Opportunity: The ability for college students to find affordable ingredients and recipes for creating and cooking their own food is very difficult. This is due to the time constraint students have with school work, extra curriculars, and social life; making it very difficult to find the time to make their own healthy and affordable food.
The Who: College Students across the U.S.
The What: Learning, Making, and Purchasing affordable and healthy meals
The Why: Due to other time constraints including, school work, extra curriculars, and social life.
Hypothesis: I believe that by implementing an app that curates and has ingredients, recipes, health tips etc. for college students that students health, mental health, and grades would be greatly improved.
Testing the Who: We will be testing the students who currently attend the University of Florida. This opportunity can also be seen as effective for those who struggle with cooking and grocery shopping, but for now it seems most prominent in college students' lives.
Testing the What: We will be testing the ability of the application. If having the ability to have recipes, the ingredients needed and where to purchase the most cost efficient ingredients at the tips of students fingers, will that improve their eating habits and lifestyle. In the end will it improve their school work, and everyday health, while also keeping their bank accounts in the green !
Testing the Why: We will be testing whether or not the outcome of the application would be more effective than not having it at all. We will need to see evidence that their are beneficial improvements due to the implication of the app in students everyday lives. Not only that but we will need to know if this app is something that they want! It's one thing to attempt to market a product to consumers who want it, it's another to try and sell something to a less significant crowd, we will be seeing why and if they want it.
Interviews:
- The first person I chose to interview was my roomate Sami. I started off by questioning her about her eating habits and how she feels her diet is affecting her everyday life. She went on to explain that she often finds herself eating in stages, where she will try to eat healthy, end up not being able to sustain the diet or the cost of healthy food, then binging unhealthy food, not wanting to eat, and then trying all over again. This is leading to her having days where she feels low or lacking in energy and other days where she feels hungry or hasn’t satisfied herself, she also went on to explain how she then feels like it is hurting her mental state because she doesn't feel good about herself and what she's eating. I then asked her about who she feels is most affected by this situation, expecting most simply that she would say college students, Sami went on to explain that those most affected by this would be people who have never cooked before and often feel like they have no time to cook for themselves.
- The next person I decided to interview was my mother. Growing up I always had my mother making me dinner every night so I knew that she would have some great input on the subject. I began by asking her if she felt college students were able to sufficiently create meals for themselves. She stated that she felt students who have never been introduced to cooking before would have a hard time knowing exactly what to cook. She knew the disadvantages of not having a well balanced diet and taking care of yourself and explained that she felt without sufficient help that students would not be able to take care of themselves properly, going back to her first hand experience as a college student living off of ramen. She felt that this application would be very beneficial and help those in need.
- For my third interview I decided to work with a graduate student, a girl who had been in my sorority and lived on campus at the University of Florida for four years. She took the interview very seriously and was intrigued with my opportunity. She explained that it is often times very hard to sit back and watch yourself eating unhealthy knowing the detriments that it can have on your everyday life but that finding the time and energy to learn how to do it all on your own seems far worse. It's difficult to admit out loud but humans are lazy, and she knew that this application would help to benefit kids all over the U.S. struggling to find ways to feed themselves. She stated that an application like this would especially benefit those who are not involved in greek life or have a meal plan because they are solely on their own when it comes to finding meals.
- The fourth person I chose to interview was a boy within a fraternity here on campus. Andrew began by stating a typical stereotype, he feels its often times slightly more difficult for guys to learn how to cook for themselves. He then continued by explaining that he felt the pressure of his lives all at once and that the idea of spending his own time learning how to cook was simply not in his best interest. After hearing that I wondered what he would do if it was simply much easier than that, and would he want to know and cook for himself if it wasn’t so time consuming. He then explained that it would be awesome if that were possible, he would be able to cook for himself, his girlfriend, and also impress his friends with his new skills.
- Finally the last person I decided to interview was my sister Kelsey. Kelsey just graduated with her masters and is constantly posting all the food that she makes for herself and her boyfriend on her social media. I started the interview by asking when she first started cooking such great meals for herself. She explained that it took her some time, learning how to cook over time is a slow process but you start to get the hang of it. She explained how when she ran cross country in college they fed her really well and she depended on that to keep her body at its physical peak but knows just how difficult it is trying to learn how to cook for yourself and others. When she entered her masters program she no longer relied on sports to feed her but she knew she didn’t want to go back to eating unhealthy. Without proper explanation and learning tools it can be so hard for college students to figure out how and what to make, she told me.
What I now know: After taking the time to go more in depth about my opportunity I was able to learn just how important it is to fuel your body and how much it takes a toll on people's mental health. Most often we believe that we can get away with eating just to feel full, but having a proper diet means so much more. Without other resources to feed students, they are left on their own and with an application like the one I am suggesting they will be able to get the help they need on their own time and within their own means.
