a responsibility to the economic sustainability of their business and family to provide convenient options that have consistent patterns of being consumed. If bodega owners are to change their offerings towards healthier choices, then the consumer demand must also follow the shift toward healthier choices. Ultimately, consumption items within the food ecosystem are the product of business models and in order to change the products, we must incentivize the business owners to see value in change. Food business from a systemic level is difficult.
Bodega owners work for small margins on products and most of the stores are small without the financial backing of large corporations like a grocery store might have. This serves as a benefit in terms of flexibility in the market and a drawback in terms of what they can offer and what risks can be taken. During our research, we asked how bodega owners source their offerings, and found that their major sources of food products were cash and carry distributors like Jetro and Restaurant Depot. In our first outing to gauge interest, Alex’s Bodega in Central Harlem, the owner communicated that Hunt’s Point, Costco and Sam’s Club were also listed as places to find semi-wholesale foods that are
2.2 Systemic Role Systemically, the role of the bodega is an entry point and an alternative business model to provide food to neglected communities. It presents a middle scale opportunity to influence semi-major distributors while working with a small business owner who is master of an informal operation and has deep ties with the community. The informality of the bodega business model is important. Through flexible supply methods, the bodega owner and employees retain the flexibility to adjust to demand and try new offerings. Jetro Cash and Carry, a major supplier to the bodegas, is dependent on the demand within the bodega. If we create demand for healthier foods within the bodega, through economics the effects will spread to distributors. By talking with executives and operations employees from Jetro, we gained insights that collective buying power in tandem with the imformal system of the bodega would be important when dealing with new products to distribute the risk of high perishables.
Within the residenital community, the bodega is also serves the demand of the customer. As behaviors from the customer shift, the bodega owner is highly tuned into those actions. Due to the informal purchasing system, which is based on weekly demand and season, a shift in demand from the bodega owner can spark change across the entire food system. Thus, although the customer indirectly influences what the major distributors carry, the bodega owner is the middle man and mediator between supply and demand. The bodega owner and their store provide a middle up opportunity to intervene within the food system. In terms of scaling demand for fresh food and dialing down demand for cheap, unhealthy food products, the bodega owner has both the influence on supply from the distributor and the personal relationship and advocacy to shift the behaviors of the customer. If we tried to intervene at a larger scale, global production and change requires very large scale purchases. For example, our contact at Jetro need to buy a shipping container amount of apples in order to offer them to bodega owners. Through this, we realized that critical mass and buying power would be needed to influence distributor imports. If we look at other food sources in the neighborhood, perhaps Harlem Grown, Project Eats, and other organizations have more capability to be the enterprises that begin to provide fresh foods because of logistics. While the bodega, which relies on an ad-hoc, market based system of buying and selling, from major distributors, locally grown organizations have more control. This presents the opportunity to try new products more frequently and in lesser quanities than from major producers. 01 THE NEED
sold in the bodega and marked up for convenience sale. Larger stores have the capacity to order some products via delivery. We learned that each week, the bodega owner either takes on the responsibility of determining what products to buy depending on seasonal and market demands. For example, between the winter holidays and tax season, bodegas weather the most financial drought due to economic cycles that affect expendable income that residents might spend on coffee or other convenient semi-staples. When talking to stakeholders, we repeatedly gained insight into the larger picture of the systemic conditions that affect the conditions within the bodega.
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THE QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Our Question
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
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fter unsuccessful campaigns to incentivize the sale and consumption of healthier foods in bodegas, the DCA put out a call for a design of a stoop line stand to sell fruits and vegetables in front of bodegas. Their premise for this initiative is that a stand designed to be on the sidewalk right outside of bodega stores, and influenced by local artists, may affect the sale of healthier foods. This call prompted us to understand the underlying challenges of addressing food related issues, investigate how the bodega can serve as a context to amplify healthier eating practices, and impact food system conditions across the city. Therefore, we used this call as a prompt to think strategically about behavior change to enable systemic changes towards healthier communities. This led us to ask:
How might we design a service for bodega owners in Central Harlem and the Bronx to amplify behavioral change towards healthier choices?
