Midunu App Share & Eat - An app fostering community through shared meals, reducing food waste especially in single-person households. For seniors, expats and students.

AI Quick Summary

We address two interconnected issues: social isolation and food waste, particularly in single-person households. Many individuals struggle to form meaningful connections, and food often goes to waste. Our proposed solution is an app that enables users to share surplus meals and invite others for communal dining in their homes. This approach would foster authentic connections, reduce food waste, and promote a shared, open-door lifestyle (Michelini et al., 2020). We aim to mainstream this community-centered habit, benefiting those facing loneliness, such as expats and seniors, while also reducing food waste . The question we seek to answer with the Booster is: What features are needed for such an app to gain users' trust and encourage its use? To answer this question, we plan to conduct focus groups to identify the optimal app features required. Project OverviewThis project addresses two interconnected societal challenges: social isolation and food waste. In today’s fast-paced, often fragmented world, many people—especially those living alone or new to an area—face loneliness and disconnection. At the same time, food waste is a pressing issue, particularly in single-person households, where individuals often prepare more food than they can consume. Retail packaging, such as meat sold in portions for two or more people, contributes to this problem, as small fridge and freezer sizes often prevent storing leftovers, leading to excess cooking and waste. Despite these challenges, few non-commercial platforms exist to facilitate meaningful connections, meal sharing, and sustainable practices in an open, welcoming way.Our solution proposition is a food-sharing app that enables individuals to offer extra meal portions and invite others to share them. By blending everyday hospitality with sustainability, the app fosters authentic human connections and reduces food waste. It encourages users to open their homes, share food, and embrace the communal joy of eating together, creating a new culture of inclusive, community-driven sharing.Problem StatementThe problem is twofold: on one side social isolation and loneliness is a growing concern as the population ages and continues to favor digital communities, on the other foodwaste is a problem to which no solution has yet been found. For example, expats, seniors, students, and single individuals often find it difficult to build social connections, especially when they are new to a city or country. Traditional social platforms may help, but they are often impersonal or focused on commercial exchanges rather than fostering meaningful relationships. As a result, loneliness and social isolation persist, affecting people’s mental and physical well-being.At the same time, food waste is a pressing environmental issue. In many single-person households, cooking for one often leads to overproduction of food, and without the resources or time to repurpose it, individuals end up throwing away perfectly good meals. According to various studies, food waste constitutes a significant portion of household waste, significantly contributing to environmental degradation. Specifically, household food waste accounts for 19% of the 1.05 billion tons of food wasted globally, generating approximately 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through methane production in landfills (United Nations Environment Programme, 2024; World Resources Institute, 2023). This waste also squanders critical resources such as water, land, and energy used in food production, exacerbating environmental challenges like climate change and land degradation (Sustainable Food Technology, 2023).Solution OverviewThe proposed solution is a food-sharing app designed to tackle both of these issues. The app will allow users to offer extra portions of meals they’ve prepared and invite others to share them in their homes. This approach provides a unique and personal way for people to meet new individuals, reduce food waste, and build genuine relationships.The app will include several key features:Meal Sharing: Users can post that they will have extra portions of food they are about to prepare, including details about the meal, how much will be available and the time it will be available.Location-based Matching: The app will match users based on proximity, making it easy for people to connect with others in their local area. There could be an option that people might sometimes want to just pick up a portion of food and not stay there to eat, if they prefer to.Community Building: In addition to meal sharing, the app will facilitate broader community engagement by offering events, such as cooking classes or cultural food nights, where users can gather and share experiences.User Profiles: Each user will have a profile where they can specify their preferences, dietary restrictions, and what they are willing to share. This will help ensure that the food-sharing process is seamless and respectful