Welcome! Bienvenue!

ABOUT US

Did your parents always tell you to eat breakfast because they swore that it is the most important meal of the day? Well they were probably right, because according to the Breakfast Club of Canada, 60% of learning occurs before lunch in elementary schools (2014). Breakfast reduces hunger, allowing students to focus better in the classroom (Rampersaud, 2009). This is why it is so fundamentally important to increase the availability of morning meals to young students.

We are Group 11 of a community project-based course called LFS 350 – Land, Food, and Community II at the University of British Columbia. This term we will be partnering with the Breakfast Club of Canada, a non-profit organization that provides healthy breakfasts to students across the country. But before we dive into our project, let us first introduce ourselves. With a total of five members in our group, Cherub Lum, Lan Nguyen, Marianne Thomas, and Emily Hou are all studying Food Nutrition and Health, while Alexander Wong is in Applied Biology.

Cherub Lum

Hi my name is Cherub Lum, I am a 4th year student studying Food, Nutrition and Health. Food has always been a huge part of my life. Growing up I have always been involved in my family’s tofu business and grocery store, resulting in my love for food. Nutrition and health has been incredibly important to me because being a varsity athlete on the UBC Women’s Basketball Team, I know that eating right is key to optimal performance. My aspiration for the future is to become a sports dietitian where I can utilize my passions, experience, and skills to help people live their own healthy lifestyle.

Lan Nguyen

Hi, my name is Lan Nguyen and I am a third year student studying Food Nutrition and Health at UBC. I love learning about food and how its components can influence our bodies in a variety of intriguing ways. Through reading about nutrition in my spare time and experimenting with recipes in my kitchen, I’ve developed an intertwined love: cooking nutritious food. As I see challenges as opportunities for growth, I always approach situations with a positive outlook. By focusing on the positive, I’ve found that it is easier to find the “silver lining” and persist through obstacles. I strongly believe collaboration is one of the best strategies to finding appropriate solutions. By combining pieces of knowledge from different angles, we can collectively create the whole picture. It is with this mindset and approach that I would like to participate in the Breakfast Club of Canada project: a positive mind, and a strong desire to make a positive difference by working with community partners towards meeting the needs of the BCC organization.

Marianne Thomas

Hi! I am Marianne, a 3rd year student in the Food, Nutrition and Health program. I am very interested what we eat and how it affects our bodies both mentally and physically. I have always loved playing sports, and my teams sometimes participated in nutrition workshops that emphasized the importance of our diet and its effects on our athletic performance. Through my experiences on these various teams, I strongly believe in the importance of working together to achieve a common goal, which will undoubtedly be very important throughout our project. Also, while being at UBC I have noticed that when I eat well, my concentration and overall attitude improves, and this fascinates me. I believe that if young students are receiving adequate nutrition in morning meals through the Breakfast Club of Canada programs, they will notice a difference in their moods and academics just as I have.

Emily Hou

Hi, my name is Emily Hou. I am a 3rd year student in Food, Nutrition, and Health. Inspired by both of my parents who work in the health-care field, I learned from them to take care of my body through healthy eating by truly adapting the phrase “you are what you eat”. I had first hand education regarding nutrition from them; they taught me the importance of eating foods from all four food groups. I was intrigued and fascinated about how something we eat can have such an impact. Therefore, I decided to pursue an education in Land and Food System’s Food, Nutrition, and Health Program. My education at UBC, along with work and volunteer experiences at hospitals and long term care homes have inspired me to wanting to become a dietitian. I would love to use the knowledge of nutritional science and my love for food and human interaction to make a difference in the health of individuals in my community! I am thrilled to be able to work on this project with those who are like-minded and have the same passion in making a difference in our community.

Alexander Wong

Hey! I am Alex, and I am a 3rd year student studying Applied Biology – Plant and Soil Sciences. For my entire life, I have been surrounded by plants, whether it be in my backyard garden, helping my dad at his work, or out in nature. I am interested in a variety of subjects including agriculture and horticulture. I think there is a lot we can learn from studying plants, be it medicinal, food, or genetics related. The nutrition content of fruits and vegetables is also relevant and related to my studies, as many plant scientists and breeders aim to produce varieties rich in nutrients. I have an avid curiosity in plant and soil sciences, and hope to make up my mind soon of how I can positively impact society. I want to work on this project, because I am interested in helping the BCC produce recipes with fruits and vegetables, and to provide nutritional information coming from these foods.

As we all share an interest in healthy living and nutrition, we are very excited to be a part of a project where we will have the opportunity to use our knowledge and experiences in a way that will benefit community members.