3.2 Our Hypothesis If we provide alternate sources of food production and consumption in Central and East Harlem and The Bronx, we might lead to a shift in behavioral change towards:
bodega owners • Increasing access to healthy food for residents. • Providing incentives for the sale and consumption of healthy choices
03 THE QUESTION
• Reducing risk in selling healthy option for
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3.3 Process and Learnings
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
ITERIA R C
CONVERS NG
SNA C
HACKING EXISTING SERVICES
ES DAY PROB E TIN
CUSTOMER SERVICE & HEALTHIER CHOICES
REFRAMING
INTERVIEW WITH BODEGA OWNERS, ALEX & JOSE
PROFIT IS MOST IMPORTANT, NO EXTRA WORK
PRODEG
IDE
ION WORK AT
OP SH
VAL EN
FIXED PRICE, APPROPRIATE RECIPES, & VISIBLE
PE TY
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
HOP PROTO KS
DEGA OWN BO
’S GUIDE ER
BUSINESS IS A SEASONAL THING
IONS AT
TARGET THE BODEGA OWNER, NOT THE CUSTOMERS
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PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS ARE OWNER, SUPPLIER, CUSTOMER
BEHAVIO R
START I
+ EM
CHANGE AL
FOOD SYS T
PROMPT FROM DCA
A
AL BOX ME
REFRAMING RESEARCH & PROBING PROTOTYPING
MARCH
APRIL
IS
ST ANALYS CO
ME
ME
S
BOX &
IN T
IDENTITY AND MARKETING
CKAGING D PA IGN ES
W VIE ER
INFO COLLATERAL TO EDUCATE CUSTOMERS
REFRAME HEALTHY TO WHOLESOME
SYNTHESIZING
03 THE QUESTION
JE T
NG
SING HA
W WITH VIE D ER
VISIT & INT RO
INTERVIEW WITH JOSH FROM FRESH ROUTES
BOX STAG L I A
VICE P ER
IS AV
TARGET CHANGE MAKERS
E YP
PRICE POINT ESSENTIAL, APPROPRIATE RECIPES CONVENIENT, ESTABLISH DEMAND
PROTO T AL
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Process and Learnings Starting Conversations: Our first instinct was to start a conversation about food preferences using tools such as pairing die that represented various ingredients for food matching. This probe was an inquiry into what customers and bodega owners consider “healthy� and what they imagine are alternative ways to sell these items. As a result, we discovered that business relies heavily on seasons and the time of year because of biological needs and economic cycles. The probe also confirmed that convenience is still a very important factor in bodegas.
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
Snackshop Prototype: Based on our findings, we prototyped a convenience Snackshop to understand how branding, packaging and food pairing affect consumer behavior towards healthy purchases. We found that food pairing is an effective way of incentivizing people to purchase healthy foods, but needs to be supported by other incentives and/or services. In order for our service to be effective, it needs to have a fixed price, adjust to the cultural needs of the community and be visible both in terms of packaging and positioning within the store.
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Ideation Workshop: In an ideation workshop, we applied our research insights from the probes and prototypes to develop ideas for how to incentivize healthy food choices. The results of the workshop revealed ideas for loyalty programs and new services that consider alternate sources of food consumption.
Valentines Day Probe St. Nicholas and 146th St., Central Harlem.
Valentines Probe For Valentines Day we conducted a three step probe with the goal of understanding things such as customer loyalty, needs and wants, and challenges for community, but also to test our assumptions. In our probe, we asked residents of the community of Central Harlem: 1. What bodega do you have a crush on? 2. Why do love this bodega? 3. What would make you put a ring on it? We got over 50 responses and found that 30% of customers would like to see healthier items sold at their local bodega, and 17% would be interested in seeing new services. By learning what customers want to see and what they already like, we found that there is a discrepancy between the perceptions of bodega owners and customers on what is wanted, needed, and accessible. With this in mind, we identified an opportunity to design alternate sources of food production and consumption in Central and East Harlem and The Bronx. From marketing and display to new services, we can hack the existing systems to help customers make healthier choices, reduce the risk of loss by bodegueros when selling healthy items, and encourage distributors to become active players in the food security network.
Why do you love this bodega?
What would make you put a ring on it?
Prices | 7%
Prices | 4.8%
Convenience | 17%
Other | 1.6%
Relationship | 7%
Customer Service | 29%
Healthier Choices | 30%
More variety | 9%
How it already is | 12%
Grocery Items | 10%
Selection | 17%
24 hours | 7%
New Services | 14%
N/A | 16%
Layout | 5%
03 THE QUESTION
Deli + Services | 17%
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Criteria and Direction
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ased on our insights, we took a step back and analyzed the existing system surrounding bodegas. We identified gaps and opportunities to interject essential components that could support a network of small business owners and amplify behavioral change toward healthier convenient choices for customers. We determined that designing a service would be a good opportunity to positively influence the front end and back end of the bodega business model. Through our research we identified that the service should be: Seasonal
• Mindfulness of ingredients that are available all year round. • Adjust recipes to seasonal changes. • Understand spending cycles of customers to guide offerings.
