Lauren Maro is a graphic designer that has a love for designing brand identities. She strives to create aesthetically pleasing connections throughout brand development, resulting in compositionally simple yet sophisticated designs. For her capstone project Lauren is designing a food service that provides college students with food sensitivities and digestive disorders with locally grown and produced foods. After dealing with food allergies her whole life, and seeing all of her family and friends develop digestive disorders, she has grown an interest for human nutrition. She spent years struggling to find foods that her body accepts due to certain foods causing numerous issues on her wellbeing. This made her realize how poor gut health is the root cause of many illnesses and diseases. After starting college she struggled to find ways to keep up with her restricted diet as it was challenging to both afford and learn how to cook meals that were nourishing and fulfilling for her body. Rooted is a program that is dedicated to expanding access to nutrient dense foods to students in order to nourish their bodies and prevent illness in the future. In partnership with the University of Illinois, Rooted is designed to connect local farms with University students, so that no student has to go a day eating foods that are detrimental to their health. It is a year-long program, where students can order and then pick up produce, meat and dairy products from the Arc Instructional Kitchen once a week. Students will have the opportunity to shop for their groceries online and then set a time and date for when they want to pick them up. This is not a subscription and students can decide to buy from Rooted at any time giving them the flexibility to decide what they want and how much they need each week. The program also provides students with recipes and wellness tips in order to give them guidance on how they can use their food to make a meal. This convenient way to shop will allow students with food sensitivities to no longer fear deciding what they are going to eat that day and leave them feeling fulfilled and confident.
