Gamification is everywhere in 2023, from online experiences to in-store activations. Leveraging this powerful tool to engage and inspire positive changes, Second Harvest and Enable Education launch Still Good to Eat, a web-based interactive game that aims to tackle food waste at a household level and help you save on groceries.
What is Still Good to Eat?
In Still Good to Eat, players shop for common household foods (pantry staples, fresh produce, meat, dairy, etc.) and go through stages that correspond to their life cycle: after purchase, after processing (washed, sliced, cut) and as leftovers. To advance, you’ll make storage decisions and do freshness checks on these products, which will save or cost you money depending on your choices. You can also receive “reward points” to unlock more food storage tips at the end of the game.
The game will be released to our non-profit partners to improve their knowledge of food storage and handling and share it with their communities. We look forward to their feedback to understand how Still Good to Eat can be used as a learning tool that supports food waste reduction on a larger scale.
“We’re very excited to launch Still Good to Eat because it’s something that has never been done before,” Krish Thayalan, Manager, Training and Education at Second Harvest, said, “Using gamification to improve engagement and learning outcomes, the game directly benefits players looking to reduce food costs as well as their environmental footprint.”
Learning and development solutions provider, Enable Education, is a passionate advocate of socially focused projects and on a mission to revolutionize learning. We’re grateful for this partnership that combines their expertise and our in-house training content to offer a deeper dive into what you can explore in workshops like Understanding Food Date Labels and Store It Right. It’s targeted primarily to home cooks and food buyers in community kitchens but also suitable for children at grade levels 7 and up.
“Collaborating with Second Harvest on a game-based learning project about food waste reduction and proper storage was truly special!” Ben Zimmer, CEO of Enable Education, said. “We transformed everyday knowledge into a fun, interactive, and engaging experience. Still Good to Eat is educational and experiential, and this unique endeavour earned us a silver medal from the International eLearning Association. We couldn’t be prouder of this collaboration and the results!”
Gamification and its benefits
Gamification is the application of game design elements such as points, badges and leaderboards in non-game contexts. Over the past few years, it has been used more prominently in business, fitness, education and other domains.
Studies have shown that students perceive gamified opportunities to be more conducive to learning than others. Particularly, gamification elements turn quotidian tasks (such as sorting and storing groceries) into more interesting ones. By showing players the outcome of their decisions instantaneously, Still Good to Eat helps them retain information about food product lifespan and storage practices more deeply and for a longer period of time.
“Each small decision we make around storing or processing food yields collective impact,” Thayalan said, “Knowledge is power, and by leveraging what we know around proper food storage and handling, we can all save on food costs while also protecting the environment.”
