<p>Design and consulting firm IDEO was recently hired to work with the San Francisco Unified School District in order to figure out how to get kids to consistently eat lunch at school, according to Wired.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Over a 5-month period, <b>IDEO designers observed and questioned students in San Francisco schools</b>, in order to determine what they wanted. Their findings have been outlined IDEO's proposal entitled, "Future Dining Experience."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img width="500px" class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/screen_shot_2014-04-29_at_5.15.40_pm.png" alt="Design Firm Partners with San Francisco School District to Redesign School Lunches - See more at: http://www.andnowuknow.com/behind-greens/design-firm-partners-san-francisco-school-district-redesign-school-lunches/11631/jordan-okumura#sthash.HgXO2EgL.dpuf" /><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The district has more than <b>55,000 students attending 114 schools</b>. Only about <b>40% of all students were eating school lunches</b> on a regular basis and of those who qualified for free or reduced-cost lunches, only 60% were taking advantage of this.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"The school district was running a huge operation at what ended up being a deficit because kids weren’t really participating," says Sandy Speicher, an associate partner at IDEO.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">While schools usually approach lunchtime like an <b>assembly line</b>, the designers felt this was <b>all wrong</b>.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">A few of the <b>key suggestions</b> include tailoring the dining experience to specific age groups, making eating school lunches more convenient and rewarding, and creating an environment where students can take a break and socialize with their friends.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">For high school students, IDEO envisioned <b>"Smart Meal Technology."</b> The <b>app</b> lets students to pre-order meals and rate the quality of what they've eaten once they're done. Once the success or failure of individual meals has been assessed, this data can be used to improve the process.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">While the District says it is not planning to implement all of the suggested concepts, IDEO maintains that the resources available to the schools were the main considerations when creating the proposal.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The team worked directly with the District to determine how much could be spent, and also policy considerations, reimbursement regulations and labor rules.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"All of those pieces were design tools we had," says Speicher. "If you think of it like a product, those were the materials we had to design the system."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Fresh, healthy food was not the problem, but rather the structure and design of the system itself. It will be fascinating to see how technology and design continue to influence our often <b>dysfunctional and out-of-date institutions</b> in the future.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.ideo.com/stories/a-cafeteria-designed-for-me/" target="_new"> IDEO </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
