in.cerchio
a project about food waste
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SCENARIO
Food has always been an excuse to socialise.
If you want to better know someone - you invite him/her to dinner. Have to have a job meeting? You will have a lunch meeting. Are you having fun with your friends? You are eating...and drinking, of course! Today food is a big trend: nouvelle cuisine with its delicacy and elegance, wild street food, serial and affordable fast food, traditional food and affection, experimental food with surprise effects, ethnic and exotic food. This focus on food has improved people’s attention and sense of responsibility about food waste.
MARTINA TARANTO
Every day tons of food from supermarkets, open-air markets, large-distribution in general go wasted because of reasons linked to products’ superficial imperfections or their not conformity with the retail system’s rules and health criteria. They can’t be sold, even if they are still consumable and edible without any risks of sort for our health.
CONCEPT
My personal experience with food is extremely bound to places and space: the native place where the food I am eating comes from, the culture and tradition of the place that produces it and the physical space where I eat it. I come from a small place in Sicily; like me, the majority of the people from my generation have left our home town, but if we can we all reunite during summer. We love spend time together, we do it as much as we can, especially at night when all the “grown-ups” are sleeping and every square, street, corner of the city belongs to us. It is very common for us to have dinner in the streets, but what is very typical is that we stay up until the day is dawn; obviously at a certain point of the night we get hungry, as we all share the same passion for food, we often organise small parties around the city’s streets. We choose the location, it could be the main street or an alley-way, we eat together, we turn streets and city square into our living room. My project is the elaborated projection of a memory. What if everyone had the chance to enjoy friends’ company, appreciate street-life trough food? What if at the same time it could be possible to avoid food waste? What if it could be possible to organise events similar to our very Sicilian habit during which you can enjoy your city and avoid food waste at the same time? I designed a system that allows people to try what food can provide in terms of sensory and social experience.
in.cerchio
MARTINA TARANTO
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GOALS
I tried to systematically organise a convivial situation as the one I wrote about previously and convert it in order to apply it in a large scale context as Turin is, the city where I used to live at the time of this school project. In.cerchio has the aim to convert food, that otherwise will be thrown away by the large distribution, from potential wasted material to delicious meals or drinks to be enjoyed in the most beautiful settings of your city’s streets! The programme is open to two different potential evolutions: in a small scale scenario it would be possible to sell the In.cerchio kit allowing everyone to use the equipment privately for plain air meals, pick-nick, camping etc; in a large scale scenario it would be possible to elaborate a proper, articulated structure for event planning. In this large scale perspective, because of the big number of participants the meals will be designed and cooked by a team of professionals or potential ones (cooking students), in their restaurants and schools or directly in the streets depending on the menu and the event’s complexity. The decision of involving professionals and students aims first to guarantee a happy and safe experience of the food to the participants and then to promote consciousness and sense of responsibility in young and mature professionals and also to create a real sustainable and trustworthy business around “wasted food”. These meals will be sold at a very convenient price justifiable by the “second choice” quality of food, to encourage and support the cause and ensure a certain flow to the event. The system was organised according to Turin’s retail system and its geographic arrangement of markets, schools of cooking and possible outdoor locations, but obviously it can be easily adjusted to every city. In.cerchio goals are: #Prevent food waste from small and large retailers. #Spread the perception of the meal as a moment of sharing, sociability, pleasure and recreation. #Teach how to match ingredients according to seasons. #Live public spaces for what they are, a community place, a place of sharing. Perceive it as it was a domestic environment. An approach such as this can help people to be in the streets spontaneously and in a comfortable way, discarding the belief of the streets as unsafe or dangerous places. A place becomes dangerous only when it is abandoned.
HOW IT WORKS
in.cerchio
3 teams: collectors: they collect food from markets and supermarkets. cooks: Cooks or students, they design the menu and cook the food according to what the collectors find. operators: they set up the location with needed for the event: chairs, tables, cutlery etc... 7 stages: collection transformation logistic settlement FUN! cleaning payment. n° IN.cerchio KITs: the number of kits changes according to the number of participants and the amount of food that needs to be cooked in the street.
