Building Food Communities

As food systems have become industrialized, information about food production has been obscured, causing threats to food security. Local food systems provide an alternative, and consumers and producers are increasingly using them. However, local food systems present their own challenges. Employing participatory research methods, including contextual conversations with producers and diary studies with consumers, this thesis explores the design of the Community Foods service which allows consumers to more easily connect and communicate with producers. As part of the service, I propose a greater involvement of locally-owned stores in food systems as they increase access to local foods without increasing the time required from producers. The main aspect of the Community Foods service is a digital platform that allows consumers to explore and search the local food opportunities across stores, markets, and individual producers within a community. Through these methods, the Community Foods service provides greater access to local foods, proposing new connections within a community and ultimately new ways of moving through it based on food.