Culturally Appropriate • Engage with hyper-local stakeholders. • Appropriate recipes that respect taste, tradition, ritual. • Incentivize positive associations towards healthy lifestyles. • Overall approach to food-culture around eating.
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
Convenient • Avoid compromise - the customer should not have to choose between convenience or healthy. • Operationalize the sale of healthy foods so consumers can incorporate them in their everyday life. • Easy to add healthy food into the customer’s diet. • Convenient for bodega owner to bring healthy products to market.
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Communicative • Embedded messages to incentivize healthy choices. • Embrace the identity of the community. • Services that communicate the incentives for the multiple stakeholders. Economically Sustainable • Incentives for bodega owners. • Scalable and transferable to other neighborhoods. • Reduce economic risk for bodega owners. • Spark demand for sale and consumption for healthy food to activate market.
Pitching Prodega to Jetro, Wholesale Distributor
How it works and why it helps you: When people see an active store, they are more inclined to shop there. This helps keep your customers engaged with your store and a reason to return.
ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS
OFFER NEW SERVICES
Creating trust helps create bonds and a more loyal customer base.
POSITIVE INFLUENCE IN COMMUNITY
BELONG TO A NETWORK ATTRACT & CREATE NEW MARKETS
Networks allow greater buying power inf luence on the market and share best practices.
INFLUENCING DISTRIBUTION CHAINS
New markets ensures the livelihood of a business and the opportunity for higher profits.
Direct access to distribution chains ensures positive business f lows.
Pitching PRODEGA to Distributors and Bodega Owners To Jetro, a major wholesale distributor, we pitched that Prodega works in 3 steps:
Through pitching our service to Jetro and bodegas, we validated our three main points: having the $5 meal is essential and that unless our service addresses the local food culture, it will be difficult to get people to purchase it. We also validated that the bodega is a convenient pick-up point for local customers. By talking to Jetro, we learned that current and past initiatives have had a lack of accountability thus reducing the impact of their projects. So in order to create a sense of ownership and accountability we decided to model our service as a social enterprise.
03 THE QUESTION
1. Each week customers pre-order their preferred recipes. 2. Easy to make meals made by Prodega 3. Customers pick up their packaged recipes at their local bodega.
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Meal Prototype: To address our cultural appropriate recipe prototyped a meal. We used ingredients that are already consumed in bodegas and paired them with fresh produce that have longer life cycles to reduce the risk for bodega owners. We learned that life-cycle of products, time of preparation and meal portions were essential to sell the meal-boxes.
Testing packaging: We further developed the design of the meal box to accommodate more flexible recipes and address the criteria of convenience. It is essential that the box be designed so that the bodega owner does not incur any burden of more work and be easily displayed in small stores.
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
Staging and testing:
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We constructed and staged 18 meal boxes for a week at Mango Grocery, a bodega in The Bronx. The boxes sparked curiosity but only 4 boxes were sold at a $5. We quickly learned that collateral and supporting information is needed to help educate the customers about a new product. We also found that older customers were more skeptical about the meal boxes. The boxes that were purchased were by much younger customers who the bodega owner described as “more progressive� which proved our initial hunch that Prodega would initially appeal to changemakers.
Staging Meal boxes at Mango Grocery (The Bronx)
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Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
PRODEGA 4.1 How It Works
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rodega is a service for bodegas in New York City to amplify the sale and consumption of healthy and convenient foods while reducing the risk of providing new offerings. Prodega targets bodega owners to promote best practice strategies by providing a platform that amplifies behavioral change towards healthier and convenient choices for their customers. Past initiatives aimed at encouraging the purchase of healthy foods in bodegas have been rather unsuccessful, targeting only the customer and making assumptions that do not address the various touch points in the purchase of food. Prodegas’s business model is a hybrid of a for-profit side and non-profit side designed to provide active participation by aligning the needs of key stakeholders, providing support mechanisms with feedback loops for bodega owners, and addressing both supply and demand in order to create systemic change towards the well being of customers. In an effort to promote the prosperity of service providers, who have greater influence over what is available in a community, Prodega aims to leverage existing resources within the local economy embedded around it.
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he service is made up of a series of successive touch points, all of which are meant to reach smaller goals at each stage. Every touch point represents an overlap of different stakeholders within Prodega’s network and is designed to benefit and create value for everyone involved, ultimately in an effort to amplify food justice in Harlem and The Bronx.
