Students collaborated with the 1889 Jefferson Center for Population Health, located in western Pennsylvania. This was a semester long, team-based project that challenged students to develop a design system that would provide information, tools and resources to their rural community about type 2 diabetes prevention and disease management.

The 1889 Jefferson Center for Population Health approached us saying that the diabetes epidemic is more prevalent than ever before in Western Pennsylvania, specifically Cambria and Somerset counties. We created a system to help empower these residents to improve their quality of life through educating about healthy eating habits, collaborating with local farmers, and creating a sense of community.

The area is rich in agriculture but has many food deserts, so we proposed Farm to Fridge—a mobile produce truck that takes produce from farms in the area and brings it straight to the people of Cambria and Somerset counties. The deliverables include a monthly publication that helps residents with portion control and healthy recipes. Residents also receive a starter kit with tools for cooking and a calendar that houses information about fresh food. Residents can connect with the mobile market through an app that notifies them when the truck is coming and what is in it that week.

This was a collaborative group project with two other people. We each had a hand in making the deliverables that are presented here. My contributions to the project involved hand-lettering the logo, illustrating the produce, creating two sets of posters, and helping with select spreads of the field guide.