Out team was hired to develop an initiative to address food insecurity in Boulder County and expand the presence of The Shed in the community. We came up with the concept of a food truck that will deliver healthy, imperfect food from local farms and businesses to low-income communities and provide cooking demonstrations to foster healthy, affordable living. Working closely with the client, I created a logo that fits The Shed's branding system, followed by mockups of the truck design, informational pamphlet, and other merchandise.
UpBeet is a nonprofit food truck designed to deliver "imperfect" food from local farms and businesses to food insecure communities around Boulder County. UpBeet doesn't just provide healthy, affordable, local produce to the people who need it, we also have an outreach program designed to teach people how to cook using fresh produce.
Boulder Food Rescue has an amazing network of local farms and businesses and are already working hard to deliver food to those who need it. Our food truck could help in the effort. Having a truck enables us to deliver large quantities of food in all weather and all seasons. The truck can go much farther distances than bicycles can, and it would also be able to bring the produce directly into lower income neighborhoods for easier access.
"Imperfect" produce is food that is shaped a little differently and doesn't look as perfect as what you generally see at the grocery store. This food does not meet the aesthetic standard of grocery stores, therefore, farmers don't have a good way to distribute it. Imperfect food has all the nutritional value and taste that a normal vegetable does, it just looks a little "off". This food truck creates a platform that farmers can sell their imperfect produce and low-income families can buy low-cost, farm fresh, local produce.
We don't want to just give food insecure people access to local produce, we also want to provide them with the knowledge and skills to use it. Cooking with foods can be intimidating, we want to develop a series of quick, easy, and healthy recipes that use the ingredients the UpBeet truck delivers. To demonstrate these, we would ask local chefs to volunteer a little of their time to go to local schools to give demos to whoever would like to learn. Instruction sheets on how to prepare the different kinds of produce could be given out on the truck for people who don't have time to attend a memo.
UpBeet strongly believes in putting people over profit. Spreading the word about who we are and what we're trying to accomplish is absolutely critical to the success of this program. The truck can travel to various local farmer's markets and other local, food oriented events to raise awareness about food insecurity and how we're trying to address it. Taking donations and selling UpBeet merchandise, such as t-shirts and water bottles, is a great way to fundraise and keep people informed.
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