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
On the for-profit side, Prodega begins with the very simple Prodega meal box and snack shop. They are pre-planned pairings of intended ingredients to incentivize purchase. After the launch of the sale of these products, a pre-ordering board accompanies them within participating bodega stores. This board, located within bodegas, serves as a platform for customers to request more specific pairings in the meal box and snack shop. In order to encourage community engagement, residents can become members in Pro-Op, a community platform for residents to participate in the making up meal boxes and snack shops and the upkeep of the pre-ordering board. These actions would take place within the Prodega truck, a mobile vehicle that serves as both a work space and distribution platform. After these touch points are in place, Prodega can implement a recipe challenge to ensure that the meal boxes and snack shops address the cultural needs by activating the voices of the community.
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On the non-profit side, Prodega includes a bodega owner network to promote best practices and serve as a certification standard for bodegas, similar to what fair-trade is for coffee. Best practices are informed by constant feedback, data, and knowledge of the market from information generated by the pre-ordering board. Additionally, a neighborhood rewards program incentivizes customer loyalty towards bodegas that belong to the network. The intention of Prodega is not to make a business out of selling boxes and boxes of Prodega meals. The service is meant to be a first step towards helping people make their own meals, eat healthier nutritious food, and take ownership in amplifying their own quality of life. In order for this system of touch points to operate successfully, they must be implemented and executed in a long-term plan, through a series of phases, and where the for-profit and non-profit models work in tandem.
Loyalty Program
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Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
How PRODEGA works in 3 steps:
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1. PRE-ORDERING BOARD
2. PREPARED BY PRODEGA
3. PICK UP AT BODEGA
Each week, customers order their preferred recipes at their bodega.
Easy, pre-measured recipes made by members of your community.
Customers pick up their conveniently prepped meals at your store.
Cultural Recipes
Affordable Meals
Essentially, Prodega works in three steps: 1. Customers pre-order mealboxes at their local bodega, 2. The meals are packaged and distributed by the service, and 3. Customers pick up the meals at the bodega.
Easy and Convenient
-Marc Stickdron and Jacob Schneider, 2011
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Putting the customer at the centre of a service design process involves facing the reality that potentially there is more than just one customer group, and each group possesses different needs and expectations. Furthermore, providing services also demands consideration of the various stakeholders, such as the front-line staff, back office employees and manager as well as non human interfaces such as vending machines or websites. Thus, a single services proposition can involve a number of actors and different customer groups as well as different employees and interfaces.�
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4.2 Phases and Touchpoints Phase One: Creating the Market
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Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
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hase One of Prodega is about creating the market. It is crucial for any service to test assumptions and gauge interest through outreach and conversation. This, in the most matter of fact sense, includes speaking directly to bodega owners, suppliers, and customers about their thoughts about Prodega. This creates backing from suppliers to further incentivize owners and informs us of potential bodegas to prototype the service in, namely the Prodega meal box. As part of finding entry points to engage community residents, it is just as important to create relationships with local community organizations. In following phases of the service, securing these connections helps to promote platforms for social contagion. Creating a market positions Prodega as a beneficial service for different stakeholders.
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Precedent Analysis: Good and Cheap To address affordability, the Prodega mealbox has a $4 price point, per person, per meal. This came from Leanne Brown’s book, Good and Cheap, a cookbook with wholesome recipes based on government subsidized food stamp budgets.
a. Prodega Box: This product represents the larger system, and actualizes access to affordable, healthy meals. This box is a convenient alternative to processed foodstuffs and provides food security through affordable meals that can be made easily made at home. It’s easy to use – simply pick it up at the bodega, and cook the pre-measured ingredients. Each season Prodega will offer different recipes, which adjust to seasonal and cultural needs. This touchpoint was inspired by the case studies Blue Apron and Plated. We asked, how might we hack these services to make our product economically accessible to underserved communities and broaden access to healthy foods? Prodega box is a $4 healthy choice, which addresses the economic realities of the neighborhoods we’re attempting to serve. The $4 price point came from Leanne Brown’s book, Good & Cheap, a cookbook with recipes based on government subsidized food stamps. How Prodega brings incentives and value to our different stakeholders: • Customer: the box represents an easy, accessible, and healthy meal. In order to address the cultural and nutritional needs of
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Phase Two: Proof of Concept
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Precedent Analysis: Hacking Existing Services By reframing existing services, we are amplifying opportunities and incentives towards a healthier food system.
the neighborhood, the box will consist of recipes that are designed by community members. Each season the recipes will change to assure that what comes inside the box is what customers need/ want that time of the year. Lastly, we have found that “healthy” is not necessarily the best way of selling the box. Through interviews and probing we found that “satisfying”, “delicious”, and “filling” are better ways to frame the context of the boxes so that they are appealing to the customer. • Bodega owner: the box is a new way to generate revenue, attract new customers, and boost their sales. By talking to bodega owners, we found that limited space is an issue. Therefore, the box has been designed to take up the least amount of space possible.
