All posts by cindyy

Food for Free: brainstorming solutions

Hi all!

A few ridealongs later, Soraya and I finally felt ready to start drafting possible solutions that we could work towards in the remaining semester.

These are the opportunities we’ve observed at Food for Free:
1. More brand associations
2. Greater involvement from the donor agencies
3. Advanced communications between drivers and food recipients
4. Getting drivers’ buy-in to change
5. Technological solutions that alleviate workload (as opposed to adding)
6. More strategic with donor partnerships

Of the above, we decided we could tackle opportunities #1, #2, and #3.

Opportunity #1 or increasing branding should be relatively low effort, so we are not too concerned over that.

Opportunity #2 or raising donor involvement, however, may be more difficult, given donors are decentralized with their own processes. We are going to study the operational process of the best donor, a Trader Joe’s in Cambridge. From there, we will put together best practices and process flows that can be shared with other donors. Additional aspects to this would be assigning a point-person for accountability at each donor site and to more strongly communicate end-user impact to these donors.

Lastly, we foresee moderate level of effort with Opportunity #3 or adding advanced communications with partners. We will be looking into texting solutions so drivers can easily notify recipients prior to arrival. We would like to include drivers at every stage of the design so maximize buy-in of the new technology.

More to come next week on our progress!

Cindy and Soraya

Food for Free: Narrowing down the issues

Hi all,

As Soraya mentioned last week, we discovered there are many opportunities to help improve Food for Free, both from a short-term and long-term perspective.

During our second meeting with Kelly, the Operational Director, we decided focusing on the immediate issues would be best, especially considering the scope of the project. We’ve been able to narrow down to two main operational issues: inventory control and communication between the drivers and Operational Director. There may be some root causes underlying these issues as well that we are hoping to uncover.

To start, we will be introducing ourselves to the drivers. Hopefully, it will be a warm welcome. We are looking forward to building this relationship through ride alongs and other touch points.

More to come next week!

Sincerely,
Cindy

Farmer’s Market update: Now Food for Free!

This was a difficult semester of navigating through problems the team could solve, and aligning that back to our interests. Disengagement grew until I was the only one left active on the project.

I met with the Director of Dining Services, who enlightened me to a few things. One: Harvard Farmer’s Market was a community investment. Two: in the grand scheme of things, the investment made to the Farmer’s Market is so minimal that reaching financial sustainability is not a priority. Three: there are other organizations, however, that could benefit from being cost effective.

The Director introduced me to a partnering non-profit organization, Food for Free. Food for Free re-distributes leftover food from the Dining Halls to places of need. Their services are at no cost to the suppliers or benefactors, so they have to operate in a lean fashion.

I am grateful for the change in direction. This will likely transform into a Spring semester project, where we will be recruiting for a new team. Please send any interests our way!

Cindy

Farmer’s Market: Shifting gears

At the mid-term review, we shared our struggles of finding project alignment with the larger group. After the warm response we received, we forged on with figuring out what we want to accomplish this semester.

Among the group, we’ve confirmed there is a strong interest in understanding the local food community, which our current mentor is knowledgeable on. We are also meeting with Crista Martin, director of Dining Services, for insights on longer-term objectives of Farmer’s Market. Hopefully, this will guide us in a new direction.

There is still work to be done in terms of team engagement as well. But maybe redefining the purpose will work in tandem with improving team dynamics.

Sincerely,
Cindy, Christian, Niousha

Farmer’s Market – Taking a step back

The team has been experiencing a growing tension over the past few weeks. It took a while to realize this tension might be driven from different interpretations of the word “sustainability”.

We were brought on to help create a sustainable Farmer’s Market. But what that meant to me meant something else to my teammates and the assigned mentor, thus leading to different expectations.

The Website solution we’ve been developing had been largely influenced by the needs of the mentor (vs the needs we’ve identified among ourselves). Today, we were advised to reflect on what matters to us in terms of local food and sustainability.

Hopefully, by the Mid-Semester Review tomorrow, we will have more direction on the work we want to accomplish for the rest of the term.

Sincerely,
Cindy

Farmer’s Market – Project Update / Website dev begins

Hi all! We’ve begun drafting the mock up for our website solution, which aims to address the immediate issue around Farmer’s Market operations. With the website, we hope to achieve these objectives:

Increase accessibility, and thus, awareness, to the general public on Farmer’s Market activities
Streamline standard processes, such as performer sign-ups and weekly vendor updates

That being said, after meeting with Margiana today and reviewing the ask in more detail, we discovered that there may be a knowledge gap on the team in terms of back-end requirements. We will have to either ramp up on these skills or recruit someone with more experience in this area. Any DPSI-ers interested to help, please reach out! Simultaneously, we will be contacting the director of Dining Services to get a better understanding of Farmer’s Market operations at a high level to try to influence the longer-term issues. In particular, our team has an interest in increasing revenue opportunities for the vendors and the Market. Website mock-ups (Homepage and Events page):

Sincerely, Cindy, Christian, & Niousha

Farmer’s Market

What we worked on

After conferring at our all-team meeting, we decided it would be a good idea to get some on-the-ground experience with the market, to see for ourselves what areas could be improved upon. We have a lot of ideas about how to expand the reach of the farmer’s market, and more specifically we wanted to hear from vendors themselves how the operations and marketing could be improved.

What went well

We found the market vendors to be friendly, engaged, and happy to speak to us. We spent about an hour going among the different vendors to ask them about their experience at the Harvard market, what areas they would want to see improved, their sales revenue from the market, other markets they visit, and their history here. The responses we received were uniformly positive: the vendors felt that the market met their revenue targets, was managed well, and served the purpose they sought from being there.

What was challenging

Although it was good to see the vendors of the market so satisfied with their experience, our presence in the field didn’t help us to narrow our focus our project for improving the market. If the vendors had had specific concerns or areas they wanted to see changed, we would have had a more targeted direction for our efforts; but the feedback we received did not point out specific issues. The feedback we received at the market made us wonder whether the problem was not one that the market vendors or customers were experiencing, but something going on with operations and administration.

What’s up next

The three of us have an upcoming meeting with Margiana to discuss what we have gathered from attending the market, and our impressions of the vendors. We’d also like to learn more about the behind-the-scenes view of the market’s finances and standard operating procedures from speaking with her, and apply our project proposal.

Working Toward a Sustainable Farmer’s Market – 1st Meeting

Last Tuesday, we met with Margiana, Marketing Manager of the Farmer’s Market at Harvard Plaza. We met under the Farmer’s Market tent as activities began to kick off. It was a great opportunity to take in the ambience!

Initial Discussion

Margiana walked us through the entire operation, from micro and macro logistics to financials and promotions. Though the market only runs once a week, it has great community impact by serving a diverse group of stakeholders. What’s more, our findings could potentially impact surrounding Farmer’s Markets and subsequently, their networks.

Pain Points Identified So Far

From the outset, Margiana has emphasized the need for greater operational efficiency. Her focus is on leveraging technology to streamline activities, but there may be other streams as well as we continue to examine potential bottlenecks.

Another opportunity identified is to educate consumers on vendor history and products. The lack of awareness may be a symptom of a larger issue with vendor integration into the organization – to be determined!

Challenge Ahead

We are meeting among ourselves this week to digest the data and explore existing issues on a deeper level. Our objective is to identify the root causes this organization is facing and approach Margiana with recommendations that are sensitive to resource availability. Once a solution is chosen, we will focus our efforts on executing within the allotted time frame. Wish us luck :).

Sincerely,
Cindy