Scrappy
Cook
We believe in feeding our tummies before we feed our compost pits, diverting our scraps into delicious recipes that will leave you looking at your veggies in a whole new light.
Designed as part of a 10-week Interdisciplinary Studio 2 course: Sustainable Living Laboratory class, Scrappy Cook provides Savannah vegetarians access to an online toolkit that introduces them to the root-to-stem lifestyle. This toolkit features a resource guide, an expanding library of recipes, useful lifestyle tips and a “Next on the Menu” blog for our online community of scrappers to share new and exciting recipes.
TEAM: Alex Fogleman, Jordanna Coutinho, Ivonne Zuniga, Alisha Saxena
TIMELINE: January - March 2019
FIELDS: Contextual Research, Behavior Change
Process
We first identified a repetitive and specific human behavior that contributes to environmental degradation- food waste. We then framed our approach through Paul Hawken’s book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming. Drawdown is the point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. By conducting thorough research around food waste, we designed an intervention. One that through increasing benefits and decreasing barriers to participation will effectively substitute the old behavior with a new one.
Design
Scrappy Cook
I’m not just a vegetarian, I’m a scrappy cook! Being a Scrappy Cook means embracing a community of foodies that see the endless potential in veggies and relish every bite, letting no taste go to waste. Whether it’s a meal for you, your crew, or a few, Scrappy Cook is here for you! Start a conversation: don’t forget to share any new and fun recipes you stumble across on our blog, or start a challenge; Just cook a recipe using the whole veggie, post a picture or video of the dish, attach the recipe and challenge a friend. Don’t forget to #scraptitude so your fellow scrappers can try them out too.
The Scrappy Cook toolkit is based on the growing trend of cooking root to stem, which consists on cooking without wasting any parts of vegetables, by doing this it collaborates on reducing food waste while and at the same time creates awareness in food as a contributor to waste.
Solution Prototype
A solution prototype is a method in which users are observed engaging in planned activities around prototypes of proposed solutions. We used the first appearance prototype method , “simulating the appearance of the intended offerings”. The session was held at Gulfstream Center for Design. A recipe from Scrappy Cook was used to make a meal. The meal, along with the pages from the resource guide displaying the recipe, were placed near it. Participants were given a brief run through about the concept of Scrappy Cook. After which, they were asked to try the dish and rate the overall experience of Scrappy Cook, on 15 meaningful experiences, from Steve Diller’s book “Making Meaning”. Our findings included:
Two participants were concerned about the negative effects
of consuming parts of vegetables that they usually wouldn’t
One participant asked for a feature where he could buy
the vegetables in the recipes
One participant asked for a like or dislike button to gauge
the popularity of recipes
One participant asked for a recipe feature for the month
Almost all participants asked for the recipe
Throughout our solution prototype, the pages of the resource guide were laid out to imitate the navigation on the app, but didn’t have the full effect. This left participants to rely on their own imaginations.
Discover
Research
Once we understood more about the food waste industry and our overall scope, we began identifying case studies on food waste. From there, we conducted primary research through surveys, interviews, and an experience simulation. Those findings, along with our secondary findings, were plugged into several frameworks which allowed us to identify gaps, opportunities, and an area of intervention. Our frameworks included: The 3 Horizon Model, Force Salience Matrix, Fogg’s Behaviorial Model, Diffusion of Innovation, Journey Maps, Competing Behaviors, Behavior Grid, and a Customer Experience Map.
Survey
Experience Simulation
Our Experience Simulation hosted a pop up salad station on two separate occasions the First Friday Night Market on Bull Street and the Saturday Farmers Market at Forsyth Park with a total of 16 participants. The pop up salad station was set up with two bowls of fresh vegetables. Tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, kale, strawberries, apples, broccoli, carrots and celery. Two dustbins, one labelled compost were placed for disposal of scraps. Using the available chopping boards and knives, participants were invited to make a salad for themselves. We also used this as an opportunity to interview local vegetarians about their grocery shopping and lifestyle choices and asked them to fill out our survey. Our observations recorded through video and photo were then affinitized, to draw insights.
Personas
The personas were identified based on both our secondary research and primary research. We first narrow it through our survey and experience simulation to create a general profile (age, cooking frequency, reasons for becoming a vegetarian. lifestyle) and then we developed more detailed characteristics based on the competing behaviors of our desired behavior (convenience, cooking skills, motivations). By doing this we made sure that we were targeting different types of users, and that the solution would have a holistic approach.
Frameworks
Customer Experience Map
Once an area of intervention was identified , we narrowed down on three target audiences. These audiences took shape from a list of motivations that get people to cook. Narrowing it down to three main groups:
People Who Need to Cook
Mostly individuals who have to rely on themselves not to go hungry.
People Who Have to Cook for Others
People who have other people depending on them for their meals.
Mostly moms,dads or caretakers
People Who Want to Cook for Others
Cooks who love to spoil their friends and family with good food.
