Our team set out to discover the challenges seniors face in getting the food they need to make nutritious meals for themselves and the people they love. We spent the first weeks understanding the Feeding America system and the seniors engaging with partner organizations — immersing ourselves in the process and speaking with seniors around Chicagoland.

In collaboration with Feeding America, we wrote a contextual paper from the secondary and primary research collected during the first six weeks of the partnership.

Through continuous observation, interviews, and intensive interaction, we built an understanding of the logistics of food distribution and the experience seniors have using its services. The non-profit network works — millions of people are fed. The opportunity we saw was in the last mile: getting food from the pantry, box, or grocery store into a nutritious, home-cooked meal.

We prototyped early and often, using a design-to-research approach: putting rough concepts in front of seniors from the start of the project cycle, collecting feedback, and discovering new findings through in-depth interviews. With more than six concepts, we tested different modes of delivering information, resources, and food to seniors in need of assistance.

The system map visualizes the potential stakeholders in the proposed design. By brokering knowledge and resources across networks and key stakeholders, Feeding America can build new relationships and leverage existing assets to better serve seniors.

The four proposed systems of interaction let Feeding America rely on multiple touchpoints and offer seniors critical service options — health tests, financial consultancy, skill learning, leisure, and mobility support, among others.