News: Our Teen Community-Designers Help A Local Chicago Baker.

What sorts of ways can Chicago teenagers simply and easily have a positive impact on the delivery of healthy food Chicago through design?

How about designing an apron-mitt that meets the very unique and challenging needs of a local artisanal baker who routinely finds her forearms covered in burns due to the incredible dexterity required of her baking?

Our wedesignawesomethings teen community designer apprentice team recently presented Anne Kostroski, a fantastic Chicago baker, with an elegantly frankensteinian solution that integrates lengthy protective oven mitts with an apron. Why why why, might you ask?

Anne uses Chinese lidded ceramic pots for baking that require preheating as well as frequent removal and replacement of the lids. This very particular style of baking requires nearly constant movement and switching of tasks, precluding the use of readily available oven mitts that one must put on and take off, as well as pick up and put down. By keeping the mitts nearby at all times, lengthening the forearm protection and generally integrating them into the design of the apron we think we’ve created a pretty simple solution that will help Anne’s forearms be a little less red.

For a little bit more on wedesignawesomethings and images from the prototyping process, click (here). Also, make sure you check out the the wedesignawesomethings website that the apprentices designed for the Chicago Architecture Foundation to document the design process (here).

Also, make sure you check out the wedesignawesomethings’ other project to help great organizations better deliver healthy food to Chicago communities, our micro-farmer’s stand (here).