Hack for Food, Hack for Good

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS!
If you are a designer, maker, service or UX designer, developer, communication expert, creative or student, and you want to concretely contribute to the fight against food security by creating a social impact solution, this is the hackathon for you: sign up here!

The fab lab OpenDot - research and open innovation hub - in collaboration with Milano Food Policy and Terre Des Hommes Italia, launches a call to support the Food Waste Hub of Gallaratese District in Milan. The goal is to develop new winning solutions designed to support the network of the "District Hubs against Food Waste" - the project launched by Milano Food Policy and winner of the Earthshot Prize 2021.

The hackathon is an initiative of the European project FEAST - Food systems that support transitions to healthy and sustainable diets, which aims to facilitate the transition to a food system that is fair and healthy for people, environmentally friendly, and sustainable for the planet.

Participating in "Hack For Food, Hack for Good" means collaborating, co-creating, learning new skills in a creative marathon during which you will be joined by OpenDot designers and makers, international mentors, partners of the FEAST project, and industry experts. The teams will compete to develop a project concept, and the winner will get a prize of € 1000 plus 2 months of mentorship, to prototype the idea in the OpenDot fab lab, with an acceleration program.
Register now! 

Hubs are local neighborhood networks, in which new models of recovery and redistribution of food surpluses are experimented to reduce food waste and innovate food recovery methods. We want to make these places even more innovative and inclusive and empower them with new services to people. Be an active part of the change!

When: 19 - 26.05.2023
Where:
20.05 and 26.05: at OpenDot - via Tertulliano 68, Milano
19.05 at Spazio Indifesa - Gallaratese District Hub - via Appennini 50, Milano

Participants

Participation is open to:

• groups up to a maximum of 5 persons;

• individuals.

Candidates who propose themselves as singles will be associated in teams. Groups of less than 5 people may be associated with other participants.
Participation after registration and selection. The criteria for selecting participants will be experience, in order to create teams with balanced skills, and motivation.
Limited places (20 participants)! Subscribe to this link
Deadline application: 12.05.2023

The context

"District Hubs Against Food Waste" are places run by nonprofit organizations that distribute unsold food to local charities or directly to the needy people. Some of these, such as the Hub "Spazio Indifesa" in the Gallaratese district in Milan, also offer multiple personal services. In addition, there are many other entities in the Milan area working around the issues of food and poverty.
Currently there is a lack of shared knowledge of the services activated by the various actors and this limits the ability to meet the needs expressed by people.

CHALLENGE 1 / ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL
Networking among organizations
How can we connect the different entities (the Hubs and other organizations) to facilitate mutual collaboration and create new synergies between different services?

CHALLENGE 2 / BE AWARE
Communicating to the citizenry
How can we inform and engage citizens about the multiple services offered by the associations in order to make the service more and more inclusive and open to an expanded user base?

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The context
Accessing quantitatively and qualitatively sufficient food is primarily an income-related issue. However, it is also crucial to understand who the people who enter the Gallaratese Hub solidarity market are, what are their needs, how food poverty impacts their daily lives, and what other services they might need to get out of difficult situations.

CHALLENGE 3 / AT YOUR SERVICE
Designing service offerings
How can we improve the experience of accessing, engaging, and the first moment of getting to know people entering the Gallaratese Hub, in order to build with them a personalized path of support and integration based on their needs?
And how do we monitor the progress of the pathway, evaluate its offerings and the design of new services?

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The context
The solidarity market of the Gallaratese Hub is primarily configured as a first point of access to intercept vulnerable people, and it is the most used and well-known service. However, the goal of the "Spazio Indifesa" Hub is to intervene in the multidimensionality of poverty, in the short and long term, to support people through complementary services that are, however, often not adequately known.

CHALLENGE 4 / SERVICE SYSTEM INNOVATION
Communicating complementary services
How to enhance the communication of all services and aid tools within the “Spazio Indifesa” Hub to thus promote access to them for people?

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The context
The Gallaratese Hub aims to be a space rooted in the territory, open to everyone, people with and without fragility. Currently, the users are mainly people who access low-threshold services such as the solidarity market, with the risk of reinforcing social exclusion. The intent today is to rethink the way of aggregating around them, and to make people aware of and propose services to the territory. in an increasingly expanded and inclusive way through new services and activities.

CHALLENGE 5 / FOOD BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER
Designing integration
How can we transform the “Spazio Indifesa” Hub into a place that hosts everyone and creates contamination, permeability and exchange, using the theme of food as a tool for social inclusion?

(More details coming soon!)

19.05 Day 1 at Gallaratese Hub

• 10.00 AM - 1.00 PM: inspirational talks (onsite and online)

• 2.00 PM - 6.00: PM group work + mentoring by OpenDot & Terres Des Hommes

20.05 Day 2 at OpenDot (onsite)

• From 10.00 AM to 1.00 PM group work + mentoring by OpenDot

• From 2.00 to 6.00 PM group work + mentoring by OpenDot

• From 7.00 PM networking aperitif

22.05 to 25.05: group work (remote)

23.05 from 14 to 18: online project review with OpenDot and Terres Des Hommes

26.05 Day 3 at OpenDot (onsite and online)

• 11 AM - 1.00 PM final concepts presentations

• Afternoon - Winner announcement!

29.05 to 28.07: mentoring in OpenDot for the winning team

The event is part of the European project FEAST - Food systems that support transitions to healthy and sustainable diets, which aims to facilitate the transition to a food system that is fair and healthy for people, environmentally friendly, and sustainable for the planet.

A project by FEAST
Realized by OpenDot

OpenDot - Project team
Laura Dellamotta - Co-Founder, Supervisor, General Project Coordinator
Giovanna Gardi - Co-Founder, Administrative Coordination and Reporting
Alessandro Masserdotti - Co-Founder, General Project Supervision
Fabrizio Pignoloni - Co-Founder, Creative Project Supervision
Cristina Biella - Project management, call writing and operational coordination
Martina Giulianelli - Designer and design support
Marta Savoldelli - Call for proposals writing and reporting
Enrico Bassi - Call for proposals writing
Giulia Marcolli - External communication and social media