Hello! We are team Urban Harvest, composed of Minjung, Leigh, Ryan, Esther, and Kelly. We will be working with the Houston non-profit Urban Harvest, who promotes the consumption of healthy local fruits and vegetables. Urban Harvest facilitates farmers markets, community gardens, and also works to educate communities on healthy eating and farming.

More about our team members:

• Minjung Kim is a junior at Rice studying Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. She is passionate about environmental justice and accessibility to healthcare. Minjung loves to play the cello, eat good food, and play Tetris. This is her first semester in DFA. 
• Leigh Gabriely is a sophomore at Rice from Tampa, FL pursuing economics, psychology, and environmental studies. Leigh’s particularly passionate about food industry development and environmentally conscious streamlining and loves doing yoga, Harry Potter, and watermelon. This is her first semester in DFA,
• Ryan Emelle is a junior at Jones College from Los Angeles, CA studying Cognitive Sciences and minoring in Engineering with a focus in Human Factors and Engineering. Her interests include product design, dance, and film scores. This is her first semester in DFA, and she is co team leading with Kelly Park. 
• Esther Lee is a sophomore at Rice from Sharon, MA (but currently living in Georgia) interested in studying psychology or biosciences along with neuroscience. She is interested in health disparities and medical research. Esther also loves to bake new recipes and listen to K-R&B in her free time. This is her first semester in DFA.
• Kelly Park is a senior at Jones from the Bay Area, CA studying Computer Science. In previous semesters with DFA, she has worked with voter education and housing insecurity initiatives. She is super excited to be team leading this semester with Ryan Emelle. 

During the identify step of the human-centered design process, we worked on defining our project’s users as Rice undergraduate students, followed by identification of our problem space as the financial and physical accessibility of fresh food options. 

After carefully considering what we already know about food insecurity and accessibility on campus, we developed a “How Can We statement” that addresses the immediate needs of Rice students: “How can we provide nutritious and affordable food at the Rice Farmer’s Market to undergraduate students?”

While the identify process helped solidify our general ideas, we still had questions about the specifics of Urban Harvest’s programs. Some questions we determined as most important were: how Urban Harvest community gardens work, demographics of current community garden usage, past research and user findings for young adult food insecurity, and characteristics of most active community gardens. Our next step is to meet with our client to ask these questions.