Year after year, the spectre of food insecurity among students grows. Close to 40% of Canadian university students face this struggle daily, hindered by financial limitations that directly limit their access to wholesome meals
The Problem
Not knowing where your next meal will come from is tough, especially for students who struggle to afford enough food..
With the rising costs of education, food, and housing; students are increasingly relying on stretched finances and credit to meet their basic needs, adversely affecting their overall well-being. They are gradually forced to prioritise between essentials, often sacrificing nutritious meals and facing consequences on their health and academic performance.
MAIN GOAL
Provide accessible nutrition to students on campus
ROLE
UX Designer
TIME
8 weeks
TOOLS
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Abobe Illustrator
DESIGN PROCESS
EMPATHISE
DEFINE
IDEATE
PROTOTYPE
EMPATHISE
What is being done to solve this issue? Is there something students can come together and do?
Precedent Research
To delve deep to understand the students' concerns and needs, I chose to focus my research on food insecurity in Vancouver and looked into established initiatives that address this issue.
UBC SPROUTS PROGRAM
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100% student-run organisation
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Free meal café and grocery resale
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Operates on grants and revenue
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Work with local suppliers and sustainably produced groceries
QUEST FOOD EXCHANGE
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Not-for-profit store-front grocery markets
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Bridging the gap between food banks and grocery stores
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Operates on grants
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Based on principles of dignity, access and sustainability.
Field Research
After delving into initiatives, we eventually narrowed it to Emily Carr University, so we could efficiently manage the scope of our project.
EMILY CARR WELLNESS KITCHEN
The Wellness Kitchen is a safe space for our students of Emily Carr University to come together to cook, bake, eat, and gather around food. The Wellness Kitchen allows a wider audience of vulnerable students access to counselling and mental health support.
KEY INFERENCES
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frozen meals would be more appropriate than hot meals, in regards to cost and storage
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keep it peer-driven - to promote peer connection and encourage empathy
EMILY CARR STUDENT UNION
The student union provides advocacy for students, put on events, and support important student collectives, clubs and initiatives. They create opportunities for students to meaningfully engage with university administrators.
KEY INFERENCES
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Tuesdays and Thursdays are the busiest days on campus
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There’s no existing service for the students to receive meals in the evenings after late classes
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We could introduce a service that’s twice a week, to make it financially feasible
DEFINE
How can we create a system for Emily Carr University that
complements the Wellness Kitchen service + draws inspiration from UBC Sprouts?
..aim to customise a service for Emily Carr students and scale it effectively
SERVICE
UniFresh
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It will be a student-lead initiative, assisted by student volunteers
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The service will consist of free meals and low-cost groceries
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It will be an evening service that’s located on campus

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It will be funded by grants, donations and accumulated revenue
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It will supporting and working with local suppliers
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This service is based on a feedback-driven approach
USER PERSONA
STUDENT CUSTOMER
USER JOURNEY
STUDENT VOLUNTEER
USER JOURNEY
LOCAL SUPPLIER
The overall process of building the user persona and user journeys to define the audience we wished to create a service for, was deeply instrumental in providing guidelines for my team to further develop the ideation of our service.
IDEATE
What can we do to refine our idea to ensure a seamless experience for students?
JOURNEY MAPPING
We created a journey map for our customers to visualise insights from the students' interactions with our free meal and grocery service, identifying pain points and moments of delight to enhance their overall experience.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
We also built a service blueprint to illuminate every touchpoint within our student customers' experience, highlighting both front-stage interactions and backstage processes. We aimed to streamline the operations to deliver a more efficient and satisfying experience for all those engaged in our service.
FINALISING OUR SERVICE
Utilising the valuable insights extracted from our journey map and service blueprint, we've carefully refined and finalised the details of our service, in a way that caters to all those involved.
PROTOTYPE
How can we gradually introduce this service in our academic institution to ensure maximum adoption and effectiveness?
CREATING AN MVP
We wanted to prioritise simplicity for integration, our service was designed to seamlessly complement, rather than disrupt, existing successful systems and services within the university ecosystem. This approach led us to develop an MVP - Minimum Viable Product - for the service.
DESIGN
To support the integration of our service, we began designing a range of visual elements to bring our service branding to life. This involved crafting logos and creating visual assets that accurately reflect the identity of our service.
CREATING THE LOGO
We created several iterations of the logo and conducted user tests with Emily Carr students, so that we can choose one to represent our service.
2% liked this logo
4% liked this logo
10% liked this logo
4% liked this logo
CHOSEN LOGO
80% liked this logo
WEBSITE
Creating the website was vital to spread awareness and provide accessibility to information regarding our service. So we made sure our website had three main pages:​​
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Student page: provides information about volunteering opportunities
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Donation page: allows individuals to donate and track the impact of their donations by showcasing the number of students benefiting from their support.
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Grocery Page: an interface for students to connect and swap groceries
INSIGHTS
Next Steps
SECURE COLLABORATORS
ACQUIRE FUNDING
LAUNCH AND LEARN
Connect with potential collaborators, such as local suppliers and relevant organisations to explore opportunities for collaborations and synergy.
Obtain financial support by distributing grant proposals to philanthropic foundations and funding organisations, outlining our project's mission, goals, and potential impact.
Launch the MVP on campus and collect feedback from students to evaluate the service. Ensuring alignment with their needs will prioritise continuous improvement based on their insights.