We partner with organizations across the food system to navigate complex challenges—bringing clarity to ambiguity, aligning interest-holders, and shaping actionable paths forward.
Our work often involves multi-stakeholder systems, national initiatives, and moments where clarity is needed before major decisions are made. Recent engagements span national strategy, participatory design, and multi-stakeholder alignment.
Work
with Kitchen Sync Strategies and Builders Vision
Featured Projects
Shaping national strategy for the food hub sector during a period of uncertainty
In 2025, as federal funding shifts and market pressures created uncertainty across the food hub sector, leaders were grappling with how to align around priorities and identify high-impact paths forward. The moment called for shared sensemaking across a diverse set of stakeholders with different perspectives, constraints, geographies, and goals.
- Surfaced competing priorities and tensions across national food hub leaders and industry partners to identify key opportunities, areas of alignment and divergence, and other emerging themes.
- Presented key findings from interviews and facilitated in-depth ground-truthing and discussion of reflections.
- Designed and led an in-person, three-day, multi-stakeholder convening to explore challenges and opportunities across the sector and co-design future recommendations.
- Guided collective sensemaking to clarify where alignment existed, where tensions remained, and what paths forward were viable.
WHAT WE DID
- 11 strategic recommendations to advance the food hub sector
- Clarity on shared priorities and where meaningful differences remained across the sector, as represented by a diverse profile of 12+ national food hub leaders
- A set of prioritized recommendations informing future funding, coordination, and next steps for the sector
- Strengthening of co-designer relationships
WHAT EMERGED
PARTNERS
GEOGRAPHY
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THE CHALLENGE/OPPORTUNITY
with Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry and Second Harvest of the Big Bend
Co-designing participant-centered approaches to expand access to non-congregate summer meals
As communities worked to expand access to summer meals beyond traditional congregate settings within new USDA rules and regulations in 2024, there was a need to better understand what was working, where barriers remained, and how to design more effective and equitable approaches in collaboration with community members closest to the program: families, caregivers, and meal providers.
- Conducted design research with families, caregivers, and local program operators to surface lived experiences, barriers, and emerging needs.
- Synthesized insights across diverse geographies to identify patterns, tensions, and opportunities.
- Hosted sensemaking sessions in local community venues with community interest-holders to reflect on findings and ground-truth emerging insights.
- Led creative co-design workshops where community members and program operators collaboratively brainstormed ideas for increasing acess through mobile distribution, cultivating fun and joy for youth, and combatting stigma assoicated with free meals.
WHAT WE DID
- Community-informed site selection led to measurable increases in access. This work informed the selection of new mobile meal sites—contributing to a 160% increase in meals served year-over-year.
- Clearer understanding of barriers shaping participation. Insights from families and caregivers highlighted key logistical, social, and perceptual barriers.
- Priorities to improve reach and accessibility. Cross-stakeholder insights informed pilot program design and implementation.
- Actionable insights for program and policy decisions. Findings are informing ongoing work in Florida and resources developed are now offered in Share Our Strength trainings to programs nationwide.
WHAT EMERGED
PARTNERS
GEOGRAPHY
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THE CHALLENGE/OPPORTUNITY
