Year | 2015
Location | Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Client | Foodhall
Our Live Project team worked with Foodhall, a non-profit organisation, to develop their aspirations for their recently acquired venue on Eyre Street, Sheffield. The Foodhall initiative aims to improve community engagement through the acts of cooking and eating together, whilst promoting a knowledge of food waste. They endeavour to provide a space that can host events and serve food that would otherwise be wasted on a ‘Pay As You Feel’ (PAYF) basis.
Although founded as a food-sharing online network, gaining a physical space presented a plethora of opportunities for Foodhall, along with a number of challenges. The team attended and volunteered at several of the pop-up, ‘waste’ food events run by collaborators, the Real Junk Food Project Sheffield. This granted an insight into the practicalities of catering for hundreds of people using intercepted food, prepared only by volunteers.
Following research into the wider issues of food waste and the benefits of communal dining, the team examined how the ethos of the organisation could be represented in their new venue. This took the form of a feasibility document which explored the potential within the Eyre Street space. It is anticipated that this will help secure funding and community involvement in the future.
Having highlighted the requirements of both the organisation and the venue, we also designed and constructed a series of flexible, transportable modules which could be used in a variety of servery/bar configurations. Following the ethos of Foodhall, the modules were predominantly constructed using reclaimed materials. Components were designed and laser-cut so they could be easily replicated in the future. This modular design was accompanied by an Ikea-style construction booklet.
As Foodhall are a relatively new enterprise, we used the Live Project as an opportunity to develop their online branding. Accompanying this, we provided a possible design for an app that could be used to heighten awareness of food waste and provide information about Foodhall as an organization and their upcoming events.
The project culminated in a PAYF event in Eyre Street where the modular system was put to use as a servery for, hopefully, the first of many occasions.
