SMC Food Pantry Onboarding Website

Project Description

An inviting and friendly responsive web experience that assists students in the food pantry process and resources at SMC.

Problem

Since the start of COVID, over 50% of current Santa Monica College students struggle with food insecurity. Out of 25,000 + students enrolled only an estimated 300-400 students visit the food pantry on a weekly basis. We identified through our research that students are unaware of the drive-thru food pantry process and that they often don’t know what to do with the food they are given. For that reason, we wondered how we can educate and inform food insecure students more about the resources and process of the food pantry.

Insights

After conducting research we identified 3 key insights. We interview students to get a perspective from their end and we recognized a pattern that students don’t know what The Drive-Thru Food Pantry process entails. Another finding was that students don’t know what food they are picking up and what to do with it. Food pantry stakeholders stated that they only know what food they receive on the day of the drive-thru pantry. Therefore, we decided to focus on what students can do with the food they receive. Lastly, Food pick-up and selection require a long wait time. Although we were unable to redesign the system in place instead we brought transparency to the process so students can plan ahead.

Solutions

A responsive website for the SMC Food Pantry to guide students to better understand the drive-thru/walk-thru process with instructions on what to expect, what to do with their picked-up goodies, and resources for the food insecure.