Community Foodprint App

Community Foodprint App: tackling food waste and promoting healthy, sustainable eating

Within the design for digital and green transition areas, Community Foodprint stands out as a web app with a bold vision and transformative mission. Developed by Studio SHIFT in 2022-23, as part of the “Frassati FOODprint” project for Cooperativa Frassati Onlus, it aims to redesign and streamline the food recovery chain for the five reception centers canteen to homeless people in Turin. The goal is to optimize resources and minimize waste.

The initiative’s merit has been acknowledged by Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo, Circolo del Design, and Torino Social Impact, naming it one of the five winners in the “Wonder: Experiments in Design for Social Innovation” competition. This initiative was created to foster collaboration between designers and third-sector players to develop projects with positive impacts on the community.

We started by proposing a new holistic and sustainable approach to food management in the cooperative. To achieve this goal, the initial phase involved interviews with food transit operators and a user research including diaries to record the eating habits of the residents, the primary beneficiaries of the project. This allowed us to monitor the quantity, type, and source of recovered food, as well as the methods of meal preparation and distribution.

These insights guided our development of a customized food tracking software. The data collected by the software is accessible in real-time, enabling the generation of reports and analyses to improve supply chain management and reduce food waste. This includes quantifying both actual and avoided consumption (CO2 and water), creating also economic value through reductions and mitigations. Finally, the project also produced posters and recipe books aimed at enhancing the food offerings at the centers and promoting healthy, sustainable eating habits.

The main outcome of “Frassati FOODprint” is the digital solution, the Community Foodprint app, capable of tracking emissions throughout the food’s journey, providing concrete metrics for the positive impact of food recovery practiced by Cooperativa Frassati. We are deeply connected to this project because it offers a simple and pragmatic opportunity for improving the health of homeless people while optimizing the environmental sustainability practices of the cooperative, offering concrete water and carbon footprint metrics.

In the broader context of research and social innovation in the Piedmont region, “Frassati FOODprint” serves as a tangible example of how the integration of Service Design and Data Visualization has been a successful response to this social challenge.

The Studio SHIFT’ solution promotes responsible attitudes toward food and the environment, innovatively addressing the challenge of valuing the impact of food recovery, a common theme for various third-sector players and communities with similar services and objectives. The initiative has been mentioned in the Fondazione Sant’Agata report dedicated to the Wonder competition, describing it as “an innovative initiative aiming to reduce food waste and promote healthy and sustainable eating“. The report emphasizes its potential for replication in other contexts. The prestigious Touchpoint magazine has also dedicated space to showcase the project, illustrating that Benefit Corporations can provide win-win-win product solutions, beneficial for themselves, the customer, their communities, and the planet too.