Consumer choices about food spending and diet are influenced by the accessibility and affordability of local food retailers - travel time to shopping, availability of healthy foods, and food prices. Some people and places, especially those with low income, may face greater barriers in accessing healthy and affordable food retailers, which may negatively affect diet and food security. Access to good food - food that is healthy, convenient and affordable - is an issue for individuals, families and communities in every county across America. Food Access strategies that view food as a solution, not as a problem; are sustainable and community-driven and Increase the economic viability of both the community and the family are important. Food security exists when all people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Grocery Delivery

You might think that just about everybody is buying groceries online today, as retailers like Walmart, Kroger and Amazon race to perfect their delivery services and tout their abilities to get food to shoppers’ homes in under an hour. That’s not exactly the case. Most shoppers are still leery of buying their groceries online and only 3% of the grocery spending takes place online. Still others simply are not in a delivery zone, so are still on the sidelines waiting to be served. The firm predicts grocery delivery will ultimately take off as companies continue to invest in it. What about the $150B of consumers that can’t shop online because the experience is too expensive, limiting and unreliable?

Delivering on the Promise of Food Access and Security through Innovative E-Commerce and IoT Solutions

While digital innovation offers future possibilities for online grocery delivery growth and value creation, it comes with its own set of technical and consumer adoption challenges. Cutting through the strategic and technical clutter is a core strength of Technicity.

Technicity worked with Cincinnati-based Food Forest to design and deliver a new experience for shopping for fresh food online, at everyday low prices, and with free delivery. Getting to the grocery store isn’t always easy for families with food access issues, so Food Forest created hot spot pick-up locations and “hot delivery zones” to make groceries available to its customers when and where they need them most. Food Forest also became the first to offer SNAP and EBT friendly online grocery ordering and delivery services, giving everyone in the community the same access to the convenience of online grocery shopping. “Many aspiring entrepreneurs who are in their 20’s have ambitions to launch and grow a company. However, for many of them, the challenges associated with developing robust systems and data strategies to match their vision can become a huge obstacle,” observed BJ Yurkovich, CEO, Technicity. “Technicity offers the services that gives entrepreneurs and innovators the confidence to take the leap.”

The Result: an award-winning, innovative and robust e-commerce grocery ordering and delivery platform that provides families with the choice, affordability and convenience they were looking for - all driven by a powerful multi-sourcing platform and simplified smartphone delivery application that makes grocery order management, tracking and payments reliable and secure. Food Forest is an inaugural winner of Kroger’s Zero Hunger Zero Waste innovation fund competition and Transitus’ Moving Forward Together innovation competition (where Food Forest partnered with The Ohio State University’s Smart Campus organization to address food access challenges on college campuses).

About Technicity

Technicity is a connected strategy and product engineering company. We work with you to ideate, design, prototype, launch, and then transfer your concepts and ideas. Throughout the process, we innovate with you at every step, ensuring the best possible connected products, services, or concepts that get delivered to your end-users. Our unique approach to scope definition and innovation sets the stage for success. Show others your vision by putting together a proof of concept to raise money, to prove an idea works, or to see a concept in action. We provide services to finish out the scope definition with a first production release so you can launch your connected vision to the world. Start making your connected products vision a reality today, contact us at Technicity.io.

Featured Service: iotery

Iotery is Technicity’s Internet of Things (IoT) Managed Service that removes the guesswork, cost, and burden from maintaining your own IoT cloud infrastructure. Offer new IoT connectivity services to support your rapidly growing customer IoT data and application needs. Service large geographic areas with security and ease. Demonstrate added value through automation, monitoring, analytics, and insights. Rapidly deploy managed environments, operations, and support for your products or clients’ products. To learn more - or to get started in as little as 15 minutes - connect with us at Iotiery.io.

Featured Partner: Food Forest (Cincinnati, OH)

Technicity specializes in ideating, creating, and deploying vision. Food Forest is a new way to shop fresh food and more at everyday low prices! Getting to the grocery store isn’t always easy so Food Forest Hot Spot pick-up and Hot Zone delivery locations are available when and where you need them most. Our SNAP and EBT friendly service gives everyone access to the convenience of online grocery shopping. Find out more at foodforest.app.

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