The map then focused on the activities surrounding the problematic behavior through the lens of these three personas. Mapping their points of pain and gain, time saved and time taken during every stage of the process.With this tool we were able to determine: What shape our personas would take Opportunities: When identifying our users areas of struggle we developed a more nuanced understanding of where to intervene in the process
View our Customer Experience Map
Understand
Scope
We first identified a repetitive and specific human behavior that contributes to environmental degradation- food waste. We then framed our approach through Paul Hawken’s book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming. Drawdown is the point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis.
Producing uneaten food squanders a whole host of resources and generates greenhouse gases at every stage including methane when organic matter lands in the global rubbish bin.
In places where income is low, wastage is generally unintentional and occurs earlier in the supply chain food rots on farms or spoils during storage or distribution. In regions of higher income, willful food waste dominates farther along the supply chain. Retailers and consumers reject food based on bumps, bruises, and coloring, or simply order, buy, and serve too much. By conducting thorough research around food waste, we designed an intervention. One that through increasing benefits and decreasing barriers to participation will effectively substitute the old behavior with a new one.
What is food waste?
Any solid or liquid food substance, raw or cooked, which is discarded or intended or required to be discarded.
How much do we waste?
The average
amount of food wasted
by households was 3.5 lbs. per person per week, approximately 68% of which was potentially edible.
1971:
2015:
2018:
Francis Moore Lappe, wrote Diet for a Small Planet. A book that highlighted the negative impacts of the meat industry a large component of the average american diet. Establishing that a plant based dietary pattern has a lesser environmental impact.
CMU - Shifting to the diets recommended by Dietary Guidelines for American would increase energy use by 38 percent, water use by ten percent and greenhouse gas emissions by six percent.
A new study finds that Americans waste nearly a pound of food per person per day. And at the top of it is fruits and vegetables. Way below those is dairy, and meat waste is almost a third of what fruits and vegetables are.
63 million
tons of food wasted annually
$1
trillion
of fresh food spoilage problems
85%
of waste occurs downstream at consumer-facing businesses and homes.
Problem Statement
Food waste is a multi-billion dollar problem in the US, using 50% of our land, 30% of all energy resources and 80% of all freshwater. It is the single largest component going into municipal landfills, making landfills the third largest generator of methane in the US. 85% of food waste is generated downstream at consumer- facing business and homes. This waste occurs mainly through aesthetic objection and lack of kitchen efficiency, a behavior routinely practiced amongst consumers.
Opportunity Statement
In the last couple of years there has been an exponential growth in the number of people adopting vegetarian or vegan diets, according to statistics from Global Data, from 2014 to 2017 there was an increase of 600% on vegans in the US. People are shifting to these lifestyles mostly because of their concerns on the ethical treatment of the animals in the food system and because of the damage that the industry is causing to the environment. Either way by having already taken a big step towards positive change, there is an opportunity to encourage these groups of people into even better practices that maximize their respect for nature and the environment.
Refine
Design Solution
Scrappy cook provides Savannah vegetarians access to an online toolkit that introduces them to the root-to-stem lifestyle. This toolkit features a resource guide, an expanding library of recipes ,useful lifestyle tips and a “Next on the Menu” blog for our online community of ‘Scrappers’ to share new and exciting recipes. With our Scrappy Cook Toolkit you will be a champion of: Scraptitude: Cooking with a spirit of adventure and experimentation that utilize food scraps. Stop The Chop: Chopping less of a veggie, and eating more of it. Hungry Bin: Cooking a meal with no peels or scraps in sight. We believe all bins should stay hungry.
What's inside?
Recipes for you: sweet & spicy sauteed kale stems, lemon walnut & kale pesto, roasted radishes with balsamic, lemon & carrot top pesto, asparagus mushroom & avocado soup, buffalo cauliflower bites, zucchini patties with parmesan, potato and roasted corn tacos, black bean avocado & kale bowl, burrito stuffed sweet potatoes, veggie scraps vegetable stock
Recipes for you & your crew: lentil & beet burgers with lemon aioli, carrot & broccoli veggie chips, tomato basil broccoli noodles & white bean salad, chipotle-orange black bean stuffed yams, veggie & tofu skewers with sriracha, tofu & rice stuffed peppers, broccoli rigatoni with blue cheese, miso & ginger butternut squash ramen, broccoli & chickpea curry, sauteed swiss chard & lemon pasta
Recipes for you & a few: thai red curry with veggies, spaghetti squash burrito bowl, cauliflower pizza with veggies, black eyed pea & carrot top burger, radish greens salad with pickle vinaigrette, crispy seasoned cauliflower, grated carrot & carrot top salad, beetroot & chickpea fritters, veggie macaroni & cheese, veggie paella with chickpeas & bell peppers veggie parts: bell pepper, onion, carrot, beet, asparagus, broccoli edible parts savannah community gardens
View the Toolkit