Before food can be placed beautifully on a table for sale, there needs to be a farmer(s) providing care, love and observation to its crops. We are like the farmers who are collecting and analyzing data to properly feed the Artisan Farmers’ Market to make it grow and prosper.
Project proposal: Final Proposal
Overview of Weekly Objectives and Achievement
| Weekly Objectives | Achievement |
| Week 1: Community Project Pick | Preferred projects were assigned |
| Week 2:
Meet the group Get to know each other’s strengths and find the overall team dynamics Create a Group Blog Create Terms of Reference |
Got to know one another and found our team dynamics through our strengthens and weaknesses. Completed the Term of Reference through the previous discussion of our capabilities and strengths Created a team blog which is accessible by everyone Agreed upon a communication channel to accommodate all members: WhatsApp and Google Docs |
| Week 3:
Meet with community partner Discuss the project’s goals and objectives |
Explored and understood the Artisan Farmers’ Market’s past marketing strategies. Listened to the feedback from the General Manager and the current issues affecting the Market.
Brainstormed and drafted our project objectives and approach to quantitative research based on the material presented during the meeting. |
| Week 4:
Blog post due |
Wrote about our personal connection as to why we chose the Artisan Farmers’ Market for our project. |
| Week 5:
Proposal Create survey |
The project proposal was submitted with sample survey questions and our project schedule
A survey was created with questions focusing on grocery shopping habits and customer perception and awareness of Artisan Farmers’ Markets The demographics of North Shore had a large Persian Community and we created multiple copies of the survey in different languages to increase participation |
| Week 6
Meeting with Community Partner Completion of survey questions Distribution of Survey Survey People in the North and West Vancouver Areas |
Survey questions were finalized with feedback from the Community Partner
Transferred typed survey questions to Qualtrics for a formal display Contact various organizations in the North and West Vancouver Community to ask if they can distribute our survey or post our survey on their Facebook Page Collected 33 surveys in the North Vancouver area ( 17 at Victoria Park, 16 at Lonsdale Quay) Collected 30 surveys at Ambleside Park |
| Week 7
Blog Post due Proposal changes due Second surveying session in North Vancouver |
Identify Upcoming Objectives and Strategies to Achieve Them
After our second meeting with our community partner Tara, we finalized our survey and began setting objectives.
Week 6-7. In-person Surveying
Within the next few weeks, we aim to collect data through surveying in West and North Vancouver. Our plan is to survey near the Lonsdale Artisan Farmers Market at Lonsdale Quay as well as the near the Ambleside Artisan Farmers market on February 25, 2018. But, due to the projection of heavy snowfall during that period, the number of responses that we collect may be insufficient. If this is the case, we will adjust accordingly, and potentially have to set a date to survey in the future. We have also set our next surveying date to be March 3 at the Lonsdale location because the market is holding an event called “Seedy Saturdays” hosted by The Edible Garden Project. Our hope is that on March 3rd we will receive a significant number of responses from individuals that are familiar with the market, in order to better understand the market’s customer base. Our survey questions will allow us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the market.
E.g. Question: “If you do not attend the Artisan Farmers Market, why not?
- This question will help us identify some of the weaknesses of the market, and areas to improve.
- Our current objective is to acquire 100 survey responses across both West Vancouver and North Vancouver. Depending on how successful we are, we may need to schedule additional days for surveying, as well as find different locations to survey in. So far, we have contacted multiple libraries and community centres, but we have had no success in gaining permission to survey on their premises. This means we will need to either contact more organizations or focus on approaching people in public areas, in order to gather the majority of our responses.
Week 8. Facebook & Email Surveying
This week’s objective is to gather data electronically, using Qualtrics as our preferred research software. To achieve our objective, as mentioned, we will use Qualtrics to develop our survey, and to obtain a link that will be posted on the facebook pages of the Ambleside and Lonsdale Artisan Farmers’ Markets. In addition to social media, our Qualtrics survey will also be distributed via the Artisan Farmers Market newsletter.
Here is a rough draft of the post that will accompany the social media survey:
“Students from the University of British Columbia are partnered with the Artisan Farmers’ Market for a project to help the Market better understand its customer base and target market segments. The data collected will inform the Market on potential and existing customer needs and preferences as well as contribute to the development of new and effective marketing strategies. Please take the time to complete the survey, we would truly appreciate it.”
Reflection on a Significant Moment in this Course
Using Rolfe et al.’s (2001) reflective model, we can reflect on moments of significance that have occurred in the course so far by addressing three simple questions: What? So what? Now what?
What?
As we began to learn more about the issues faced by the Artisan’ Farmers’ Markets, we knew that it was crucial to its success to identify its customer base and that this would be achieved through conducting a survey. As a group, we were feeling nervous and overwhelmed with the idea of approaching people and asking them to take part in our survey; however, we were determined to reach our goal of collecting 100 survey results. We decided to split up into smaller groups in order to simultaneously target areas in North and West Vancouver, and efficiently collect a variety of responses. In addition, due to the personal deadline we set, we knew that we had to finish collecting the data before our next meeting with our community partner. Overall, it was a positive learning experience; however, it felt discouraging at times when members of the community refused to take part in our data collection.
So what?
After our first day of surveying people, we came to the realization that more experience and preparation is needed to perform the task effectively. Increasingly, we noticed that this is a skill that we have yet to learn in any classroom during our undergraduate degree. In the beginning, we were slightly too optimistic in our ability to collect data, as we expected larger numbers of people to respond. Additionally, due to our lack of experience, we were unsure about what surveying would be like and how members of the community would react to us. In hindsight, we should have put ourselves in their shoes and realized that some people are probably too busy to participate, instead of taking the rejections personally. In order to improve this situation and make it better, we realized that we could have divided up our group in a more strategic way, pairing those who have more experience with those who have less. Overall, this was a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience doing fieldwork and allowing us to apply our own skills and knowledge.
Now what?
As we continue to finish our task of surveying we strive to improve ourselves and to be more knowledgeable of the tasks at hand. In the future, we should be aware of patterns in the responses of our participants and record the situation that occurred when we were rejected. For example, if a person refused to participate in our survey, we should note the reasons, such as them being in a hurry, or if they were busy doing something else. Furthermore, as members in such a diverse group with numerous backgrounds and experiences, we should pay more attention to each member’s unique skills and utilize them in such a way to improve the overall process and outcome our project.
Conclusion
As we are preparing to head into the final week for this community project, we are thankful to have the opportunity to help our community partner raise awareness of the Artisan Farmers’ Market. This project has brought our attention towards the importance of food accessibility and availability and the role Artisan Farmers’ Market provides for the communities in North and West Vancouver. We look forward to presenting our findings and recommendations on Monday, March 26, 2018.
References
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. and Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.