Lettuce Cook
Roles - designer, researcher
Methods - visual design, prototyping, market evaluation, market research
Tools - Figma
Lettuce Cook is a hyper-local food-sharing app that connects neighbors, businesses, and volunteers to share surplus food quickly, easily, and sustainably. We wanted to help build a local ecosystem of care and share, not waste.
The Mission: How might we use technology to support and uplift communities?
The Problem: Millions go hungry while good food gets thrown away. The problem isn’t scarcity it’s disconnection. How might we use technology to connect neighbors, reduce waste, and build resilient local food systems?
The Solution
List the Food You DON’T Need
- Share surplus food you won’t use before it spoils
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Help neighbors in need while reducing household waste
- Strengthens local food-sharing culture
Request Foods you DO Need
- Post specific items you're looking for
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Get matched with nearby listings in real-time
- Supports dignity-based access without stigma
Exchange Foods with People Near You
- Coordinate direct swaps with neighbors based on mutual needs
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Smart suggestions match you with the best trade opportunities
- Builds trust and resilience in your local community
White Paper Research
13.5 percent (18.0 million) of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2023
To ground our design process in reality, we began by investigating the current landscape of food insecurity and food access across the United States. According to the USDA, over 19 million Americans live in food deserts—urban or rural areas where access to affordable, nutritious food is limited or non-existent due to the absence of grocery stores within a reasonable traveling distance. Many residents of these neighborhoods must rely on fast food or convenience stores that lack fresh produce and healthy options. Notably:
- 6.1% of the U.S. population resides in food deserts.
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These areas are especially prevalent in the South, Southwest, and rural parts of the country, but also affect major urban areas like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
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Food insecurity disproportionately impacts Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities, exacerbating existing health and economic inequalities.
We were particularly struck by the fact that food insecurity and food waste coexist at such a large scale: 30–40% of all food in the U.S. is wasted, yet millions remain hungry.
How can food sharing help lower food insecurity?
We also explored how community-based food sharing can mitigate both food insecurity and food waste, while also strengthening local support networks. Here are some of our key findings:
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Communal and family meals are associated with better mental health, stronger social ties, and healthier eating habits. Studies by the NIH and other health institutions found that shared meals, particularly among the elderly or isolated, improve overall wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness.
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Food sharing initiatives, especially when facilitated by technology, reduce logistical barriers to redistribution. Apps like Olio and Flashfood have shown success in connecting users to surplus food—but they often lack hyper-local focus, direct user-to-user food need requests, or pantry matchmaking.
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Globally, food waste accounts for 8–10% of greenhouse gas emissions—more than the entire aviation sector. Reducing waste through redistribution could significantly reduce emissions and promote environmental justice.
Evaluating the Market
We identified three primary user groups:
The competition focuses on institutions, not individuals. It’s difficult for for neighbors to help each other directly.
We examined several existing food-sharing platforms to identify opportunities for innovation.
Lettuce Cook fills these gaps by prioritizing the needs of individuals in food deserts and enabling direct community engagement.
What the market is telling us
Current data and trends reveal a compelling environment for a mobile-first food-sharing platform to thrive and make meaningful impact.
Creating a Solution
Food sharing, with a focus on building community
App user flow
Final Design
Home
Actions
Explore Foods
Exchange Foods with Neighbors
Messages
My Foods
How can we market our solution to reach a wider audience?
Lettuce Cook isn't just an app—it’s a community-driven food sharing ecosystem. Our goal is to reduce food waste, improve access to healthy meals, and foster local resilience by connecting people who have food with those who need it.
We offer unique value by:
- Empowering food-insecure individuals to directly request meals or groceries based on need
- Helping home cooks and households reduce waste by donating or sharing prepared meals or pantry items
- Matching food donations with recipients based on preferences, dietary restrictions, and location
How can we grow our impact and measure success along the way?
🌱 Our Business Model
Free forever. Community-first.
Lettuce Cook is a mission-driven platform: free for all users to list, request, and exchange food. Our goal is to reduce food insecurity and waste—not to profit off of scarcity. As our user base grows, we will explore value-aligned partnerships with:
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Local grocers and markets to promote discounted healthy foods and fresh produce
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Nonprofits and food pantries to streamline redistribution logistics
- Municipal programs supporting food access and sustainability
These partnerships will fund platform growth without compromising user experience or access.
🌍 Target Reach
We focus on hyper-local impact in areas most affected by food deserts, food insecurity, and waste.