GOALS

Our main goal for this collaboration is to reinforce and build upon past students’ work with the organization. We will be reviewing their suggested recipes in areas such as ease of preparation, nutritional content, and bulk cost. We also aim to supply the Breakfast Club of Canada with budgeting, nutrition and grocery shopping tips, strategies to improve student involvement, and ways to include the local community. We hope that by working with the Breakfast Club of Canada, we can enhance the experience students receive when attending morning meals by creating healthy, tasty, and cost appropriate menus.

By taking Land, Food, and Community II, we would like to gain greater insight into the complexity of the system that allows the breakfast program to work. We are hopeful that this knowledge will be applicable and useful for understanding a variety of food systems and their many interactions. Above all, we hope to gain valuable skills that will allow our group to make a positive impact in the community and by being a part of the Breakfast Club of Canada, we are confident that we will contribute to the sustainability and success of the current programs.

WHY BCC & OBJECTIVES

Our group requested to be a part of this particular project not only because of our shared interest in health and nutrition, but also because our values aligned with the priorities of the Breakfast Club of Canada. By working with the Breakfast Club of Canada, we can make a difference for the nutritional well-being of the students. Here are some ways to help strengthen the BCC’s current initiatives:

• provide tips for bulk food preparation
• provide new and interesting recipes that are nutritious
• provide a cost vs. nutritional analysis for some important foods the BCC currently provides
• engage students to participate in the preparation of breakfasts

The Breakfast Club of Canada is an important asset to all of its schools, because it works to provide community food security. By providing breakfasts to those who may not have access to it, the BCC provides a source of community engagement and interaction to help get students going in the morning. Our goals will help to provide efficiency and nutritional balance in order for the BCC to run smoothly, and do what they are there to do: provide breakfasts. By providing new and healthy recipes, we can make a difference in children’s mental and physical development which will allow them to perform well both in school and out.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Our group first met with the Breakfast Club of Canada’s Program Advisor, Virginie Lamarche, on January 18th. She kindly introduced herself, explained her position within the organization (although we will mostly be working with Robin Ryan – who was unavailable that day), and taught us about the history, current work, and future goals of the company. By meeting with Virginie and some of her colleagues from the Breakfast Club of Canada, we know by their enthusiasm and engagement that they are just as excited as we are to work together to advance the organization. The Breakfast Club of Canada is an organization providing over 1300 schools across Canada the opportunity to feed students in the morning, and this is by no means small. To operate on such a large scale, we know that the Breakfast Club of Canada must be very well organized and strive to continuously optimize their resources. Being a fairly new organization in Western Canada, they are still in the process of further expanding and growing to be able to reach their goals. After our initial meeting with Virginie, we noted that there is a complete under layer system that the BCC is riding on. There is a lot more to think about than just what to make in the morning. We must keep in mind the stores where the schools can buy their food from, the amount of money given to each school, who is doing the grocery shopping, and who is helping out in the kitchens. The work carried out by Breakfast Club of Canada is very impressive, and we as students from UBC will contribute our best efforts in order to further boost and strengthen their current system.

The organization was started by more than one person, which according to Ernesto Sirolli, is how the most successful companies are often started (2012). His speech claims when working with others, it is extremely important to hear their ideas, and their goals, instead of forcing yours upon them (2012). We believe that we have followed his approach by meeting with Virginie from the BCC, and listening to what she thinks are good ideas for us to work on to help improve the BCC. Furthermore, we have kept in continuous contact with our contact, Robin, in order to understand what he wants us to do for the BCC to help bring about positive change.

According to Mathie and Cunningham, the process of development in communities can be driven by its people through pre-existing assets, which create local economic opportunity (2003). The BCC has already connected its communities with its assets, which can include its grocery stores, students, teachers, and volunteers, all who run their programs. It uses the schools themselves as a location where these breakfasts can be hosted. By using existing assets, the BCC is able to run much more efficiently and at a cheaper cost. It relies on those in the community to step forth and delegate the morning breakfasts.

References

Breakfast Club of Canada. (2014). Retrieved February 8, 2016 from http://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/

Sirolli, E. (2012).  Want to Help Someone? Shut Up and Listen. https://www.ted.com/talk/ernesto_sirolli_want_to_help_someone_shut_up_and_listen?laguage=en

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474–486.

Rampersaud, G.C. (2009). Benefits of Breakfast for Children and Adolescents: Update and Recommendations for Pratictioners. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 3(2), 86-103.