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Community-building can help change how we all relate to food by building social networks and exchanging tips for making healthier choices about food.

Games help build community.

Here's an example (a project we are working on & would love help with!) We are exploring this idea by creating a real-world lemon trading game called Lemonopoly. (Developed at the Creative Currency hackathon for Central Market. Launches this fall in San Jose at the Zero1 Biennial & in SF shortly afterwards. Lemonopoly.org)

In Lemonopoly, Bay Area cities compete to share lemons (competing against Oakland, for example.)

San Francisco has an abundance of lemon trees, and this abundance could be used for building community and establishing more relationships between Central Market and other neighborhoods. For example, through lemon trade with corner stores or lemon product creation we could create more opportunities to create sellable goods and be closer to fresh food.

Baby lemon tree stewardship opportunities can build connections with vacant lot gardens and public tree orchards. (We are inspired by the non-profit JustOneTreeSF.com for their advocacy in helping San Francisco become sustainable in lemons.)

Lemons may seem like a luxury fruit, but they pair with salads and other healthy foods. They are symbolic, easy to carry, fruit frequently. Also, they grow well in San Francisco and small trees can be grown indoors.

The game aspect gives us room to try new things with new people. We can find ways to alter our economy and localize more of fresh foods.

For ImproveSFers: exploring more ideas to make big games for our city around food and community could make it possible to make our civic connections stronger and more resilient.

If you are interested in helping us play-test this summer by taking on lemon challenges in Central Market, please let us know! We are planning a pop-up lemon orchard parklet in mid-September for mid-market. We will need your help!