Today’s global food system faces significant sustainability and public health related issues. To address this, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) was interested in a designer’s perspective to explore new ways of promoting adherence to the Schijf van Vijf (Wheel of Five), with a focus on MBO students in their school environment.

While most dietary interventions focus on promoting new and improved diets, this project applied the principle of exnovation: reducing or minimising foods that fall outside the Schijf van Vijf, along with a systemic approach.

Literature research revealed that young adults tend to mirror the eating behaviours of their social environment, making unhealthy habits socially contagious, particularly in group settings. Field research confirmed this peer influence, while also highlighting MBO students’ values of impulsivity, freedom, and autonomy.

Recognising the role of social dynamics, the following design statement was formulated: “To encourage better adherence to the Schijf van Vijf guidelines, I wish to inspire MBO students to minimise unhealthy snacking in and around the school environment by using social contagion.”

To address the complexity of shifting food behaviours within a larger system, an intervention portfolio that supports a month of action, Stoptober, was developed. This portfolio consists of four interventions:

A general campaign promoting the action month in schools, online and in public spaces
A campaign highlighting healthier alternatives in MBO school canteens
A Snapchat filter encouraging students to take the first step and share their commitment with friends
Lesson materials facilitating open group discussions

The Snapchat filter was evaluated as an effective tool for initiating healthier behaviour, while other interventions require further development and testing.

Beyond the intervention portfolio, the design process was valuable to VWS by reframing the problem, engaging the target group, integrating practical knowledge, and using an iterative approach. Reflection of the exnovation lens revealed it to be an inspiring and applicable perspective within existing design methods. It mainly required heightened awareness of perspective and reframing at important moments in the design process.

A transition towards a sustainable food system needs to happen to ensure people can live a healthy life on this planet. Picnic as a retailer in the food system is the bridge between producers and consumers of food products. Many people hold values which are in line with the food transition, which means they care for others, the environment, and their health. During the purchase of food however, these values are not always acted upon. This can be described as a value-action gap. There is an opportunity for Picnic to support customers in closing the value-action gap for food-transition friendly grocery shopping.

There is a knowledge gap around what the values are that are important to Dutch customers when online grocery shopping, and which hurdles are present in the service of Picnic to foster the food transition. An exploratory study amongst Picnic customers shows the hurdles are formed by a lack consideration, confidence, and information. Furthermore, other values can be more important and there can be hesitancy towards change. To overcome these, dedicated moments should be created in the shopping journey to consider values. The design statement therefore is:

I want to design an experience for Picnic customers who have values in line with the food transition but do not fully act upon them, by providing them with a moment to reflect and adapt so they can become proud of their actions.

To design an experience for Picnic customers that allows for the desired behaviour, an iterative design process is used. During this process, four design guidelines are uncovered: interventions for reflection on food decisions should be controlled, specific, goal-oriented, and quick.

The final proposed intervention is a Betere Boodschappen functionality, where customers get control over their shopping environment. They reflect on their values through answering three questions and based on those answers get personal suggestions for functionalities that can help them pay more attention to their values. A mixed method study, consisting of a quantitative between-group study and qualitative interviews, is used to test the effect of the intervention. There is a positive significant effect on behaviour and behavioural control over buying sustainable groceries. Customers furthermore indicate that doing better groceries is made easier for them through the functionality, and the store feels more personal. A plan for implementation of the functionality in steps is proposed, and recommendations are made to others designing for transitions inside a business.

The current food system stimulates unhealthy food choices and is a major contributor to environmental pressures. To improve this situation, an integrated approach is necessary, where we take into account the different actors in the food environment and how each of these can contribute to a more healthy and sustainable society. Although change needs to happen on a world-wide scale, this project contributes by case studying a small piece of it: Hillesluis, a low SES neighbourhood in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam is one of the most unhealthy cities in the Netherlands, and low socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods have the highest priority for change as these low-income groups are more often exposed to and vulnerable to the conditions that are associated with poorer dietary outcomes. With more than 55% of the adults, and more than one in three kids being overweight, we can also see this trend in Hillesluis.

The poor dietary intake of low-income groups can be presented as an outcome of a complex adaptive system that sustains a food environment that increases accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability of unhealthy foods. In order to reshape system dynamics, simultaneous, diverse and innovative strategies are needed to facilitate improvement of availability, affordability, accessibility and acceptability of healthier food (Sawyer et al., 2021).

To determine a suitable strategy, I studied the local food system in Hillesluis and discovered opportunities and barriers for progress. I did this through literature as well as field research. In the field, I met residents, food retailers and other stakeholders who were eager to contribute to a healthier neighbourhood. The design goal I derived from analysing the gained insights is as follows: “Design an experience that introduces families in Hillesluis to healthier cooking”.

To pursue this design goal, I designed a combination of two interventions that together contribute to a healthier food environment in Hillesluis. The core of the concept is ‘De Familiekeuken’, a workshop series where parents and their children learn to cook healthier meals in a social setting, guided by a specialised chef. The goal is that acquired knowledge and skills are eventually implemented in their daily life and their cooking activities at home, so that a healthier diet is established. Besides the workshops, I also propose to increase the amount of physical stimuli of healthy food in the neighbourhood. Through the application of street art, people passing by can get inspired to open up the conversation about healthy food or to make a healthier choice today. Together, these interventions touch upon the different layers of the food environment and in that way increase the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of healthy food.

A first validation of the concept confirmed a positive intention towards implementation on the stakeholders’ side as well as enthusiasm for participation on the residents’ side. It is expected that this project and implementation of the concept will inspire actions towards a healthier food environment in Hillesluis. With the gained insights and solution I hope to inspire action in other low SES neighbourhoods as well.