This week, the Compass team met up to do some insight-driven ideation. We first went over some of our key takeaways from Reframe to refresh about the insights that should guide our solution-brainstorming. We then laid out our narrow How Can We statement in front of us, which states “How can we increase Rice off campus students’ awareness and comfort in using the food pantry?”

With the statement in view, we each grabbed a stack of Post-Its and started writing ideas down. These ideas ranged from surgical improvements to unfeasibly radical changes. We were all working individually, sticking our finished Post-Its all over the table until it was practically covered in colorful squares.

We then began to evaluate. We grouped similar ideas together and organized everything into different categories. Some of the key points of our discussion included:

• Roughly half of our ideas involved changing the contents/location/setup of the food pantry. However, we realized that most of these ideas involved making big changes to the food pantry that would not be very feasible. Therefore, we decided to focus on the other half.
• Solutions that target the stigma surrounding food insecurity could encourage those who do know about the food pantry but do not use it to make the decision to visit the food pantry.
• Social media advertising/marketing techniques are 1) not self-sustaining and 2) can compromise anonymity, and therefore do not meet our design criteria.
• Many of our solutions require closer collaboration with the food pantry administration itself.

Our Initial Feasible Solution:

A two-pronged approach that involves…

• Advertising & Rebranding:
  • Reduce perceived stigma with use
    • Self-sustaining posters to advertise the pantry as a resource for everyone
    • Rebrand food pantry
• Student Involvement:
  • Involving college OC Representatives to promote the food pantry as a resource