Abstract - Background:
Belonging to a “travelled” family, whose grandparents were refugees as a result of the partition, food was something that kept us rooted to what would have been our culture. Having lived across various parts of India, my family had also picked up different cuisines and celebrated every festival that the calendar could handle! I was very young when I took a liking to cooking and other experiments in the kitchen as a result of travelling to hyper-localities with my family. This also helped me find a ground for myself when it was really difficult for me to connect with other kids back in school (which I uncovered as a part of our module on Ethnography)
My father has always loved to explore geographies and my mother - cultures. Food became such an integral part of my solo travels later, that I would volunteer to cook at such places, in return for boarding and access to their community networks - and I ended up forming a community of friends bonding over food!
I connected with two of my partners to work on something accessible that would “connect foodies” during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Social media and messaging apps saw a surge in people experimenting with food in every way possible. We wanted to build something that would help these same enthusiasts connect and grow with each other - and that’s how Munchin was conceived.
Research questions and hypothesis:
What makes people bond over food?
How do we close the gap and create communities that support the members’ growth
How do we make the platform friendly for members to share their content who are not savvy with social media?
How do we get the experience out of digital-only and into people’s lives and lifestyles?
