What is Feed?
Feed aims to teach cooking through the lens of community.
The Feed app is for people to share recipes with one another. In addition, it connects users to farms and local businesses though Feedbox, a food delivery service that sources ingredients locally and delivers them to the users in reusable wooden boxes.
Here's how it works:
Community
Recipe Sharing
The first human societies began around a hearth. Food has always been at the center of communities. The idea of recipe sharing has had countless forms throughout history. Feed’s main function is to bring people together through sharing recipes, and it does so in a modern and novel way; by combining what social media and technology do well with a model of buying locally and sustainably.
Users can effortlessly discover recipes from friends, family, and global chefs while reciprocally sharing their own culinary creations. Upon uploading a recipe to Feed, users are encouraged to contribute a narrative about the recipe—whether it be its historical significance or a cherished moment associated with it. This "anecdote" not only fosters empathetic connections but also contextualizes the recipe within its cultural origins.
Furthermore, each recipe concludes with an open forum section, providing a space for users to offer comments, feedback, share variations within their family traditions, or pose questions about the recipe. This interactive section enriches the discourse around food, emphasizing the subjective nature of cooking, where there are no absolutes, only diverse perspectives and opinions.
Feedbox
In addition to this recipe sharing, Feed helps situate people in their own local food communities. Through the app, users can order food directly from farms, bakeries, and other small businesses in their area. The ingredients they order will be delivered in a reusable wooden box, like a personalized CSA right to their door. This delivery system, titled Feedbox, emphasizes the importance of buying locally and in-season ingredients, both from an economical and environmental standpoint. Additionally, Feedbox serves as a guide, introducing new and less known local businesses to the user.
Highlighted Recipes
Every month, Feed will highlight a recipe that was submitted by a community member. These recipes aim to highlight a current or specific important event within the local, national, or global community. These recipes will shine light on cultures within our communities whose voices are often overlooked.
Recipes and food are often appropriated and their history is lost. These highlighted recipes will focus on the history and background not only of the food itself, but also the significance of that food within its own culture.
Users will be able to order the ingredients for these recipes in their Feedbox, so they can learn about a culture through cooking.
The example Highlighted recipe used for this project was submitted by Vita Deriabina, a Ukrainian refugee who migrated to the U.S. just months ago. With Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, highlighting a recipe that is emblematic of Ukrainian cuisine aims to help focus more people’s attention on Ukraine and its unique culture.
Design
Logo
The Feed logo highlights the idea of community; where the letters overlap, they create new colors. It is in these connections where a sense of community is constructed.
The name “Feed” refers both to the idea of nourishment, and also a social media feed.
“Connecting with Recipes,” the app’s slogan, also has a double meaning. Referring to both a connection between a person and a recipe—learning to cook—and also connecting two people together through recipe sharing.
Color Palette
Along with showing a sense of connection with colors in the logo overlapping and creating transparencies, the colors also have an additional meaning. The blue and green, being the colors of a map, represent exploring and the idea of sourcing ingredients locally. The yellow, orange, and red represent the process of cooking, from raw to cooked. The purple, being a combination of both, represents the community; it is used for the Highlighted recipes.
Packaging
Along with a focus on community, another aspect of Feed that sets it apart from other similar food delivery and recipe sharing companies is its focus on sustainability and the environment.
The Feedbox concept is inspired by 20th century milk delivery services which used reusable glass bottles. With Feedbox, users would be able to order ingredients from local farms, bakeries, butcher shops, etc. and they would arrive in reusable wooden boxes. When the user receives their next box, the previous one would be picked up.
The Highlighted Recipes come in purple packaging rather than neutrals and wood, adding a splash of color to feature and celebrate them further.
Homepage
This page is the user’s personal social feed, where recipes from friends, celebrity chefs, influencers, and whoever else they follow show up. They can save recipes they find here to their own profile, or order specific ingredients to their Feedbox directly from the recipes posts. By clicking the settings button in the top left corner, users can adjust what types of recipes show up, arranging them by diet, type of meal, or they can search for a specific ingredient.
Recipe Example
At the bottom of every recipe, there is a forum. This is for users to comment on each other’s recipes, giving pointers, tips, and feedback.
Explore
The explore page is locally-based. This is where users can see what people in their area are cooking. Toggle between map and grid modes to see where the recipes are coming from. Search for specific local ingredients to see what other people are doing with their in-season produce.
Feedbox
When users order ingredients for a specific recipe, this is where they’ll show up. Users can add full recipe ingredients to their Feedbox or add specific ingredients or items that they need for general use. All ingredients are locally sourced from businesses in the user’s area. They can see where exactly their food is coming from on this page.
Profile
The user’s profile is where their own recipe uploads can be found. In addition, this is where a user’s saved recipes are compiled. Users can organize their recipes into folders as they see fit. This feature serves as a digital “scrapbook” where users can save recipes from other cooks on Feed, but can also save recipes from elsewhere (the web, instagram, other social media apps).
Feed on display in May 2022 at Connecticut College as a part of the Senior Art Thesis Exhibition
Feed was designed for The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology Senior Integrative Project 2022. It is a prototype for a recipe sharing app and food delivery service which connects users to their local cooking communities. It connects communities through recipes and teaches individuals how to cook using local and in-season ingredients.
Thank you.
To Prof. Andrea Wollensak, Steve Luber, and the rest of the Ammerman Center faculty and students for years of support and feedback.
To those who submitted example recipes.
To Vita Deriabina.
And to my friends who shared with me what food means to them.