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Creating the Market
0 - $13.00/portion
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Phase Three: Building the Network $7.50 - $17.50/serving
a. Preordering System: We recognize that selling a new healthy product is a risk for the bodega. In response, we are designing a pre-ordering board to reduce risk by increasing knowledge of the market. As a first step we reached out to residents of the community and found that there is a real interest in purchasing healthy foods. By working with members of the community that already want this type of service, we could assure constant sales for bodega owners. In basic steps: we are reaching out to a community board consisting
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b. Prodega Truck: In order to improve distribution and strengthen the food security network, we are envisioning the food truck as a space to package and deliver the boxes. The benefit of having a Prodega truck is that the service can become dynamic, flexible, and move from neighborhood to neighborhood. Instead of a static distribution center, the truck can materialize the agile characteristics of the service. To address(reduce?) costs, we could partner with wholesale distributors such as Jetro and Restaurant Depot, as well as community supported agriculture groups such as Harlem Grown or Project Eats.
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of consumers that are already interested in healthy foods, and they can then sign up for a pre-order service. That way, Prodega can ensure a certain number of weekly sales to bodega owners. According to behavioral economics, behaviors run in groups. If we see others adopting new services we are more prone to adopt them ourselves. Therefore, we could start reducing the risk of selling healthy food and incentivizing bodega owners to become change-makers in their communities.
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Case Study: Park Slope Food Coop
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
The Park Slope Food Coop defines themselves as a member-owned and operated food store. It provides an alternative model for food supply that is not profit-oriented. This model has shown me the potential of a labor-based membership because it helps build trust through cooperation and this keeps prices as low as possible.
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Phase Four: Engaging Community a. PRO-OP Membership: The winning recipes will be then packaged into the Prodega box. The packaging and measuring of the meals will be done by community members. We were inspired by initiatives such as the Park Slope Coop. By hacking a loyalty model like this one and adjusting it to the context of Central Harlem, there is great potential to incentivize sales, assure loyalty, and build trust, between consumers and service providers. The goal of the Pro-Op is to reduce cost for community members while building trust and loyalty.
b. The Non Profit Model This for-profit model will be supported by a non profit model that provides incentives and support. To do so, we are designing a network for bodega owners. The aim is to promote best practices, increase buying power for bodegas, and serve as a certification standard for bodegas. Essentially, this for
Recipe Challenge Data & Information
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Prodega is a service that formalizes the informal and highlights how bodegueros are active players who care for their communities. We seek to strengthen the things that community members already love about their local bodega. We don’t want to change or modify the model of the bodega, we want to amplify and highlight the already positive aspects of bodegas and how they represent a micro entry point to communities across New York.
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profit model is an entry point to a network of support for bodegueros. Our belief is that by enabling a bodega association, Prodega could be what B-Corp is to businesses.
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Phase Five: Community Agency a. Recipe Challenge: In order to define the recipes that will be sold in the boxes, we are proposing a recipe challenge. We seek to make the community an active voice of the service. We envision this as a fun and engaging event. Through the challenge, we imagine PRODEGA could find great local recipes that the community wants to buy. Based on the interviews and probes that we have conducted, we have found that local recipes for meals are essential in enabling a behavioral change towards healthy eating. Many of our eating habits are informed by our cultural inheritance – how we grew up and what we eat at home. Therefore, if the community is an active participant of the service we can ensure that the recipes are delicious, and that, in one way or another, speak to the cultural inheritance of the neighborhood. Each month PRODEGA will host a challenge, in which participants will be given seasonal ingredients. The goal is to select the best recipes for healthy meals. The ingredients will be curated to make sure that the cost to the consumer is below the $4.00 price point per meal, per person, and that the ingredients are available.
