Prototyping ideas to address food insecurity with

Halifax Innovation Outpost

Facilitation, Idea Generation, Prototyping

The Challenge

Halifax has one of the highest rates of food security among Canadian municipalities. Local businesses and non-profits have ideas about ways to address challenges and adapt their programs to better meet the community's needs, but often require resources and support to put them into practice. The Halifax Innovation Outpost is aiming to address complex social, environmental, and civic needs by supporting innovation within businesses, communities, and municipal government.  

Our Contribution

As a Senior Designer with Davis Pier Consulting, Jane co-led the project to recruit and partner with four organizations in the HRM with ideas to improve food security and strong connections to the community they serve. We adapted the project to meet each of the organization's needs to advance their ideas, including time, networks, and a combination of skills including facilitation, design, research, prototyping, evaluation, and business development to advance these ideas into living prototypes that each continued after the project ended. The prototypes included:

  • Digital currency system for an equitable community market

  • Black community garden network to connect with eachother and work collaboratively

  • Low-cost meal service for students supported by a network of local restaurants

  • Coalition to reach alignment on the idea and rationale for a local food hub

Miriam Zitner, Halifax Innovation Outpost

“Jane brought a strong level of knowledge about challenges in the local food system and a consistent focus on how the project would advance equity. Jane led strategic decisions within the project team, facilitated a broad recruitment process, and worked closely with the organizations to design four unique prototypes and put them into practice. She suggested several pivots in the project that were necessary to achieve the goals we set, and I'm proud of how our small initiative had a lasting impact on our community.”