Launching Athens Little Free Pantry Online
Developed by University of Georgia student, Rachel Larson, as a part of her Masters of Arts in Emerging Media capstone project.
All great ideas are started by a problem. Take, for example, one of the top companies in the world worth more than $2 trillion dollars, Apple.
How does Apple continue to create products that are massive commercials successes?
Think back to when the first iPod came out. Within a few years, they made Walkmans obsolete because they were able to solve two problems: 1) they developed the Itunes store so you no longer had to buy entire albums in order to get the one song you actually wanted 2) people no longer have to carry entire CDs with them.
Boom. That’s ideation at its finest. Solving problems and providing new solutions that consumers didn’t even know they wanted to be solved.
Let’s Talk About a Problem That Needs Solving.
While Athens, Georgia is best known as home to one of the oldest public universities in the United States, it’s also notoriously known as one of the most impoverished counties in the country.
The poverty rate in Athens-Clarke County is at 31.6 percent and the food insecurity rate at 20.6 percent, according to the US Census Bureau and Feeding America’s “Map the Meal Gap” study. To help put the food insecurity rate percentage into more perspective — that means there are 25,440 people living with food insecurity in Athens-Clarke County.
That’s a BIG problem, to say the least. And that’s also where Athens Little Free Pantry steps in.
How Can We Fix This?
In 2017, a L.E.A.D. Athens team decided to be a part of a change with an idea that would aid the food insecure population. Tasked with completing a project that would have a lasting, positive impact on the Athens community — they put their heads together and came up with a simple concept that could provide a low-production, direct-action approach to combat food insecurity — Athens Little Free Pantry.
The concept? Build a pantry and fill it with food and/or household goods that may be hard to come by for a family living in struggling with poverty.
I Got 99 Problems and the Solutions Aren’t Going to Ideate Themselves.
The Little Free Pantry initiative needed a website where — to be honest — the community could learn what the heck these little wooden pantries even are and what this organization was. Through user-testing research, awareness for this project was low, which wasn’t all that surprising since the only thing you could find about them was a Facebook page overflowing with information with little organization.
How could I fix this?
Trucking Right Along.
Of course, in the beginning, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I tossed around a couple of ideas to no fruition until I remembered living by one of these pantries a year ago during my time as an undergrad. Low and behold I got in contact with Denise Plemmons, the current director of Athens Little Free Pantry, and pitched my idea to get the organization a website and the rest is history.
After a couple of email exchanges with Denise, I was able to determine at least a couple of things. It was also important to keep everything to minimal to no-cost since the non-profit didn’t have much manpower and they needed it to be user-friendly because I would be handing it off to someone who didn’t necessarily have a background in website development.
Cue me floundering around for a bit more, not knowing where to start until my instructor, Chris Gerlach, gave me the advice to start with the problems to jumpstart what I wanted to accomplish on this site.
Problems:
- Volunteers who brought food would often do it the first couple of times before they would eventually forget and maybe remember a couple months later.
- People had trouble identifying pantries and finding information on where they were located.
- If there was any damage to the pantry, there was confusion on how or who to report it to.
Features
First and foremost, I wanted this site to be a place where users could find information quickly and easily about this organization which would ultimately help convince them to donate at one of the pantry locations. The concept was to avoid the dramatics and keep everything minimal and organized.
Pantry damage report: Using Google Forms, I embed a Google Form that I created as a damage report along with a Captcha application to ward off bots and fake entries. The non-profit workers will be able to review feedback and identify which pantries need repairs.
Pantry locations: I embed a map feature on the website that lists all the locations as well as nearby grocery store locations so volunteers could plan a grocery store trip around dropping off the items afterward so there isn’t a need to make a separate second trip dedicated to dropping the items off.
Donation reminder sign-up form: Using the WordPress plug-in, XXX, I was able to create a sign-up form where I could collect users information and send users reminders to donate. I got an idea to create voluntary reminders because during my research phase, I interviewed a previous Athens Little Free volunteer that said her biggest problem was remembering to drop things off.
Pop-up reminders: I used an additional plug-in called XXX to create a pop-up reminder to sign-up for donation reminders to target users who don’t navigate to the “Sign-Up for Reminders” tab. These pop-ups are strategically placed on the “FAQs” tab and “Suggested Donations” tab. I did this to help drive the website traffic to the sign-up form.
What I Did Well.
Throughout this entire process, the best possible thing I could’ve done — I did. I kept up with every checkpoint and made sure I made time depending on what extracurricular activities I had going on. The entire semester I dedicated to fighting procrastination. Going to a surprise Disney trip during finals week? I made sure to plan a schedule where I would have everything done the week before. Don’t let the work and deadlines get away from you. I constantly reminded myself that just because the checkpoints are spaced so far a part doesn’t mean I have nothing to work on. There’s always something your present self could be working on to make your future self less stressed.
Learn From My Mistakes.
Did I have perfect semesters? Not by a long shot. The mistake I learned from (and something I hope you’ll avoid making after reading this) is to use your resources and if you’re not sure what you want to do, join forces with other students.
With Covid-19 forcing us into social distancing and online classes, I forgot that I had amazing resources available to me. Don’t lose sight of everything this program has to offer. Take advantage of what knowledge the professors and faculty wield and ask them questions.
Unsure how to approach your capstone and lost on what you want to? Just ask Chris, John, Leah, Megan, or anyone because chances are, they may have gone through the capstone process already and understand what you’re going through.
And if you still don’t know what to do, join a group. Multiple heads are always better than one.
What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.
Let’s get a little background about myself that will hopefully help you get more comfortable in the program. Before enrolling in Emerging Media, I had nearly zero coding experience and honestly was the least technologically savvy person I knew. All my classmates were so talented and it seemed like they already had a path established while I was still looking for one to start on. Still, I didn’t let that stop me from trying to find a project I could be passionate about (Pro tip: you shouldn’t either. Don’t be afraid to toss around several ideas before settling on one).
During the course of this program, I learned things that I didn’t even think were possible and was astounded by myself by how much I was able to gain out of this program. I basically spoke, dreamed and cried in Javascript and SwiftUI. I’d look at coding lessons at the beginning of the week with absolutely no clue on how to solve it and by the end of the week was able to put create crazy homework assignments.
My advice to incoming Emerging Media students is this: don’t doubt yourself and what you’re able to accomplish!
You’re capable of MUCH more than you think you are. One quote that my high-school cross country quote told me has stuck with me all these years is and especially in this program is that “if it was easy, anybody could do it.” Don’t be just anybody.
Check on AthensLittleFreePantry.org and consider giving back to the awesome community of Athens while you have the chance to call this place home.
