Desserts + Healthy + Easy = IMPOSSIBLE?
Not really. Desserts can be healthy, easily prepared, and loved by children. This is what our project is all about.
Our project is in collaboration with our community partner Gordon Neighbourhood House located on the west side of Vancouver. At Gordon Neighbourhood House, they strive to improve the lives of a community of 400 people living around them through activities and services offered throughout the year. GNH uses food as an outreach to connect with the community as well as fill the growing need caused by food insecurity. They use food to facilitate community building and improve access to nutritious food. They recognize that all people have the right to food. Our project aims to plan and execute food literacy workshops to introduce healthy, flavourful desserts for the children in the out of school care (OSC) program.
Why this project?
The idea of healthy desserts holds opportunities for creativity, interactive learning, and for application of classroom knowledge and skills into real life. Our youth are an important group of individuals in the community that have the potential to carry forward nutritional knowledge to the next generation. Our project will take a proactive approach to fostering healthy habits and effective nutritional education. We all have an interest in working with children as well as in nutrition and this project perfectly combines both of those passions. Our interactive workshop, including food preparation, is a practical approach to contribute to the food literacy of youth. Desserts are a preferred food by this age group (and adults as well) and will create more interest and involvement by the kids!
Our interests
All our group members are in the Food, Nutrition and Health program at UBC, so we are all interested in topics related to human nutrition (and we all love desserts). Learning nutrition is not only important for ourselves, but also in helping others improve their health status, raise their nutritional awareness, as well as to find new alternatives to traditional foods that are simple, nutritious and tasty. We are excited to interact with the children while we apply our in-class knowledge to our workshop.
Our goals
In this project, we look forward to gaining skills and experience in conducting food literacy workshops specifically with youth. This will be beneficial for future career opportunities in raising nutritional awareness in the community. We also aim to gain nutritional knowledge specific to the age group we are working with as well as the area of desserts and sweets and recipe development.
Project objectives
Our project aims to plan and execute food literacy workshops to introduce healthy, flavourful desserts for the children in the out of school care (OSC) program at Gordon Neighbourhood House. We intend to develop 1-2 healthy dessert recipes that the children will be able to make, enjoy and have as an after school snack. We also plan to provide printed recipes of the desserts so the children can take them home and prepare it with their families. We want the kids to have fun making these healthy foods and hopefully, their enthusiasm and new knowledge of cooking will be passed along to their friends and families.
First impressions
GNH has a clear food philosophy that aims to contribute to food justice as well as implement the concept of asset-based community development. We love the idea of contributing to an organization that emphasizes food justice within their community. GNH programs and projects reflect the needs and characteristics of West End residents and neighbourhood which includes food related projects.
Similar to what Ernesto stated in his TED Talk, it is important to stop and listen to those we are aiming to help. Neighbourhood houses, like the one we are partnering with, are huge facilitators and leaders in building relationships within the community and it is important that we engage ourselves in a modest yet meaningful way. Contribution comes from all members of the community and leadership should be distributed. GNH utilizes their human resources, land, and community support to implement their projects focusing on what everyone has to offer, rather than what is offered by external sources. As a group we were inspired by the way Joey described their events. GNH strives to encourage an uplifting, fun and exciting environment by using games, music and supplemental activities. GNH programs go against the stigma of how people view poverty; instead they use their resources to provide for those in their community and give individuals the respect they deserve.