of individual needs.This concept is inspired by the Ewe culture where people would share their meal with people passing by, inviting to join and eat together. Also, it is made relevant here in Switzerland by the success of events like Le Salon des Modestes, held every February since 1995. The concept attracts hundreds of participants each year, a hundred of which open their homes to strangers as a way to share meals but also to meet new people. The event was an overwhelming success, with people expressing a clear desire for more opportunities to connect over food. We believe this desire can be harnessed through a digital platform that makes it easier to organize such experiences.Systemic Problem HypothesesThe two key problems we aim to address are deeply rooted in societal habits and expectations:Social Isolation: In many cultures, dining is an activity that typically happens within close-knit circles, such as family or close friends. An opportunity which is not always accessible to the elderly or new residents of a city. The idea of inviting strangers is not widely practiced, yet is a brave new opportunity which can help reduce social isolation. To implement this change, participants will be required to shift their ideas of societal norms surrounding food and embrace a more inclusive and commuity-focused way of eating.Food Waste: The habit of cooking large portions in a single-person household often leads to significant food waste due to several practical factors. Large packages of meats and oversized vegetables, commonly sold in grocery stores, are often more than one person can consume before spoilage occurs. Additionally, small freezers in many single-person households limit the ability to store leftovers or bulk ingredients effectively, leading to spoilage. This is compounded by a lack of easy alternatives for sharing meals with others. Mainstreaming food-sharing habits requires an approach that is easy to use, convenient, and integrated into daily life.Our app aims to change these habits by offering a simple platform for people to share food and meet others in a meaningful way. By embedding these practices into daily life, we can create a more connected and sustainable society.Target AudienceThe primary beneficiaries of this project will be individuals who experience loneliness or social isolation. These include:Older Adults who may experience loneliness due to a lack of family or social support.Singles who live alone and often face challenges in socializing or meeting new people.All individuals finding themselves in a new city including Expats and StudentsIn addition to individuals, this app will also benefit the wider community by encouraging social interaction and reducing food waste, leading to a more sustainable way of living.Social Innovation ApproachThe approach we are taking is one of social innovation. Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, and ideas that meet social needs and strengthen society’s capacity to act. In this case, we are aiming to change the way people approach eating and food sharing. We believe that by creating a platform that encourages people to invite others into their homes and share meals, we can foster a new norm around socializing, opening up, and community engagement.Testing the Concept, Development Plan and Next StepsIn a test phase, we will focus on defining the app’s features based on user feedback. We plan to conduct focus groups among our target demographics, including the elderly, singles, as well as expats and students. Furthermore, we hope to be able to interview participants of the Salon des Modestes to see if additional target groups exist (couples, families, etc).These groups will provide valuable insights into how the app needs to be conceived for users to feel safe, for a good usability and appeal of the app, and to become aware of potential challenges.We will also work on creating a basic visual prototype of the app, which will include key features such as meal posting, location-based matching, and user profiles. The goal is to design a visual prototype of the app to validate core hypotheses, identify essential features, and understand what users need to feel safe and engaged to use the app we are projecting to develop.Collaborations and PartnershipsTo ensure the app’s success, we plan to partner with organizations and individuals who can support the project’s development and scaling. This includes:Academic Partners: We are working with Ashley Young, scientific collaborator at BFH-HAFL, an academic partner, who will coordinate the qualitative research, help develop the business model (including funding possibilities), and help find tech partners for the development of the app at a later stage.Foundations and Organizations: We hope to connect with foundations focused on sustainability, social innovation, and food security, who can support the project’s scaling after the booster phase.What fundamental problem are you addressing? What systemic problem hypotheses are the starting point for your mainstreaming approach?We are addressing two interconnected problems:First, social isolation and