Meet our team!
Our team consists of members from UBC’s Land and Food System who are in different programs with a variety of interests.
Margot Kimmel is majoring in Global Resource Systems, with a focus in Environmental Policy and Sustainable International Development. Her interests include environmentally sustainable business practices and policies, and urban development.
Santiago Campuzano is Majoring in Food science. Santiago is highly interested in tissue engineering with the purpose of expanding the field of Meat biofabrication
Star Li is majoring in Food Nutrition and Health and has an interest in food availability and nutrition and would like to work in developing countries in the future to increase nutritional awareness.
Ruying Ying is majoring in Food Market Analysis and is interested in economic efficiency of different community food systems and farmers’ market.
Joanna Ke is majoring in Nutritional Sciences and is interested in community food security.
Shannon Chau is majoring in Nutritional Sciences. Her interests include human nutrition and how humans and animals interact together in a community. She enjoys LFS because the faculty allows her to apply her education beyond the school community.
Our Project Goals
Everyone in our group is interested in something related to food with the exception of one person who is in GRS, so we thought to combine our interest of food and environmental sustainability to create a project that will not only reduce the amount of food waste but also increase the food availability and nutrition for those in need.
Our project is essentially a certification-labeling program available for catering companies and large restaurant venues who agree to give leftover food to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. This will essentially draw more attention to food waste issues and encourage support of companies that are involved in the program, as well as provide more food for people in need. Companies who agree to participate in the program will receive a certification that they can advertise to their customers.
Project Objectives:
-Reduction/sustainable management of catering and large-venue food waste
-Support low-income people
-Increase awareness of food waste and its reduction opportunities
-Give support to companies who support the food bank
-(For catering companies) increase sales/get more support
Our proposed community organization is the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
We chose this project because it allowed us to create our own initiative that combined certain parts of all of our interests, making it relatable for all team members. Also, food waste is a major issue right now, especially in a big city like Vancouver. Some of our members even work in restaurants that have a food waste issue, so we have a direct connection to a stakeholder.
What we wish to gain from LFS 350 is more knowledge on how to approach community projects in a productive way, such as through Asset Based Community Development. Not only that, but we also wish to strengthen our interdisciplinary skills by a tackling a unique community project which will require knowledge, personal experience and ideas from various disciplines.
Before watching the Ted Talk, we planned to approach our target companies with our idea without asking why they do not implement waste management.
After watching the Ted Talk by Ernesto Sirolli, we decided to approach the stakeholders first by asking them if there have been approaches to waste management implemented in the past, and if not, why this is. Relating back to Ernesto’s story, we will find out if they need help and ask them about major setbacks of waste management options. Finally, we will propose our project idea and ask for feedback.
In addition, we learned from the video that no major company has been started by a single person. A successful initiative requires collaboration from people of different interests and experiences. Our project supports the passion of the Food Bank by encouraging companies to donate their leftover food, and also involves the passion of the companies through offering an option for corporate social responsibility by giving back to the community.
