spring 2019
Design research project in collaboration with Project Reflect aimed at understanding Oakland resident relationships with fruit trees in their neighborhoods
This project aims to connect communities in California, specifically beginning in Oakland, through the food growing in front yards.
There are two aims:
Reduce fresh food waste in neighborhoods, especially those affected by food apartheid
Connect people with their neighbors over shared food and joy via freedom, safety, and ease of access
Wouldn’t it be amazing if fruit growers/homeowners had a framework to share their excess fruit within, neighborhood members and foragers felt welcome to pick fruit from people’s yards, and both parties got to know each other a little bit better?
This project attempts to question deeply held notions of private property and what it means to trespass, investigate people’s connection with nature, and understand the feeling of and signals for welcome and safety.
Process
I documented this project primarily in Notion, Miro, and through handwritten notes.
I conducted 6 interviews over the course of the quarter, consisting of 3 homeowners/growers and 3 self-identified urban foragers.
Susie, Oakland homeowner + grower
Amanda, Oakland homeowner + grower
Monifa, Oakland urban forager and chef
Kalyn, San Jose homeowner + urban forager
Oliver, forager in Hawaii
Nick, Oakland homeowner + grower
I wrote 2 separate field guides to prepare for these interviews.
What emerged?
First, it’s clear that excess fruit in people’s yards is a problem. It’s not only waste, but rot that needs to be cleaned up or attracts pests.
For people who forage, it means a whole lot more than free calories:
Identity!
A connection with nature!
A connection with other people!
They also refer to a positive feedback loop it creates in the world:
Fruit tree owners like the idea of giving the excess away to people who will use it.
They also have their own emotional connection to the trees. This is something I wish I asked about more!
All of this can lead to new ideas for ways to be and feel in community:
Both parties involved need to feel safe, to avoid scenarios like these:
Front yards are a different realm than back yards - and only during the daylight.
What people are missing is a welcome to make harvesting more accessible beyond seeking a verbal invitation
There are signals that make a welcome feel safe:
and some shared norms to reinforce those:
Theory of change:
If we can find a way to replicate these signals of a warm welcome to a guest, with all the norms of what being a good guest means, we can make people feel safer, more at ease, and free to harvest fruit from their neighbors yards, creating space for people to experience their communities and connect with others via joy.
Prototyping
With these norms and signals in mind, we created a couple of prototypes for people who want to participate. We are looking for trial participants who we can distribute these with to see if our theory of change resonates with people.
"What we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system"
- Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Angie McKee-Brown of Project Reflect for mentorship and thought partnership, and thank you to all my interview participants!
kalinais@stanford.edu
messenger pigeon alternatives