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Staging Meal boxes at Mango Grocery (The Bronx)
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FUTURE VISION 5.1 Social Mission
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
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he social mission of Prodega is to become one of many fresh and healthy foods available in the community. On the supply side, distributors and store owners gain incentive to grow their businesses via new offerings that cater to the Prodega market. On the demand side, customers and community groups become agents of health and wellbeing by collectively expecting wholesome foods and purchasing them. By creating a market for healthy foods on both sides of the economic system, Prodega is an agent in creating food security.
Our future vision is for communities to actually depend less on Prodega for fresh and healthy meals as a result of amplified choices from bodega owners and other local enterprises. Bodegas might begin to package their own fresh meals at an affordable price to compete for sales within the new market. Through experience with Prodega mealbox recipes, bodega owners and community members develop a critical eye and demand for wholesome foods at an affordable price.
5.2 Setting Goals
Setting Qualitative Goals: 1. Goals for the for-profit side of Prodega include: contribute to the profit of business owners in the community by growing a new market that aligns with the economic realities of residents. 2. To maintain a service that appeals to a wide range of socioeconomic customers as neighborhoods change. 3. To sustain bodega owners through changes in building ownership, season, and neighboring clients. Goals for the non-profit side of Prodega: 1. Amplifying the agency of bodega owners to develop mutually beneficial relationships with other business owners. 2. Spread best practices for bodegas in both economic and healthy food terms. 3. Explicitly understand seasonal and socioeconomic convenience markets for wholesome foods as an organization.
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Prodega’s initial goals are to: 1. Increase access to healthy food through the entry point of the bodega and alternative supply. 2. Increase demand for healthy food in Central Harlem and the Bronx. 3. Increase evidence of healthy food distribution in Central and East Harlem and the Bronx to shift the perceptions of large suppliers such as grocery stores.
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5.3 Theory of Change
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rodega is a first step towards healthier communities and starts with the mealbox to initiate a group of behaviors that amplify food security. Through the service touchpoints, the choices of both the bodega owners and community members affect what is available in the neighborhood. Our theory is that if we create designed incentives for the primary stakeholders to affect the supply and demand within the bodega, it will lead to healthier individuals, value for business owners and community, and better food systems with affordable and nutritious options. Because the service caters to the motivations and challenges of multiple stakeholders, it presents a viable opportunity to tie into the existing bodega system.
Phase 1:
Prodega creates a new market for healthy foods. By gauging interest and testing the new offerings and processes with community boards, owners and distributors, Prodega positions itself as a beneficial service for multiple stakeholders. By creating the market for Prodega before delivering the offerings, we mitigate risk for all investors, including our key stakeholder, the bodega owner. Through testing, Prodega communicates this potential opportunity to bring wholesome and nutritious foods into their store, amplifying healthy options for customers.
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Phase 2:
In the proof of concept, the mealbox brings healthier versions of cultural recipe staples to customers. The meals are not just about healthy, but also taste and affordability. If families can conveniently access the delicious and affordable Prodega meals, then the demand for these and other wholesome meals will increase in the bodega context. This is our initial action towards sparking change towards healthier communities. We recognize that the initial meals might mostly include staples with some shelf life, like a can of GOYA beans, but over time the theory of change creates a plan for increasingly fresh ingredients. By demonstrating that wholesome meals can be affordable, convenient, and appeal to the taste buds of bodega customers in Central Harlem and the Bronx, business owners will recognize more value in trying nutritious offerings to build a new market and sustain their enterprise over time.
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Phase 3:
Phase 4 builds a Prodega network. Customers gain knowledge through the experience of the service and give feedback about their preferences to inform the network of what is working. Through social contagion, the pre-ordering board creates a knowledge of the desired recipes for customers. Through the Prodega truck, distribution of the ingredients and production of the mealboxes is streamlined in terms of labor and cost. Both customers and business owners, our key stakeholders gain knowledge through the experience of the service and the feedback loops that provide data about supplying and demanding fresh and wholesome meals. Customers and business owners gain knowledge about building healthy and delicious meals within their existing food source to sell and consume.
Phase 4:
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
By engaging community, the PRO-Op membership and neighborhood loyalty programs create further incentive for community members to participate in the service. These engagement models within the service amplify access to fresh and healthy foods by making them more affordable for lowincome families through discounts for production work and loyalty. These touchpoints of the service also create opportunities for customers to be a voice of the service, contributing data towards knowledge of the market and enabling the service to be a sustainable source of food security in their communities. When community members see value in the convenience, and price of Prodega meals, they are more likely to support and look for other opportunities to within the bodega to feed their families.
