Hello fellow classmates, welcome to our team blog!  Before we dive into our team goals and aspirations in this course we would like to take a moment to introduce ourselves individually to demonstrate the unique aspects that make our group so great!

Thea Sturdy:  I’m a 3rd year agroecology student. I am super excited to work alongside the Little Mountain Riley Park Neighborhood Food Network to help enrich food culture for the residents of LMRP!

Sylar Ju: I am a 4th year food market analysis student with a fondness for tasting seafoods. I’m also caring about the development of global seafood production .

Kelsey Dosanjh: I am a fourth year dietetics student who has a joy for sports, enjoys gardening and volunteering at outpatient clinics in my spare time.  

Joanne Labrador: I am a 4th year food science student with a passion for making food. I enjoy developing new dishes using local and seasonal ingredients.

Josh Ling: I am a 3rd year food nutrition and health student. My greatest interest is cooking food and serving it to others. But knowing the nutritional background of the food I am feeding is extremely important to me as well.

Joey Chen: I am a 3rd year Food and Nutritional Health student with great interest in foods and sciences. I love creating and tasting food and finding out about the sciences that is behind it.

Our team is made up of students from a variation of specialties, we are excited to work together and see what we can achieve using our distinct skill-sets. From LFS 350, we wish to accomplish team unity and cohesiveness as well as enhance our ability to reach out into our community and make a substantial impact. It will be great to hone in on our research skills then be able to apply this new found knowledge into something concrete and visible in our community.

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What appealed to us about the “Blueprint for the Mini Food-Hub in Little Mountain-Riley Park” is that it was something none of us have had much experience with but we’re all intrigued by what steps would need to be taken to create a sustainable food hub in a small community (see image above for a draft of what it may look like). We hope to create a plan that is long term and maintainable by community groups so that this hub lasts for many generations to come. The two main objectives for this project are to define a mini food-hub model and then create operational procedures for their community garden, both of which we are hoping to get more clarity on once we meet our community partner. We will be able to interact with the UBC Community Engagement Librarian to find gardening models and ultimately deliver a manual that the community can use to further develop their food-hub. By the end of this project we hope to have created achievable and realistic contributions that this community can use to create a sustainable, affordable and nutritious mini food-hub. We are also looking forward to their Sustenance Festival they are holding in October to further educate ourselves on their intentions with the gardens …we hear there is a beekeeping center too! 

So far our team has been working out logistical issues and are in the process of delegating tasks. Everyone has been contributing ideas and vocalizing any concern which is a great way to begin this project. Ernesto Sirolli’s TED talk showed that if you don’t ask questions you will never fully understand what someone wants, we think this is applicable not only to our community partner but also to other individuals in our team. We intend to approach everyone we speak to with respect to discover the core goal they are in search of. In the words of Sirolli “the most important thing is passion, you can give a person an idea but if they don’t want to do it they won’t”, we thought this was a powerful message that is applicable not only to understanding the community partners needs so they will be happy with the results but also in ensuring everyone in our group is heard. Working together using asset-based community development approach and using everyone’s strengths will allow us to explore what Little Mountain Riley Park has of value and expand on that to give them a sustainable mini food-hub.  We will be emphasizing internal growth and limiting the use of external sources as a way to improve their gardens, local growth encourages togetherness and develops clarity so they can have one united goal.  

Thanks for stopping by our blog, stay tuned for more blog posts in the future!
Group 10

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