loneliness. Currently, there are very few non-commercial formats specifically designed to make it easy for people to meet and connect with new individuals in an open, welcoming way.Second, food waste in single-person households. Many individuals end up preparing more food than they can consume, leading to unnecessary waste.Our idea tackles both issues simultaneously. Building on observations, such as the positive experiences from Le Salon des Modestes in February — where people opened their homes to strangers to share meals — we see clear evidence that there is a desire for more meaningful, communal experiences.We propose creating an app for food sharing, where individuals can offer extra portions of meals they are preparing and invite others into their homes to share them. In this way, we aim to foster authentic human connection while reducing food waste.For us, social innovation means trying to change or redesign everyday habits that are shared by many people in a society (e.g. our usual ways of traveling, living, eating, etc.). Which habits do you want to change or mainstream through which approach?The habit we seek to change is the way people approach eating and food sharing. Our goal is to cultivate a new, community-centered habit: that individuals begin to open their homes and share the meals they prepare with others, including strangers.Through our approach, we aim to make this form of welcoming others into one's home a natural and valued part of social life.Who will benefit from mainstreaming and how?Expats, newcomers to the city, singles, older adults, and anyone experiencing loneliness will particularly benefit. By creating opportunities for shared meals and genuine connections, we aim to foster a sense of belonging, reduce social isolation, and strengthen community ties, while at the same time reducing food waste.Which people/organizations are in your team and what is their role?Afi Sika Kuzeawu – Project initiator, responsible for overall concept design, project leadership, and app conception.Ashley Young – Academic partner, responsible for coordinating the qualitative research.Has the idea (or variants) already been tested? If so, with what findings?No.What would you like to work on during the booster (e.g. test mainstreaming, feasibility study, developing a climate-friendly business model, building a first visual prototype, etc.)? What do you hope you will have achieved specifically at the end of the booster?We would like to explore whether people would trust an app designed for food sharing, and, if so, identify the key requirements such an app would need to meet. To do this, we plan to conduct interviews with three different focus groups: The Elderly, Expats, and Students. Based on the insights gained, we aim to create a first draft of a basic visual prototype of the app.What do you hope for from the booster (e.g. search for specific partners (if so, who?), connection with the government/public sector, etc.)?We hope to connect with foundations that could support the next steps of our project after the booster phase, particularly for further development, testing, and scaling of the app. In addition, we are interested in networking with tech partners to support the app development and with universities to collaborate on ongoing research and user testing. We are also open to building partnerships with organizations working in the areas of food security, community building, and sustainability, as well as exploring potential collaborations with public sector initiatives focused on reducing food waste and fostering social innovation.Who do you need as an expert to further advance the idea?We need a board member with expertise in food sustainability, technology development, social innovation, or nonprofit management to help guide the project’s strategic direction and ensure its long-term success.How much budget do you require from us for what (maximum CHF 22,500 including expert vouchers)? Focus Group Budget PlanFacilitator Costs for Focus GroupsThree focus groups (students, expats, elderly)42 hours of work per person per groupHourly rate: 70 CHFTotal: 42 hours × 3 groups × 70 CHF/hour = 17,640 CHFMaterial and Transport CostsIncludes travel, conference room rentals, and participant compensationTotal: 2,400 CHFData Processing CostsTasks: Transcription, coding, analysis, synthesisEstimated hours: 35 hoursHourly rate: 70 CHFTotal: 35 hours × 70 CHF/hour = 2,450 CHFTotal BudgetFacilitator costs: 17,640 CHFMaterial and transport costs: 2,400 CHFData processing costs: 2,450 CHFGrand Total: 17,640 + 2,400 + 2,450 = 22,490 CHFSourcesUnited Nations Environment Programme. (2024). Food Waste Index Report 2024. Referenced in Move For Hunger, "The Environmental Impact of Food Waste." Available at: https://moveforhunger.org (Published: 2015-11-05).World Resources Institute. (2023). The Global Benefits of Reducing Food Waste — and How to Do It. Available at: https://www.wri.org (Published: 2023-04-20).Sustainable Food Technology. (2023). Food waste: environmental impact and possible solutions. Royal Society of Chemistry. Available at: https://pubs.rsc.org (Published: 2023).