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As a result, Prodega represents a new market for healthy foods and reframes the bodega as a place to purchase them. When bodega owners see value and gain agency in introducing new offerings to grow their business, the Prodega network association adds the incentive of collective buying power and knowledge of the market. When both bodega owners and customers see the bodega as a place to supply and demand wholesome foods, the economy of the bodega business will impact its offerings.
Phase 5:
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Community Agency: Bodegas that belong to Prodega also benefit from collective buying power perks through their membership, carving out opportunities to save costs with distributors such as Jetro and Restaurant Depot. Prodega creates opportunities for bodega owners start selling new options through knowledge of the market, mitigating loss of their key resources: financial capital and space. The non-profit arm provides greater buying power for business owners and the metrics to test the offerings in real time. Through data, Prodega provides bodega owners with greater knowledge of the market. By being part of Prodega, individual stores adopt the association of Prodega and build trust with community members and other stakeholders such as landlords and government regulators to benefit their entire operation.
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City Government Dept. of Health Mental Hygiene
Recipe Challenge
Residents dictate recipe options through the Recipe Challenge and influence market Data and Information.
Community Organizations & Customers
Building trust and reducing cost for members through economic incentives via a Pro-Membership participation. (social contagion)
Customer Network
Ashley Graham, Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer
Customer
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Incentives for the community to support local food offering improvents through Loyalty Program loyality.
Expressing capacities for healthy living through the convenient Prodega Box at an affordable price.
SCALES OF IMPACT
Incentiv Supp
Improved incentives to participate and improve consumption habits through legislation, policy, and tax incentives for customers.
- Incremental
Data Informa
Recipe Challenge
PRO-OP Membership
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PRODEG
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ata & mation
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Non-profit network and platform of support increases buying power and informs best practices.
Connect with and impact existing distribution and supply infrastructure via Prodega Truck
Bodega Owners Network
Producers and Distributors
Reducing risk for the owner and creating demand to shift offerings through the voice of the customer & via a Pre-Order Board.
Expressing opportunities for new markets and sources of wholesome supply through the Prodega Box.
Bodega Owners
Bodega Owner
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The theory of change incorporates the building blocks required to the long-term goal of bringing systemic change to Central Harlem and the Bronx. The scales of impact diagram graphically connects the touchpoint interventions of the service to the primary and secondary stakeholders to create impact within and beyond the bodega. By outlining how each service phase and its touchpoints serve secondary stakeholders, we can improve the reach of Prodega and refine how it speaks to economic and social impact opportunities.
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EGA Box
City Government (Dept. of Consumer Affairs)
Improved food system and transferability to other NYC boroughs through legislation, policy, and tax incentives for bodega owners, producers, and distributors.
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THE OUTCOME 6.1 Perspective on Design
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Ashley Graham
esign can create a system that understands and connects to existing infrastructure to intervene in real ways for real people. Designers should be facilitators within the process of systemic change. The ego of the designer is not important in complex problems, because firstly no no one person can solve them and also because the focus of the intervention is on testing and iterating. By using traditional design skills to materialize and test proposed strategies, the 21st century designer is able to incoroporate feedback from multi-faceted sources and better address the complexity of multiple needs and motivations of the diverse stakeholders within a context.
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6.2 Why This Matters
06 THE OUTCOME
Prodega matters because it is a service that is conceived and materialized from the thoughtful consideration of multiple stakeholders. The service’s social mission to bring and incentivize healthy lifestyle options to Central Harlem and the Bronx are valuable to the future health of the community. The future health of the community is also dependent on small business owners having sustainable business models. By introducing this new market for whole meals within the existing convenience store system, Prodega creates an opportunity for bodega owners to bolster their business through staple products. While bodegas fill the gap of the few and far between grocery stores in neighborhoods, those same neighborhoods are often changing. By offering new services through a healthy market, the bodega can sustain itself through socioeconomic shifts. This could present a problem for low-income residents that stay in the area. However, Prodega addresses these issues by also strategizing mechanisms of affordablity for both the bodega owner and the customer. By shifting the conversation from healthy food towards affordability, satisfaction, and profit, Prodega better aligns itself with the people and businesses that it serves.
