Veggie Buddie

Planting is the power of coming together and believing in a better tomorrow.

Project Description-

• Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as lockdown put millions out of work and headlines forecast food shortages. People were worried about bare shelves, contaminated grocery stores worse the inability to make ends meet. And they needed something to occupy them and help them put food on the table.
• Veggie Buddie is a free gardening community that aims to create a gardening culture on campuses to help aid those going through food shortage and to educate those wanting to learn about sustainable living for personal reasons i.e. anxiety control, herbal purposes, entrepreneurial etc. We will station the garden at, FADA rooftop, Res balconies etc, we will have the students and staff members help plant, maintain, and distribute the goods with help from existing environmental or food department or faculties and lastly one another. The app is a means of communicating and helpS run this project efficiently and smoothly.

Who is our Target Audience?

• Or target is anyone within University premises students and staff members in need of food aid. Not only are we thriving to help them sleep without the worry of tomorrow, but also help those looking to distress because as it turns out gardening is a great emotional or health booster. Lastly those that want to give back for personal or academic credits.

Where did you draw inspiration?

• As a group our planting habits and desire to live a sustainable lifestyle inspired us to look for communities like these online we found Projectdirt is an environmental enterprise that allows for enviro-hungry users to connect, share and learn from each other on one simple platform The project dirt website states “We wanted to facilitate sustainable activity taking place and to make the learning more accessible and we also believe green living should be an upgrade, it should be fun –- and it should be progressive.” They provide tips and gather people who want to grow their own environments through their website as well as various social media platforms
• But we didn’t just look at international projects we looked for locals’ ones too, for instance IZINDABA ZOKUDLA. It is a multi-stakeholder food system in Soweto aimed at creating more sustainable food systems in Johannesburg through urban agriculture,
• UJMA VEGETABLE-BOX PROJECT, which inspired our idea of “the box” This is a UJ community outreach programme started by the Department of Botany and Plant Biotechnology with aims of teaching grade 12 learners sustainable living. They do this by providing materials such as a veggie box and teaching companion planting where natural pollinators and insect repellents are used in as methods of gardening

What is the user experience?

• NEED A BOX- The share recipe feature offers a platform of sharing recipes with one another, through this we hope to give people a variety of meals using the veggies they share in common, people can work with what they have and have quality enjoyable meals at a low cost, either as students cooking for 1 or staff members cooking for families.
• ALERTS & REMINDERS- This is a feature that reminds viewers when to water their plants and the amount or water to put in. They can use this to work around their clock
• SNAP-ADVICE- Through this users can take pictures of their progress, problems and share on the gardening platform to get tips and advice from others.
• VOLUNTEERS- volunteers can tag-team, community service, they can book as per their schedule when they want to come in.
• PRIVACY- users will have the privilege to make their information private, as in the groups they are involved in as well as their bio information.
• EVENTS & CHALLENGES- The community will have events such as a Seasonal Cook-Athon, where they can cook, and share meals based on the veggies available for that season. They can share this on social media and get prizes.

Why is this concept important?

This concept is important because the role of technology in community development is to give power and a voice to people within the larger ecosystem and enable citizens to create a better future for themselves and overall, this could help build the community and sustain healthy living.

How does it address creating space of belonging and countering alienation?

• Community: Environmental (Gardening).
• Technology: The app and social media.
• They can feel themselves healing and connecting — similarly to the way the plants connect to the Earth and each other.
• People who relate in terms of wanting plants or growing gardens will enjoy this just as much as people looking for aid, people will be able to connect without the fear of being laughed at or judged for not affording to buy meals or provide for their families as this will be a common denominator amongst them.

Veggie Buddie App

Veggie Buddie Snippet- https://youtu.be/_XhbnBBhYzE

https://media.giphy.com/media/lln4Tb3XmJKH8AUPR9/giphy.gif

Review-

“I like the concept of voluntary work in Veggie Buddie because it encourages a philanthropic attitude within students which is a nice basis for community building. ” -Sandile Zwane

Project Overview-

In this group we all contributed according to our strengths and passion. We all did research based on our topic and chose examples that best described what we wanted to do. Each member of the group brought in different articles about gardening communities even in universities. Reneilwe Malotana was in charge of compiling the research and the designing of the design comps. She also found various articles related to garden community apps. Esau Mashiakgotshi was in charge of drawing up moving elements and wire frames. He also brought in the research of the effects of planting in the community. Thobeka Mabena was in charge of drawing up the description of the project and what we want to accomplish. She also compiled our research and focused on our mind map for our app concept. Warona Manale was in charge of conveying the groups work and making sure that people understand what our ideas were and how we were going to execute them. She also focused on researching the backgrounds of the garden community applications which we would find.