Volunteer prepping the table for the food to be distributed

How might we improve the volunteer experience to increase engagement with Foodsharing Copenhagen?

When

2019

Where

CIID Summer School, Copenhagen

Team

Lucille Rouzioux Barbara Maerzendorfer Quino Terceno Anne Milan

What

Our brief required us to find opportunities for Foodsharing CPH to better engage with the volunteers and retain them.

Why

Foodsharing Copenhagen is entirely run based on volunteer participation. Apart from the core members who have formed a leadership body, the different tasks from collecting the food to sorting and distributing them at the events are dependent on the volunteers. It was very essential for the organization to find ways to better engage them and streamline the process of doing so.

How

We followed the double-diamond process which included research activities like fly-on-the-wall observations, intercepts, and expert interviews.

The data-gathering activities were followed by a day of downloading and synthesizing what we saw, heard, and gathered.

Based on our initial analysis, we prepared discussion guides for our in-depth interviews, contextual inquiry, and intercepts. We organized our team such that a couple of us could conduct the interviews and the other two could experience what the volunteers went through.

Themes started emerging from the rich day of data collection on the field from which key insights were drawn out. These insights were orthogonal and supported by qualitative data.

Outcomes

The opportunity areas from the insights were presented on the final day to students, facilitators, and the core members of Foodsharing CPH at the UN city, Copenhagen.

Process

We met a group of young people from different parts of the world, who were open and welcoming, proud to contribute to a good cause and make an impact.

Using the Walk-a-mile immersion method for gaining a better understanding of the process

Volunteer #1, 33

“I have been interested in this kind of ideas [Foodsharing]” for 10 years at least “

Volunteer #1, 28

“I heard about Foodsharing CPH when I was in Argentina and was preparing my trip to Copenhagen”

01/ Insight

The majority of the knowledge of Foodsharing Copenhagen sits with some experienced members and is mostly transferred orally. This makes it difficult for new members to access it.

What we heard

“If I quit, things will fall apart.”

“There have been times where they were a bit too dependent on me”

“Probably we can have big posters which say this goes here or this goes there, something easy”

What we saw