Felicia Huerta

Over the past few weeks, I have focused on turning in assignments for my program. One of the assignments that have taken the most time and much of my attention is a Human-Centered Design (HCD) group project. The goal of the project was to address an issue within our community and create a potential solution that addresses the faults of the current systems in place. It is our responsibility to create a thoughtful and humane way to decrease or lessen the burden of the issue we decide to address. My group decided to address the issue of food insecurity in Boston, MA, and the United States.

The first phase of the HCD project is Discovery: We have a challenge. How do we approach it? During this phase, I did research on the current data of food insecurity across the nation. I found that the United States annually throws out 72 billion pounds of food (Feeding America, 2021). There are over 42 million people across the nation who do not know where their next meal will come from or if they will get one, yet billions of pounds of food are thrown away. According to The Greater Boston Food Bank, I found that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 11 people were food insecure and now that ratio is 1 in 7 people.

 

Apart from stating why I believed it was an imminent issue we should address; I did more research on how groceries manage their surplus of food and the current system. The Center for Biological Diversity rated major grocery stores for their handling of food waste, with almost every single one receiving an F. One of the stores that my group focused on was Trader Joe’s. The grocery store currently runs a Neighborhood Shares Program which focuses on donating 100% of products that are not sold but are still safe for consumption. Last year, Trader Joe’s donated about $345 million worth of produce, fresh produce, and drinks equating to about 69 million meals across the United States.

 

I was curious as to why other grocery stores were not replicating Trader Joe’s model. While there were few stores that conducted a similar system, many companies and stores believed the process to be too complicated, time-consuming, and unprofitable. To conduct an efficient system, stores may need to hire more people or pay people to complete additional work from their daily duties. In addition, many stores stated that they did not want to be held liable if someone became sick due to the food they ingested. While I also believed there was a law prohibiting companies from giving people food, I found out that the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act offers them protection. Congress passed this act in 1996 where companies would not be held liable.

In the end, we came up with the plan shown in the picture. The top row shows the current system of supermarkets discarding their food in the trash which eventually ends in landfills. The prototype that my group came up with was the creation of a Secondhand Food Store where people could purchase food that has passed its “sell-by” date but is still good to eat. When I volunteered at the Houston Food Bank, I learned that many products were still edible to eat based on the type of food it is. The grocery store would sell the products at reduced rates. Not only will stores create a more sustainable option to reduce food waste, but also alleviate food insecurity in Boston.

 

In the past couple of weeks, various changes within my internship have occurred. In my last post, I mentioned that my special project was going to be a short documentary of the people IFSI has served. Before making much progress on that project, my mentor asked me to switch my project to create a volunteer database that would be more practical and useful for the organization. My role has now changed from Adult Education Fellow to Volunteer Coordinator with this project. So far, I have looked at the current process of recruiting volunteers from local high schools, colleges, and other organizations to create a new volunteer protocol. I have aggregated the data of our current partnerships into the new database while setting up meetings with potential partnerships. Apart from this, I have been a part of increasing the Spanish sector of the organization by ensuring that all information is translated and accessible to those that need it, increasing the number of Spanish speaking volunteers for our students, and reaching out to Spanish speaking communities to inform them of our resources. Overall, my project has taken a completely different approach, but I am excited to see the final product.

 

On another note, I have found much comfort in my daily routines. Waking up in the morning, hopping on the train, getting to work, working on my special project, helping people throughout the day, and cooking in the evening have all made living in the city an incredible experience. Although I am at work the entire day throughout the week, I try to explore new places in Boston on the weekends. While it may be difficult due to COVID, I usually stick to outdoor activities such as taking a walk by the Charles, walking to Fenway, finding a new bookstore, going on a picnic with people in my program. My program is halfway through, so I am making sure I take full advantage of the opportunities that the city has to offer.