Food Oasis Story

What Is Food Oasis

Food Oasis Information

The Food Oasis Story

There’s a wealth of data in the USDA Food Environment Atlas, illustrating the dire problem of “food deserts” in this U.S., where it is difficult to buy fresh items or unprocessed foods, including right in our backyard in Pittsburgh.

Through our work with healthcare and insurance industries, we know that developing and maintaining healthy eating habits is critical to preventing obesity, as well as chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Stemming the growing tide of people afflicted by these conditions will require more then just education, creating a lifetime of healthy eating relies on continuous access to healthy affordable food and reinforced positive habits.

To address these challenges, MAYA conceived an SMS-based virtual grocery marketplace called “Food Oasis” to expand access to healthy, affordable food. While smart phones and internet access are not universal in low-income populations, SMS-enabled cell phones are commonplace. Using simple, text-message ordering, individual consumers can connect with producers in their area.

This easy to use and dynamic marketplace affords consumers clear benefits. They gain access to a wider variety of healthy foods within their existing routine. The food is ordered through an existing communication channel (e.g., text messaging) and is delivered to neighborhood locations (e.g., churches, day care centers, employment centers).

But Food Oasis isn’t a charity program: there are clear, economic incentives for suppliers as well. By reducing overhead, expanding to a wider distribution of customers, and using the dynamic market communication to increase efficiencies, suppliers will achieve an economic advantage similar to physical stores.

The Food Oasis system will also provide a platform for engaging consumers in an ongoing conversation, not just to order food, but also to encourage a healthy lifestyle and reinforce healthy habits. It’s this empowerment of the consumer that has the most promise to provide sustainable, long-term success.

For example, program partners could use the text-messaging system to reach out to engaged consumers in the community. The system could be used to share healthy recipes, announce upcoming events (e.g., cooking classes, health screenings, etc) or collect feedback on the program impact.

MAYA Design developed the initial idea for Food Oasis while participating in the Health 2.0 Washington, D.C. Code-a-Thon challenge (February 2011), and received the “People’s Choice Award” at the Health 2.0 Spring Fling conference in San Diego (March 2011). MAYA is working with local and regional foundations and partners to develop an initial pilot program of the system.

More Information

If you’d like to talk with us about Food Oasis we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact John Crowley at MAYA Design, 412.488.2900

About MAYA

MAYA Design is a design consultancy and technology research lab, working with diverse companies and organizations to tame complexity. We apply human-centered design techniques to kick-start innovation and solve the business challenges of a connected world. We use an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach with our clients, using our team of designers, human scientists and engineers based in Pittsburgh.
Please see our main website for more information www.maya.com

How the System Works

The challenge being addressed is a behavioral, social and economic problem that technology alone can’t solve

Food Oasis is a platform, purposefully designed with constants and variables to make it sustainable across a range of locations with varied constraints (economic, geographic, demographic, etc).

The platform is built on three principals: Active participation among a diverse set of users and suppliers. Actionable information through simple technology and target collateral. Empowerment of the user community to make long-term changes.

Food Oasis works by consumers sending text messages for individual needs, to a central system, where these small orders can be aggregated by suppliers into economically-viable groups. These suppliers, including corner markets, family farmers or large grocery chains, can negotiate with buyers to agree on a price and central neighborhood delivery location.

While the system is designed to have a positive impact on consumers trapped in a food desert, it could also improve access to healthy food for other groups (e.g., elderly residents, college students or high-income convenience buyers).