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DYNAMICS
1_ The collectors collect the unsold food from markets and supermarkets. Then the food is delivered to the places where it will be cooked. 2_ At this point the cooks will design the menu according to the material at their disposal. They will apply their knowledge about nutrition and flavours to the dishes. 3_ Meanwhile operators and volunteers will manage the logistics and arrange the location. 4_ If the meal is not cooked in the same location of the event, this stage consists in the delivery of the dishes to that location.
MARTINA TARANTO
5_ FUN! 6_ When the party is at its end, it is fundamental to clean everything from all the eventual rubbish and mess. This stage is essential in order to maintain consistency with the principle of sharing spaces and resources. The location is a public space that needs to be usable and uncontaminated for next uses. 7_ As said before the payment is a more symbolic gesture than a real fee - it is justified to support the initiative and compensate effort and commitment of the people involved (it also depends on the nature of the event).
KIT
Turin is a city with many street-markets with a lot of cyclists. The market that you find in the neighbourhood of Porta Palazzo is the biggest covered market in Europe, it is very heterogeneous because of the many cultures represented. You can find a great variety of vegetables and fruits, meat chopped in different ways according to culture and religion, and fish. Obviously though, meat and fish are not something that retailers give away easily, they last longer than vegetables and fruits. In fact if you go to Porta Palazzo at the closing time, around 6.30 pm, the retailers give away the unsold stuff for free. Because it is easier to find vegetables and fruit in these kinds of market I designed a KIT more suitable to prepare cold dishes and drinks, but it could be implemented eventually. The KIT works with kinetic energy which is obtained by riding a bike. The equipment is store in a box, it is transportable using the same bike. The box could be also used during the collection stage as a storage space.
COMPONENTS
in.cerchio
1 - Kinetic mixer + interchangeable blades, juicer, whisk. 2 - Mixer support to be anchored to the bike’s structure. 3 - Basins 4 - Basins’ supports 5 - Easel backside wheel + platform front wheel 6 - Workspace
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SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
MARTINA TARANTO
The circle is the symbol used to represent cycles, transformations and things in becoming. From a sociological point of view the circle is linked to the idea of exchange, to moments where small or big communities members gather together to discuss, debate and know each other. It’s not a case that we use the say “round table” (quoting king Arthur legend) when we refer to episodes where people metaphorically gather, to talk or to discuss around a round table a place where everyone has the same authority and importance. The circle is a symbol for equality. In fact only through equality between individuals dialogue and relationships are not only constructive but truly possible. Food, more than anything else, not only from my Italian point of view, is the best social tool to put everyone at the same level. This project is about food waste; I believe this should be a cause that we all - as conscious citizens - must support chorally with equal level of commitment. For all this reasons I decided to use the circle as logo of this project and the name “In.cerchio” (meaning “In.circle”) using “In” to underline the idea of being active part and physically involved in the realisation of the final purpose.
in.cerchio
SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORT
The marketing strategy involves social media profiles, a website, dedicated magazines and an app. HOW TO PARTECIPATE TO THE EVENTS: Every registered user can apply for the upcoming event using the app; all the participants can contribute bringing with them some needed stuff, such as cutlery or extra ingredients, in this case they will have to warn about their contribution through the app in order to have an updated status of the event. Participants can contribute also with the #Xingredient. You have too many tomatoes in your fridge? Your milk is risking the rubbish? You can bring extra ingredients from home, that will be used by the cooking staff to cook extra dishes. If you communicate your #Xingredient in advance, the staff will have the time to design a special recipe that if uploaded on the app the rest of the participants would have the chance to buy. All the recipes from all the events will be posted on the website, shared on social media and published on the magazine.
MARTINA TARANTO
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in.cerchio
MARTINA TARANTO
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in.cerchio
MARTINA TARANTO
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in.cerchio