Our primary user groups include:
- Individuals and families in food-insecure neighborhoods
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Local home cooks and neighbors with excess food
- Small businesses, restaurants, and cafes with consistent surplus
We’ll prioritize early rollouts in pilot communities with existing networks of mutual aid, then scale regionally through:
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Local community events
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Partnering with mutual aid groups, farmers' markets, and food justice orgs
- Campus and neighborhood ambassador programs
🚀 User Acquisition Tactics
- Community Partnerships. Collaborate with grassroots organizations, food banks, and co-ops.
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Referral Program. Encourage users to invite others by offering small in-app rewards (e.g., pantry badges).
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Local Social Media Campaigns. Spotlight real stories of food sharing, community wins, and waste reduction.
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Neighborhood Challenges. Gamify food sharing: e.g., “Reduce 100 lbs of food waste in a week!”
- Press & Advocacy. Target local papers, sustainability blogs, and public health channels to generate buzz.
💬 Feedback Loops
To continuously refine our solution and stay aligned with real community needs, we will:
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Integrate short, periodic feedback prompts within the app
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Host quarterly community design sessions in pilot neighborhoods
- Publish an open impact report every 6 months
📊 Success Metrics
To measure the health and growth of Lettuce Cook, we will track:
🥬 Engagement Metrics
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Daily Active Users (DAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU)
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Retention rate after 7 and 30 days
- Time spent per session
🍎 Supply & Demand Metrics
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# of food listings per user per week
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# of fulfilled food requests per week
- Match rate: % of listings that result in successful exchanges
🌱 Growth Metrics
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Community coverage: # of active zip codes
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Referral rate: % of new users who came via invites
- Partnerships formed: # of active businesses/orgs onboarde
🌍 Social Impact Metrics
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Pounds of food saved from waste
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Estimated meals shared
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GHG emissions prevented (via food waste calculator)
- User-reported food access improvement (via optional in-app survey)
What’s next for Lettuce Cook?
Phase 1: Local Launch
We will begin by launching Lettuce Cook in the Medford-Somerville area, building trust through community partnerships, direct outreach, and user-centered support. This pilot will help us test core features, understand real-world behaviors, and foster early adoption within a close-knit neighborhoods.
Phase 2: Iteration & Regional Expansion
Using feedback from our pilot users, we will refine the app’s features, interface, and community engagement strategies. Once we’ve established a solid foundation, we will expand gradually into neighboring cities and towns across Massachusetts, with a focus on areas where food insecurity and food waste are most visible.
Phase 3: Strengthen Local Ecosystems
As our user base grows, we will seek collaborations with regional food producers, farmers markets, independent grocers, and small restaurants to help redistribute surplus and strengthen local food systems. These partnerships will help scale impact while keeping efforts rooted in community.
Phase 4: Broader Collaboration & Impact
Longer term, we aim to work alongside mutual aid groups, food justice coalitions, and local governments to advocate for systemic change. By aligning with organizations that share our mission, we can amplify our collective efforts to reduce food waste and improve food access—starting locally, and growing intentionally from there.
What I Learned
I had a great time participating in the Producthon! The weekend was an incredible opportunity to dive deep into product design, collaborate with passionate like-minded people, and connect with industry professionals. It was definitely a rewarding experience that has helped me understand how to tackle design challenges in the future.
Here are the lessons I learned from the judges’ feedback:
- Design is more than visuals. The app’s UI and branding were consistently praised, but I learned that good design isn’t just about how polished something looks; it’s also about how well it works in the real world. Strong visuals can’t make up for a weak connection between the problem and the solution.
- Start with the story. Judges wanted to see more of the thought process: sketches, early flows, and how I moved from idea to execution. Storytelling isn’t just about pitching the end result; it’s about bringing people along for the journey. Clear documentation of early iterations, workflows, and architecture would have made the reasoning behind my decisions more transparent and grounded.
- Don’t skip the uncomfortable questions. Food safety, liability, and trust are hard topics, but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided. Real-world design means facing uncomfortable realities head-on. I plan to bake these constraints into the design process earlier, so the solution is as responsible as it is optimistic.
- Broad problems need narrow solutions. Food insecurity is a massive issue. Trying to solve all of it at once might have diluted the impact of the design. It is more important to zoom in and identifying a specific user group and address their pain points.
- Designing for communities means designing with communities. Explore how people are already solving this problem locally. I realized I had designed for users, not with them. Next time, I’ll use a more community-driven design methodology abd ground my ideas in local knowledge, behaviors, and systems that already exist.