Chef for Grabs
"Connecting Food Truck Chefs with Communities in Need – Reducing Waste, Fighting Hunger, and Streamlining Meal Rescue"
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Chef for Grabs is a user-centered digital platform designed to streamline collaboration between 160+ food trucks and food rescue organizations in Indianapolis, addressing food insecurity affecting 1 in 8 Americans and supporting efforts that have rescued 43 million pounds of food. It streamlines event coordination, chef matching, and ingredient sourcing using UX research, automation, and real-time notifications, ensuring an efficient, scalable, and impactful approach to food redistribution and waste reduction.
Team
4 Product designers
Role
UX Research
Timeline
7 Weeks
My Contribution
UX Research
UI & Interaction Design
Wireframing &Prototyping
Usability Testing
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Miro
PROBLEM SPACE
Existing food rescue organizations struggle with meal distribution due to a lack of transportation resources. While many businesses and wholesalers are willing to donate food, food rescue groups lack an efficient system to transport and distribute meals to food-insecure communities.
How might we design a platform that facilitates collaboration between food truck chefs and food rescue organizations to efficiently distribute meals to communities in need?
User Painpoints
Target Users
Food Rescue Organizations
Nonprofits and community groups that collect surplus food from restaurants, wholesalers, and grocery stores but struggle with distribution due to transportation and logistical challenges.
Food Truck Operators
Chefs and food truck owners who want to contribute to food rescue efforts but lack a structured platform to find, commit, and source ingredients for meal distribution.
SOLUTION
Food Rescue Organizations
Struggle with transportation, ingredient management, and communication, causing inefficiencies.
Food Trucks
Lack a centralized system for event coordination, ingredient sourcing, and tax clarity, limiting participation.
Communities In Need
Face inconsistent meal access, transportation barriers, and lack of dietary options, reducing food security.
Communities in Need
Gain direct access to fresh meals via mobile food trucks, eliminating transportation barriers. Real-time tracking ensures nutritious, culturally relevant meals reach those in need.
RESEARCH
Food Rescue Organizations
Streamline meal distribution by creating events, coordinating with food truck chefs, and offering surplus ingredients. Real-time tracking ensures efficient resource use and reduced food waste.
Food Trucks
Get notified of relevant events, commit 10 days in advance, and source ingredients easily. The platform simplifies tax deductions (up to 25%), making food rescue structured yet flexible.
Methods
Interviews
“I’d be down to make 3 huge pans of food and take it down to the shelter but I'm just not sure, logistically, I don't know what the legalities are around that anymore.”
- Restaurant Owner
“We receive plenty of food donations, but the biggest challenge is transportation—getting meals to the right places at the right time.”
- Food Rescue Organization
“I’d love to help, but there’s no clear system for food trucks to get involved. If I knew where and when my food was needed, I’d do it.”
- Food Truck Owner
MID-FIDELITY DESIGN
DESIGN SYSTEM
1 in 8 Americans suffers from food insecurity.
25%
Of the Marion county’s residents rely on food assistance programs like SNAP, WIC, food pantries, and congregate meals.
146
Emergency shelters, with approximately 13% located near Indianapolis.
HIGH-FIDELITY DESIGNS
- Competitive Analysis
- Storyboaring
- User Interviews
- Paper Prototype
- User Personas
- Heuristic Evaluation
- Affinity Mapping
- Think-Aloud Sessions
