Larrea Young

At the table

“A friend once told me that if a system is rotten — not broken — then it needs to be replaced,” Young explained. “After hearing this, as a designer, I couldn’t help but be interested in this description, specifically concerning food systems. How do we not just improve the efficiency and usability of food systems, but actually start replacing them with something that works for everyone, rather than just a few people?”

For Larrea Young, this vision is what continually drives her creative work, resulting in a strong, sound platform for her MDes graduate thesis. Her MDes cohort’s theme is centered around equity and access in food systems at large, with her main project concentrated specifically on bringing these ideas to the school cafeteria. In executing research for her thesis, Young found that she wanted to develop a model that focused on incorporating the voices of high school students who are at a critical point in their development in relation to food. 

“What and where you eat for lunch every day is an extremely personal issue,” she expressed. “Why don't these students have any say or choice in this, especially low-income students who are on federal programs? Why are we not giving them any choice in what they eat on a daily basis? It’s a really complex question that has a lot of facets to it.”

Young was raised in Ann Arbor and pursued an undergraduate degree in Fashion and Textile design at Indiana University. After living in Bloomington for seven years, Young and her husband moved back to Ann Arbor and received an opportunity to work as Lead Designer for Warmilu, a company that works to provide incubator blankets to vulnerable infants. There, Young discovered her passion for designing in collaboration with a diversity of stakeholders including doctors, nurses, engineers, and patients.

“I originally was really product-focused. My designs came from looking at what was on the market and what was currently being used in existing children’s products, and what I realized when going through the creative process is that those things are very important in terms of following safety and regulations, but my real inspiration was the parents, the hospitals, and the babies themselves,” she continued. “That piece of actually getting to work with people who not only needed this product but wanted and will be using this product became the biggest inspiration.”

Young’s love for connecting directly with users ultimately carried over into her thesis work, as she spent much of her time listening to what high school students wanted to see in their cafeterias. Before her time as a student at MDes, Young had previously worked as a costume designer at Pioneer High School through the Theatre Guild, Using her design experience to collaborate with high schoolers. Young described this experience as extremely rewarding and transformative, as she developed close relationships with many of the students and was inspired by their creativity. 

“The logical place to start talking to high school students about food is in the cafeteria, and that’s been the focal point of my research,” she stated. “When I was talking to these students, they had amazing ideas about what they wanted to see in their cafeteria space, from incorporating ideas of addressing climate change to supporting students who needed to prepare food from home, and initiatives like that. But what struck me most was that their voices were not incorporated in all these spaces.” 

MDes offered Young a creative space to explore and implement her value of collaboration in the design process. With the help of her team and inspiration drawn from students, organizations like FoodCorps, the Edible Schoolyard, and her partner Catherine Saldutti founder of EduChange Inc., Young has created an online platform that guides students through the process of generating an idea for change in their cafeteria, and collaborating with decision-makers to implement that change. This platform, called The Lunch Club, will be free and available to high schools and their students, and will be piloted in the Fall of 2021. 

Learn more about Larrea Young and her design work. 

Story by Andie Horowitz.