Project Idea Metadata

• Project Idea Name: Midunu App Share & Eat - An app fostering community through shared meals, reducing food waste especially in single-person households. For seniors, expats and students.
• Date: 5/25/2025 5:50:06 PM
• Administrators:
  • Afi Sika Kuzeawu

Project Idea Description

Project Overview

This project addresses two interconnected societal challenges: social isolation and food waste. In today’s fast-paced, often fragmented world, many people—especially those living alone or new to an area—face loneliness and disconnection. At the same time, food waste is a pressing issue, particularly in single-person households, where individuals often prepare more food than they can consume. Retail packaging, such as meat sold in portions for two or more people, contributes to this problem, as small fridge and freezer sizes often prevent storing leftovers, leading to excess cooking and waste. Despite these challenges, few non-commercial platforms exist to facilitate meaningful connections, meal sharing, and sustainable practices in an open, welcoming way.

Our solution proposition is a food-sharing app that enables individuals to offer extra meal portions and invite others to share them. By blending everyday hospitality with sustainability, the app fosters authentic human connections and reduces food waste. It encourages users to open their homes, share food, and embrace the communal joy of eating together, creating a new culture of inclusive, community-driven sharing.

Problem Statement

The problem is twofold: on one side social isolation and loneliness is a growing concern as the population ages and continues to favor digital communities, on the other foodwaste is a problem to which no solution has yet been found. For example, expats, seniors, students, and single individuals often find it difficult to build social connections, especially when they are new to a city or country. Traditional social platforms may help, but they are often impersonal or focused on commercial exchanges rather than fostering meaningful relationships. As a result, loneliness and social isolation persist, affecting people’s mental and physical well-being.

At the same time, food waste is a pressing environmental issue. In many single-person households, cooking for one often leads to overproduction of food, and without the resources or time to repurpose it, individuals end up throwing away perfectly good meals. According to various studies, food waste constitutes a significant portion of household waste, significantly contributing to environmental degradation. Specifically, household food waste accounts for 19% of the 1.05 billion tons of food wasted globally, generating approximately 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through methane production in landfills (United Nations Environment Programme, 2024; World Resources Institute, 2023). This waste also squanders critical resources such as water, land, and energy used in food production, exacerbating environmental challenges like climate change and land degradation (Sustainable Food Technology, 2023).

Solution Overview

The proposed solution is a food-sharing app designed to tackle both of these issues. The app will allow users to offer extra portions of meals they’ve prepared and invite others to share them in their homes. This approach provides a unique and personal way for people to meet new individuals, reduce food waste, and build genuine relationships.

The app will include several key features:

• Meal Sharing: Users can post that they will have extra portions of food they are about to prepare, including details about the meal, how much will be available and the time it will be available.
• Location-based Matching: The app will match users based on proximity, making it easy for people to connect with others in their local area. There could be an option that people might sometimes want to just pick up a portion of food and not stay there to eat, if they prefer to.
• Community Building: In addition to meal sharing, the app will facilitate broader community engagement by offering events, such as cooking classes or cultural food nights, where users can gather and share experiences.
• User Profiles: Each user will have a profile where they can specify their preferences, dietary restrictions, and what they are willing to share. This will help ensure that the food-sharing process is seamless and respectful of individual needs.

This concept is inspired by the Ewe culture where people would share their meal with people passing by, inviting to join and eat together. Also, it is made relevant here in Switzerland by the success of events like Le Salon des Modestes, held every February since 1995. The concept attracts hundreds of participants each year, a hundred of which open their homes to strangers as a way to share meals but also to meet new people. The event was an overwhelming success, with people expressing a clear desire for more opportunities to connect over food. We believe this desire can be harnessed through a digital platform that makes it easier to organize such experiences.

