Food Helpers, a Pa.-based hunger relief organization, has added an extra dimension to its school snack program through an online character known as LittleMoochi.
LittleMoochi is a downloadable app that encourages kids to pay attention to the nutritional content of their food. Through the app, kids “adopt” a LittleMoochi character, which is wired to respond to healthy food. The healthier a child’s snacks and meals, the happier LittleMoochi becomes.
The app gamifies the healthy eating process, asking kids to upload photos of their food and rewarding healthier choices with points in the form of virtual strawberries. Kids can use the strawberries to feed and dress LittleMoochi, or decorate its home.
“Everyone’s got a screen in front of them, including the kids,” said Athena Petrolias, Operations Manager at Food Helpers, which serves an area south of Pittsburgh, Pa. “We’ll play along, if that means I get nutritious food to kids who don’t have access to food, have food insecurity, and make it fun to learn how to eat more nutritious foods than some of the junk that’s out there.”
Kids get introduced to the LittleMoochi program through Food Helpers’ school snack program, which was launched in the 2022-2023 school year. When kids get a snack bag, they also get a QR code to download the LittleMoochi app to their school-provided Chromebook or other device. The snack program is on track to deliver 70,000 snack bags this year. According to George Omiros, President and CEO of Food Helpers, about 10,000 kids use the app.
A balanced diet covering all of the food groups is the key to LittleMoochi’s heart. When kids try new healthy foods, their LittleMoochi can earn a “Superman cape.” The app also includes a MyPlate blackboard so users can see which food groups LittleMoochi needs for a healthy diet and sends reminders when it’s mealtime.
Created by a four-student design team from Carnegie Mellon University, the app won the Forté Foundation’s Power Pitch Competition in 2019. Food Helpers’ training division partnered with the Carnegie Mellon team to bring LittleMoochi to the Apple App Store and Google Play in January 2020. Food Helpers also maintains the patent on LittleMoochi.
Petrolias, a former school administrator who joined Food Helpers during the 2023-2024 school year, was tasked with getting the LittleMoochi Program into as many area schools as possible. She picked up her phone, called her former colleagues, and told them, “We’ve got something for your kids. You don’t want to say no to this. It’s free food for your kids. And it’s an opportunity for them to also do a little bit of information on health.”
While the technology behind LittleMoochi is proprietary, participating schools are free to use it, and they are using it in a variety of ways. Several are using it as their community wellness program with PTA support, while others are using it in health/physical education classes. And some, Petrolias notes, are more focused on the snacks at this point. “They just want the food for the kids,” she said.
Deploying LittleMoochi on school-based devices can be challenging, particularly in schools that are short-staffed when it comes to tech support. Food Helpers is trying to make the app more user-friendly to set up, so less help is needed.
Tracking usage is another hurdle, Petrolias noted, as the app wasn’t initially designed to collect this data. Food Helpers is currently working on this as well, she added. “It was easy to get the app into the schools,” she explained. “But getting it fine-tuned so that it’s even more efficient and more data collected is what we’re working on now.”
While the LittleMoochi app is “a work in progress,” the overall impact of the program has been broad, Petrolias emphasized, including more food for schools, more guidance on how to eat healthfully, and greater community support. Petrolias often finds herself with more volunteers than snacks to pack. “To me, that impact is most important,” she said. “That you have a community coming together to support the students and schools.” – Amanda Jaffe
Amanda Jaffe is a writer and former attorney with a deep interest in organizations and mechanisms that address food insecurity. Her online publication, Age of Enlightenment, is available on Substack, and her essays and articles may be found at www.amandajaffewrites.com.
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