Food Brings People Together
Can we invite everyone to enjoy fresh, healthy, and delicious meals together?
The Challenge
With rising cost of living and greater societal inequality making it harder for some to put food on their family’s table these days, can community initiatives do more than just offer an uninspiring lunch box?
The Outcome
Realising food is intrinsically linked to well-being and dignity, onebite partnered with NGOs, academia and social enterprises to look into offering subsided meals for those unemployed to cheer them up, or using festival food to generate meaningful discussions and develop strong social bonds.
Food is everything we are
When asked in an interview if there are “right” ways to appreciate food, Anthony Bourdain, the globetrotting chef-and-cultural explorer, laughed off the preposterous idea and proclaimed, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go…you’re talking about something that people identify very closely with their identities”.
It is at once a no-brainer yet profound statement that reaffirms the essential role of food in forming social identity, helping us make sense of our world, navigating our society’s norms, and connecting different segments of the community.
By no means professional chefs, bakers, or pâtissiers, our team of social designers at onebite are nonetheless consummate foodies who know a thing or two about savoury snacks and tangy sweets, and how food presents an approachable and effective way to bring across messages and communicate ideas. In fact, food is closely linked to the beginnings of our design studio in 2015. Our Managing Director, Alan Cheung once mentioned how he named the studio onebite as he wanted to actively involve the public as co-designers, or in his words, “to take a bite of design flavour together”.
With rising cost of living and greater societal inequality making it harder for some to put food on their family’s table these days, how might we incorporate food into design solutions so that everyone gets to enjoy fresh, healthy, and delicious meals together?
Food is about understanding space
Serpentine Pavilion Platter designed by onebite in 2015, can you see the resemblance?
Like chefs, architects also “cook”. This analogy seems bewildering, but it is appropriate considering how architects consider the juxtaposition of materials with different textures and tactility, and surfaces with varying levels of porosity and luminosity to create a visual feast for users. Vice versa, we marvel at the ingenuity and ability of bakers to create spectacular show-stopping cakes, manipulating cake, cream, and glaze like bricks, mortars, and plaster, to realise jaw-dropping feats of engineering.
As a young startup design studio, onebite dabbled in many areas of design, but always applying its architectural knowledge and passion to connect with the public. These include participating and winning, the RIBA HK Chapter EAT! 2015 Competition with its Serpentine Pavilion Platter entry. The exquisite presentation of bite-sized deserts was inspired by its famous namesake, the Serpentine Pavilions designed by famous architects Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Jean Nouvel, and Herzog & Ai Wei-wei. It was onebite’s way of introducing architecture to the public through a medium with universal appeal and innate significance.
Through archicookie, onebite introduced architecture to different audience through cookie-making workshops. The workshops were held not only in Hong Kong, but also in Taiwan and Malaysia!
This train of thought continued in its next food-related project, Archicookies!
The façades of iconic Hong Kong architecture, such as the Former Supreme Court, Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, and Kowloon Walled City were imprinted on bite-sized cookies, allowing foodies to savour their delectable taste, and feast on the look of these architectural gems. Not satisfied with just designing and making cookies, onebite invited others to join them in cookie making workshops, using dough and icing pens to visualise and sketch out their city’s skylines. The workshops proved popular beyond Hong Kong, as onebite brought the workshops to Taiwan and Malaysia as well. This attested to the universality and appeal of baking as an art expression.
Food is about caring for others
During the Covid-19 pandemic, onebite connected food caterers and shop owners to facilitate the distribution of subsided, nutritious mealboxes.
During the Covid pandemic, many Hongkongers lost their jobs or suffered huge income cuts as retail, travel, and other service industries suffered. More than just a sudden loss in income, those affected had to cope with doubts, loneliness, and helplessness as they navigated new options in life and picked up new skills to meet the challenges of a changed society. As social innovators, we might not be equipped to provide counselling services or career matching, but we could certainly lend a helping hand to those in need by providing healthy and affordable meals as we believe nourishing and nutritious food to be the foundation of well-being.
This stemmed from our simple mantra, “Good Food, Good Mood”.
Named Food House Commune Kitchen, the project saw onebite partnering local NGO Jup Yeah to offer discounted lunch and dinner meal boxes ordered through Boutir, an online shopping platform. The food was prepared by professional restaurants, food caterers, and school meal providers who were likewise suffering from revenue loss as workers and students were ordered to stay home. Run on a cost-recovery model, the shortfall between ingredient cost and discounted meal box price is matched by donations from Hong Kong residents offering a helping hand. Collaborating outlets such as Book B in Tsuen Wan and Paragon in Kwun Tong also stepped in as pick-up locations for the meal boxes, offering a small but significant source of contact to cheer up those collecting meals. By the end of the Covid wave in 2020, 460 people have benefitted from Food House, with over HK$160,000 raised and more than 3,000 meal boxes sold.
onebite collaborated with 25 final-year PolyU Social Design students, researchers, social workers, and the staff and volunteers of “Chan Un Chan Third Age Volunteers Centre cum Community Kitchen” to co-design elderly-friendly community kitchens.
