We must admit, when we first began to look at the details of our project we all felt overwhelmed by the sheer scope of it. It appeared to be asking us to cover an awful lot of ground in a very strict time period. Individually, we all freaked out a little bit and then got together and calmed each other down….slightly! Going into our first meeting with our community partner, we were still a little daunted and pretty confused.

However, our fear subsided during our meeting with Lena (from CityStudio) and Leslie (from the City of Vancouver) and we all left with a sense of relief. The two of them were able to break everything down and give us a clear understanding of what we are hoping to accomplish and gave us some helpful ideas as to how to go about it. We all worked together to come up with a solid strategy for our project. There was some debate over what our focus should be and which approach would be the most beneficial in the long run. Over the past week, we have gone back and forth, but we have now settled on what we feel is the most efficient approach.

We have begun to break down current and potential donors across Vancouver into big grocers, retail/restaurants, food processors and communities with active farming. We have also started grouping recipients into food banks, soup kitchens and miscellaneous non-profits.

Overall, we are feeling confident about our project. We realize there will be hurdles, but we are no longer living in fear! So far, our experience with community-based experiential learning has been positive and we are looking forward to discovering its level of effectiveness, as well as its limitations. We feel privileged to be working with CityStudio and the City of Vancouver. We very much admire and respect the work they have done so far and their combined vision for food recovery in Vancouver. It is clear that both Leslie and Lena are very invested and passionate about this project; we are inspired to work with them to make a difference.