RFC Comps Carleton 2019

Project Overview

Throughout Fall 2018 and Winter 2019, our team worked with the Carleton campus student group, the Real Food Calculator, to improve their workflow. Twice a year they record all of Bon Appetit’s purchases and calculate the percentage of items in the Carleton dining hall that are real as defined by the national Real Food Challenge. Ultimately, we aimed to help them more efficiently and effectively meet their goal of shifting institutional spending from conventional to “real” food. After informally interviewing them about their process and observing their work sessions, we decided to create a website and database system to help ease the process of data entry and to visualize food purchasing trends. On the data entry portion of our website, we improved their data entry process by reducing redundant researching and typing. On the visualization portion of our website, we have provided graphical representations that allow RFC volunteers to get a general idea of the real food scene at Carleton and to identify which specific products are most beneficial to shift from conventional to real. Overall, our tool will allow the RFC at Carleton to spend less time entering data and more time and effort increasing the total real food percentage at Carleton. More Info