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“... focusing on the new service, the new site or the new customer in isolation, rather than on the service system, is a limitation of such classifications. Defining new services in terms of the extent of change to the existing service system is consistent with the view that services are essentially a series of interactions between participants, processes and physical elements.� Designing and Implementing New Services:The Challenges of Integrating Service Systems, Stephen S. Tax and Ian Stuart
6.3 Design as a Compass
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he twenty-first century presents an incredible list of challenges for the human race. Many of these complex problems are a result of globalization in past centuries and behavioral paths that have no indication of changing course. For designers, these wicked problems present fruitful opportunities to explore the capacity of design to make a difference. Traditionally, design is seen as a process to contribute to capitalistic ventures through interventions such as products, buildings, fashion, and other disciplinary fields. The complex problems of today, such as food deserts, require a multi-disciplinary approach often beyond the walls of a design studio to work with existing concrete realities. Design as a Compass, reframes design a a manifesto to facilitiate the process of starting conversations, navigating research, and strategizing intervention with real people and objects. While disciplinary design is still a valuable part of the process, a transdisciplinary approach takes advantage of unencumbered collaboration with the multi-faceted perspectives needed to tackle complexity.
As in nature, the problem space will flux over time. Design as a Compass acknowledges that solutions should neither be fixed nor singular and no single person can produce them. Rather, designed interventions should provide the opportunities for constant input that facilitate and shape conditions towards more desirable futures and take advantage of the multi-faceted perspectives of people with different identities and socio-economic experiences.
06 THE OUTCOME
Prodega exemplifies this practice. As a team Chisun Rees, Leah Cabrera Fischer, and I have witnessed the power of design-led and collaborative approaches. Our design-led research allowed us to harness the influence of bodega owners, customers, distributors, and to test our own assumption. In order to tackle a complex problem, we had to leave the walls of our studio and talk to people in the trenches of food systems. Their insights proved more valuable that any assumptions formed from an informational website. By bringing user perspectives, motivations, and needs into each part of our research and intervention strategies, we created an intervention that blends the economic, social, and political needs of the community. Instead of imposing our own ideals on the community, we used design to navigate how people and businesses can shape the future of food.
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APPENDIX Engaging Community Members
Jetro
Project Eats Municipal Entities (DCA)
Reframing Complex Problems
Selling of Boxes
Research gov. led innitiatives
Visualizing & Materializing
Packaging & Distributing
Harlem Grown Foundations (Knight) Community Org
Trust from key stakeholders
Space to start venture
Time
Resourcess
We align the challenges, motivations, and needs of multiple stakeholders to materialize and express the value of hybrid strategies through touchpoints such as products and services.
Reduce risk for business owners to shift practices for social benefit and maximize funds for government resources
One on one conversations
Low fidelity prototypes
Probing
Etnographic Research
Community Engagement
Community Events
Local business shops
Services and website
Networked Associations
Wayfinding and communicative materials
Bodega owners
Residents of Harlem and The Brox
Municipal Entities
Wholesale Distributers
Community Org.
Small Businesses
Ashley Graham
The following research contributed to the design and feasability study of Prodega through analyzing the existing gaps in food security through precedents and strategizing for affordable meals:
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Concept Development
Prototyping
Testing materials
Overhead and transportation
Prodega boxes
Programing Consulting
FI LT E AC RS CE AV SS AI LA FO BIL IT OD Y DI USE ST RI BE BU HA TIO N/ VI SU A F OR CH PP FO AN LY RD GE FO AB OD IL PR ITY OD UC TI ON
PrecedentMatrix: Matrix:What What are are the food Precedent thegaps gapsininexisting existing food security andtheory? theory? securityand andhealth healthinitiatives initiatives and PRECEDENTS
HEALTHY BODEGAS INITIATIVE MODERN BODEGA FRESH BODEGAS SHOP HEALTHY BRONX
NYC FOOD INITIATIVES
FRESH FOOD SUMMIT CORBIN HILL FARMS PROJECT EATS HARLEM GROWN
LOCAL PRODUCTION
PARK SLOPE CO-OP CSA FARMER’S MARKET BLUE APRON
SERVICE MODELS
FRESH ROUTES DESIGNING FOR BEHAVIOR CHANGE HOW YOUR NEIGHBOR CAN MAKE YOU FAT...
LITERATURE
SOCIAL CONTAGION THEORY GOOD AND CHEAP
06 THE OUTCOME
Mealbox Cost Analysis
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ABOUT ASHLEY
Ashley is a creative strategist and communicator. She uses design as a compass to navigate emerging and complex problem spaces. Through design-led research and product communication, she envisions and materializes opportunities for systemic change.
Ashley Graham
Special Thanks to:
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* Patty Beirne, our advisor and inspriation for Prodega * Larry Cohen and Jack Segel at Jetro/Restaurant Depot * Davis Ortiz and Family at Mango Grocery * Josh Wessler at Fresh Routes * Chisun Rees and Leah Cabrera Fischer