Systemic Problem Hypotheses

The two key problems we aim to address are deeply rooted in societal habits and expectations:

1. Social Isolation: In many cultures, dining is an activity that typically happens within close-knit circles, such as family or close friends. An opportunity which is not always accessible to the elderly or new residents of a city. The idea of inviting strangers is not widely practiced, yet is a brave new opportunity which can help reduce social isolation. To implement this change, participants will be required to shift their ideas of societal norms surrounding food and embrace a more inclusive and commuity-focused way of eating.
2. Food Waste: The habit of cooking large portions in a single-person household often leads to significant food waste due to several practical factors. Large packages of meats and oversized vegetables, commonly sold in grocery stores, are often more than one person can consume before spoilage occurs. Additionally, small freezers in many single-person households limit the ability to store leftovers or bulk ingredients effectively, leading to spoilage. This is compounded by a lack of easy alternatives for sharing meals with others. Mainstreaming food-sharing habits requires an approach that is easy to use, convenient, and integrated into daily life.

Our app aims to change these habits by offering a simple platform for people to share food and meet others in a meaningful way. By embedding these practices into daily life, we can create a more connected and sustainable society.

Target Audience

The primary beneficiaries of this project will be individuals who experience loneliness or social isolation. These include:

• Older Adults who may experience loneliness due to a lack of family or social support.
• Singles who live alone and often face challenges in socializing or meeting new people.
• All individuals finding themselves in a new city including Expats and Students

In addition to individuals, this app will also benefit the wider community by encouraging social interaction and reducing food waste, leading to a more sustainable way of living.

Social Innovation Approach

The approach we are taking is one of social innovation. Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, and ideas that meet social needs and strengthen society’s capacity to act. In this case, we are aiming to change the way people approach eating and food sharing. We believe that by creating a platform that encourages people to invite others into their homes and share meals, we can foster a new norm around socializing, opening up, and community engagement.

Testing the Concept, Development Plan and Next Steps

In a test phase, we will focus on defining the app’s features based on user feedback. We plan to conduct focus groups among our target demographics, including the elderly, singles, as well as expats and students. Furthermore, we hope to be able to interview participants of the Salon des Modestes to see if additional target groups exist (couples, families, etc).These groups will provide valuable insights into how the app needs to be conceived for users to feel safe, for a good usability and appeal of the app, and to become aware of potential challenges.

We will also work on creating a basic visual prototype of the app, which will include key features such as meal posting, location-based matching, and user profiles. The goal is to design a visual prototype of the app to validate core hypotheses, identify essential features, and understand what users need to feel safe and engaged to use the app we are projecting to develop.

Collaborations and Partnerships

To ensure the app’s success, we plan to partner with organizations and individuals who can support the project’s development and scaling. This includes:

• Academic Partners: We are working with Ashley Young, scientific collaborator at BFH-HAFL, an academic partner, who will coordinate the qualitative research, help develop the business model (including funding possibilities), and help find tech partners for the development of the app at a later stage.
• Foundations and Organizations: We hope to connect with foundations focused on sustainability, social innovation, and food security, who can support the project’s scaling after the booster phase.

What fundamental problem are you addressing? What systemic problem hypotheses are the starting point for your mainstreaming approach?

We are addressing two interconnected problems:

First, social isolation and loneliness. Currently, there are very few non-commercial formats specifically designed to make it easy for people to meet and connect with new individuals in an open, welcoming way.

Second, food waste in single-person households. Many individuals end up preparing more food than they can consume, leading to unnecessary waste.

Our idea tackles both issues simultaneously. Building on observations, such as the positive experiences from Le Salon des Modestes in February — where people opened their homes to strangers to share meals — we see clear evidence that there is a desire for more meaningful, communal experiences.

We propose creating an app for food sharing, where individuals can offer extra portions of meals they are preparing and invite others into their homes to share them. In this way, we aim to foster authentic human connection while reducing food waste.

For us, social innovation means trying to change or redesign everyday habits that are shared by many people in a society (e.g. our usual ways of traveling, living, eating, etc.).

Which habits do you want to change or mainstream through which approach?

The habit we seek to change is the way people approach eating and food sharing. Our goal is to cultivate a new, community-centered habit: that individuals begin to open their homes and share the meals they prepare with others, including strangers.

Through our approach, we aim to make this form of welcoming others into one's home a natural and valued part of social life.

