KU Foods

UI & UX- ACADEMIC

Project Mentor

Siddhartha S

Project Duration

35 days

Deliverables

UI & UX

“Reducing Wasted Meals: Insights from Students in Shared Living Spaces”

Problem Statement
How might we make students or teenagers who stay in hostels and shared accommodations aware of food waste that happen near them so that we reduce food wastage in a cost effective way and in turn help in reducing climate change and value the food they get?

Description
Did you know that about 40 % of the food produced in India is wasted? Despite adequate food production, the UN has reported that about 190 million Indians remain undernourished. It is further estimated that the value of food wastage in India is around 92,000 crores per annum. An in-house survey of 16 hostels and 14 mess halls on the Powai campus finds students dumping ‘tasteless’ food. Nearly 1,000 kg food is wasted daily across the 16 hostels at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), an in-house survey has revealed. My UX research I all about food wastage and steps to reduce that. My target users will be the students/teenagers staying in hostel and other forms of shared accommodation which has nuclear kitchens to cook large amount of food to the users. About a third of all the world’s food goes to waste, and producing, transporting and letting that food rot releases 8-10% of global greenhouse gases. If food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Insights Findings

Since hostels make large amount of food, even if students don’t waste food becomes surplus everday.
Someone made food with love and effort but they still get wasted. it hurts the most as no one is having this benefits
with that.
This food could be donated to someone who needs food. As it is hard for mess staff to deliver the food to homeless since we don’t have a van. They would be happy to give these food in lower price as it is anyway getting wasted.

Opportunity

There is an opportunity to design an app to help students who live in hostels and shared accommodations by providing an online platform to buy surplus foods in lower price so that they can help in reducing food wastage.

Methodology

News Article, Journals, Interview, Blogs and Website

Target Users & Context

Male Student
Female Student

Participants

Mess staff
Student of KU Campus
Driver who take the waste foods
Chef
PG Owners

Conclusion

There is a lot of food waste that happens in Mess as they cook for large number of people and its obvious that they go to waste. These wastes are dumped in dump yard which causes environmental issues in the world. Why can’t these be given in lower price to people who want them? We know that there is about 40% of the food produced are wasted in India. This problem has to be addressed for a better wellbeing and a safe place for the generations coming. So, it is important that we as designers find a solution for this problem now.