The first Feat prototype was launched in a closed group: a school group, to be exact. Students and colleagues of founder Chiara Cecchini in the Master’s Food Innovation Program were crucial to the development of the current Feat experience. Since that first prototype almost two years ago, Feat has spread across the globe. The pilot program of Feat App in Bologna has seen over 10,000 downloads in the past year and closed group experiences have been executed during the Food Innovation Summer School Mediterraneo in Sicily, within Barilla headquarters in Parma, and are now being launched at Airbnb in San Francisco.
Now it’s time for Feat to re-engage with the academic environment, but in a bit of a different way: this time school kids! Starting healthy habits young is a no-brainer and the Feat team has always wanted to engage with younger students. Extra motivated by a kid-centric food hackathon that took place in San Francisco last month, Feat will soon launch programs for schools in three Italian cities: Bologna, Turin and Florence.
First up is Bologna, where Feat School Manager Laura Mora hopes to engage families with 11 to 14 year-old children in local international schools. Says Laura, “Italy, as the rest of Europe, has an increasing amount of overweight children in that age group (11–14). Stats show that 1 in 3 children in Europe aged 11 are overweight. For Italy, 35% boys and 22% girls are overweight. Start early and you can have a lifelong impact and improvement.”
The unique aspect of Feat School is that it doesn’t just involve the students, but also their families. Feat aims to use their gamified platform for increased physical activities and healthy rewards as an incentive to bring together students and also families. Laura notes, “The main idea is to bring children and parents together towards a common health oriented goal with the possibility of achieving long lasting impact by encouraging children to undertake more physical activity. Also, making children conscious of the positive impact walking can have on their health and on the environment would be a great achievement.”
Feat plans to roll out some new rewards that target healthy habits for families that are not just food centric. The goal is to present activities that both students and their parents can participate in for rewards, like cooking classes and discounts at healthy eateries, but also promotions for books, environmentally responsible clothing and other e-commerce sites that can be accessed from anywhere.
We’re looking forward to starting healthy habit making at a young age!