Who will benefit from mainstreaming and how?

Expats, newcomers to the city, singles, older adults, and anyone experiencing loneliness will particularly benefit. By creating opportunities for shared meals and genuine connections, we aim to foster a sense of belonging, reduce social isolation, and strengthen community ties, while at the same time reducing food waste.

Which people/organizations are in your team and what is their role?

• Afi Sika Kuzeawu – Project initiator, responsible for overall concept design, project leadership, and app conception.
• Ashley Young – Academic partner, responsible for coordinating the qualitative research.

Has the idea (or variants) already been tested? If so, with what findings?

No.

What would you like to work on during the booster (e.g. test mainstreaming, feasibility study, developing a climate-friendly business model, building a first visual prototype, etc.)? What do you hope you will have achieved specifically at the end of the booster?

We would like to explore whether people would trust an app designed for food sharing, and, if so, identify the key requirements such an app would need to meet. To do this, we plan to conduct interviews with three different focus groups: The Elderly, Expats, and Students. Based on the insights gained, we aim to create a first draft of a basic visual prototype of the app.

What do you hope for from the booster (e.g. search for specific partners (if so, who?), connection with the government/public sector, etc.)?

We hope to connect with foundations that could support the next steps of our project after the booster phase, particularly for further development, testing, and scaling of the app. In addition, we are interested in networking with tech partners to support the app development and with universities to collaborate on ongoing research and user testing. We are also open to building partnerships with organizations working in the areas of food security, community building, and sustainability, as well as exploring potential collaborations with public sector initiatives focused on reducing food waste and fostering social innovation.

Who do you need as an expert to further advance the idea?

We need a board member with expertise in food sustainability, technology development, social innovation, or nonprofit management to help guide the project’s strategic direction and ensure its long-term success.

How much budget do you require from us for what (maximum CHF 22,500 including expert vouchers)?

Focus Group Budget Plan

• Facilitator Costs for Focus Groups
  • Three focus groups (students, expats, elderly)
  • 42 hours of work per person per group
  • Hourly rate: 70 CHF
  • Total: 42 hours × 3 groups × 70 CHF/hour = 17,640 CHF
• Material and Transport Costs
  • Includes travel, conference room rentals, and participant compensation
  • Total: 2,400 CHF
• Data Processing Costs
  • Tasks: Transcription, coding, analysis, synthesis
  • Estimated hours: 35 hours
  • Hourly rate: 70 CHF
  • Total: 35 hours × 70 CHF/hour = 2,450 CHF
• Total Budget
  • Facilitator costs: 17,640 CHF
  • Material and transport costs: 2,400 CHF
  • Data processing costs: 2,450 CHF
  • Grand Total: 17,640 + 2,400 + 2,450 = 22,490 CHF

Sources

United Nations Environment Programme. (2024). Food Waste Index Report 2024. Referenced in Move For Hunger, "The Environmental Impact of Food Waste." Available at: https://moveforhunger.org (Published: 2015-11-05).

World Resources Institute. (2023). The Global Benefits of Reducing Food Waste — and How to Do It. Available at: https://www.wri.org (Published: 2023-04-20).

Sustainable Food Technology. (2023). Food waste: environmental impact and possible solutions. Royal Society of Chemistry. Available at: https://pubs.rsc.org (Published: 2023).

We address two interconnected issues: social isolation and food waste, particularly in single-person households. Many individuals struggle to form meaningful connections, and food often goes to waste. Our proposed solution is an app that enables users to share surplus meals and invite others for communal dining in their homes. This approach would foster authentic connections, reduce food waste, and promote a shared, open-door lifestyle (Michelini et al., 2020). We aim to mainstream this community-centered habit, benefiting those facing loneliness, such as expats and seniors, while also reducing food waste . The question we seek to answer with the Booster is: What features are needed for such an app to gain users' trust and encourage its use? To answer this question, we plan to conduct focus groups to identify the optimal app features required.