Another phenomenon onebite has observed in recent years, is how the age profile of kitchen workers has progressively increased. A government projection in 2019 speculated third-age workers aged above 55 will make up a quarter of total manpower by 2027. With Hong Kong’s heavy reliance on the service industries, especially restaurants catering to locals and tourists, surely more elderly workers will need to cope with the high physical and mental demands of working in kitchens.
Understanding the impact of such a societal change, onebite was pleased to be commissioned by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) to study and propose improvements for a community kitchen. In collaboration with 25 final-year PolyU Social Design students, onebite worked with the research team, social workers, and the staff and volunteers of “Chan Un Chan Third Age Volunteers Centre cum Community Kitchen” to co-design the handbook “A Practical Guide to an Age-Friendly Community Kitchen” as a reference to make community and professional kitchens elderly-friendly.
Focusing on 8 aspects, the handbook gave examples of how universal design could be incorporated into "Layout & Furnishing", "Operational Routing & Logistics", “Labels & Signage", "Equipment", "Training", "Inspections & Records", "Menu & Recipe", and "Incentives". It provides feasible advice for designing kitchens that could empower older workers, reduce the possibility of injuries, and create a safe enjoyable space for staff and customers to eat and gather.
Food celebrates important times together
The UNBOX Kidulthood combines a pair of Mooncake Duet produced by local maker A Fun Store and organic Greek Mountain Tea leaves sourced by MoreTea, packaged in a walnut box co-designed and produced by onebite and Taozi Creates.
Food is synonymous with festivities, especially in a vibrant Asian city like Hong Kong where traditional festivals are observed and celebrated with enthusiasm and exuberance. The Mid-Autumn Festival ranks among the most important holidays for Chinese communities, where large extended families gather for a hearty meal and take stock of their year. Enjoying a mooncake becomes a natural conversation starter; not only because it reminds us of the moon, but also because its sweet taste and soft texture makes it ideal to break in half, share it with a companion, and start a conversation.
With such a meaningful scenario in mind, onebite wanted to make these conversations even more precious and purposeful. The UNBOX Kidulthood is a box set created in 2021, combining a pair of Mooncake Duet produced by local maker A Fun Store and organic Greek Mountain Tea leaves sourced by MoreTea, packaged in a walnut box co-designed and produced by onebite and Taozi Creates. Laser-cut perforations on the box mimicked the waning and waxing of the moon phases, allowing lights to glow gently within to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
More than just offering food and drinks to celebrate the festival, every box also comes with a set of conversation starters cards that sought to raise public awareness on the ups and downs of young women’s lives. It is co-designed with the project’s beneficiary, Teen’s Key Hong Kong, an NGO supporting young women to unleash their full potential. Questions are formulated to get everyone to share treasured memories and explore their true feelings, using a unique communal format where participants can use to answer questions by themselves or as a group, indicated by Nei (你), Ngo (我), Ngo Dei (我地) appearing on the cards.
The 4 “Moon Occupants” were developed from an ideation workshop hosted for children from under-privileged familes and each character represents a positive attitude.
The collaborative efforts underpinning the success of UNBOX Kidulthood was applied fruitfully the following year with a collaboration with Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (HACTL). Titled The Moon Occupants, the Mid-Autumn festival project involved first hosting a moon-themed workshop for children from under-privileged families, co-creating a thrilling adventure of fantasy stories about the moon, and then getting them and their parents involved in imagining and creating adorable cartoon characters known as the Moon Occupants. Each character represented a positive attribute, such as “Courage”, Curiosity”, “Flexibility”, and “Hope”.
These characters were then incorporated into the design of the wooden box which contained mooncakes made by Mustard Seed Bakery, a social enterprise established by St James’ Settlement, and Chinese tea sourced from small, independent shops as a way to support local businesses. To reduce food waste, every box came with a recipe for French toast which could be made from left-over mooncake. Similar to UNBOX, perforations on the wooden box transformed empty wooden boxes into sparkling night lights offering a warm comforting glow for beneficiary families.
Food creates empathy and identity
Through Yeah Veggie, onebite hopes players can gain knowledge on 20 common wild edible plants in Hong Kong.
Other than mooncakes and cookies, onebite has also worked with other chefs, bakers, and artists over the years to promote local cuisine and wild edible plants in Hong Kong. These include Yeah Veggie, a set of playing cards co-designed with XCHANGE, a social gastronomy project based at Oi! Street. It encourages the public to learn more about common edible weeds and their nutritious values. Another recent project saw onebite create a new brand identity for Brown Table Culture, the first bakery in Hong Kong focusing on the use of local organic produce, such as citrus limon and wild lemons.
The gamut of architectural, branding, and social innovation projects onebite has been involved in over the years has demonstrated the affective power of food in bringing people together. With rising cost of basic necessities and food security likely to dominate headlines in the face of widening urban inequalities and severe climate change, concerted efforts are needed to help everyone to eat well and live well.
Food humanises social policies and environmental issues. Ensuring everyone gets to eat healthily is a small step forward in building an empathic society and taking collective responsibility to ensure the sustainability of life-giving natural resources.