A big thank you to everyone for following us on this adventure.  We can’t believe that it is all coming to an end and that this Monday will be our grand finale where we will be presenting our CBEL project to our instructor, peers, TAs, community partner guests, and peers.

We have created an infographic, which can be seen here to show everyone a visualization of what we have accomplished, our aim, our approach, our findings, and our take-home message.

 

Moments of Significance

What?

 

The last few weeks have been very hectic , as we proceeded to quickly wrap up calling the farmers on our directory  and met up with our community partner for the last time.  We tried contacting a few of the farmers who we were unable to reach during our first round of phone-calls (due to them not answering).   However, we were only successful in reaching a few farmers during the second round of phone calls.  We think that the lack of response from farmers may be related to it being the off-season for farmers in B.C., thus their farms are closed for the winter.

Reflecting back to  the beginning of term made us all realize how much work and time we have put into this project over the past few months.  We started out never having worked with one another before, which in itself brings some uncertainty to a project as you don’t know if the group dynamic will work well or not.  We also were not fully sure of what was expected of us, as this project has never been done before.  Where do we start?  How do we contact farmers? And how many should we contact? What is the end goal 3 months from now?  But before figuring that out, we needed to first get to know one another.  We all met one another for the first time outside of class at a small coffee shop next to our community partner’s office.  we sat down and planned what we were about to say to him, and the specific questions each group member would ask..  We brainstormed for almost 2 hours and quickly learned that we were all very opinionated people, with different understandings of what was expected of us from this project, so it took us a little bit of time to settle down and focus.  What gave us hope was having read Katherine Philip’s 2014 article in the Scientific American that stated that variant backgrounds forces people to work harder and diversity actually makes us smarter in developing new ideas and innovations (Philips, 2014).

Overcoming the first bump of figuring out how to work with one another’s strengths helped us understand our project more.  We also realized, after brainstorming together to prepare for our very first meeting with our community partner, was that it is important to listen.  After listening to Sirolli’s TED Talk, “Want to help someone?  Shut up and listen!” we realized it was important to just listen to what was being asked of us and what it was that our community partner needed help with (2017).  But we were also relieved when Robin informed us that this was also our project and we could shape or form it in any way that we want.  We felt at ease and confident leaving that first meeting, although, a little nervous.  As the weeks went on, we started to look for farmers and although we were able to gather a directory of 113 farmers, we are more than certain that there are many more farmers out there.  These 113 farmers were the ones that were found online, however, there are many more out there who may not list their farms online.  We also visited the two Winter Farmer’s Markets that are currently open and were able to hand out a few Breakfast Club of Canada business cards and explained to them what our project was about – which was a bit nerve racking. .  We slowly began calling farmers after visiting Robin a second time, where is demonstrated how to cold call a farmer.  We left that meeting feeling slightly nervous as we knew that each cold calling 20 farmers wouldn’t be as easy Robin had made it look.  But we were still very optimistic for what was lying ahead because visiting the local breakfast program as Kiwassa Neighbourhood House really showed us the reason why our project mattered.

So What?

We found that after our first visit to the farmer’s market we were not as successful as we had hoped it would be. So, we reflected on our approach and decided that maybe it would be better to go as a group and not just a single person.  Our logic was that maybe having just a single group member reach out to farmers  gave off the impression that we were not legitimate, and lacked confidence to persuade. But the following week, we found that by making this small change and having two of our group members visit another farmer’s market showed results.  We all started to call farmers and were finding it difficult to cold call them because no one was picking up the calls.  But we adjusted it by looking at our project as if we had failed, and working backwards (Freakonomics, 2015) we found that it was wise to adjust our calling times to ensure that we were calling at different times (i.e. weekdays versus weekends, or morning instead of afternoon).  A few farmers that we had originally received no answers from, later picked up the phone at another date when we called back.  We found that by working backwards from a failed project helped us realize where the potential to fail would occur.  By seeing this, we could avoid it.

Now What?

In the end, out of the 113 farmers we contacted, 18 were an affirmative yes to joining our project in donating local produce to the Breakfast Club of Canada schools, and 20 said maybe depending on their harvest. About 49% of the 113 farmers did not answer but, going forward, we feel that if we had more time, we would have been able to reach out to the remaining 45 farmers.  Perhaps, reaching them at a different time, visiting them in person, or emailing them prior to contacting them via phone would show more results.

Final Thoughts

We hope that our project has helped the Breakfast Club of Canada with creating a lasting relationship between school breakfast programs and local farmers in B.C.. The directory that we created over the past few months, of B.C. farmers who are willing to donate to their breakfast programs, was the very first step taken towards forming this relationship. Looking forward, we are excited to see how future groups build upon what our groups has accomplished! We were so fortunate to be able to visit a local breakfast program and were amazed by the dedication of the volunteers at the program.  We really hope that our project is able to help provide more predictable, nutritious and diverse breakfast foods to vulnerable students students and families participating in the breakfast programs in B.C.!  With the help of the local farmers, the students and families who visit the breakfast programs will have access to local produce with high levels of nutrients.

Thank you to everyone for following us on this journey!  Most of all, thank you to Carrie, our T.A. for her tremendous support and help along the way!  As well as, our instructor, Will and our community partner, Robin for his quick and fast replies!

 

 

 

 

 

References

Freakonomics. (2015, May 20). Failure Is Your Friend: A Freakonomics Radio Rebroadcast [Audio file]. Retrieved from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/failure-is-your-friend-a-freakonomics-radio-rebroadcast/

Philips, K. W. (2014, October 1). How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

Sirolli, E. (2017, January 24). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! Retrieved from TED Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM

As you all recall, last week, we had an adventure and met up in the freezing snow to see our community partner, Robin.  A lot has happened since then and this week has been filled with many more adventures!  We visited a breakfast program under the Breakfast Club of Canada and was able to see why our project matters.  Visiting the breakfast program made us realize the importance of connecting local farmers to schools and the difference it would make to the breakfast program.  Children and families attending the breakfast program would be able to enjoy a larger variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as, learn about what is grown locally here.

Weekly Objectives

February 27th-March 3rd

• Continue cold-calling farmers from the directory on Google Drive
• Visit the Nat Bailey Farmer’s Market on March 4th
• Submit a revised draft of the 2nd blog post by March 5th

Achievements

We have made good progress with calling the farmers and visiting the Farmer’s Market this past Saturday.  The weather was strange on Saturday; hailing midway while we were walking around the Farmer’s Market! At the market, we were able to connect with several vendors and distribute a few of Robin’s business cards in the process. We were encouraged when one farm owner told us that they have been wanting to connect with a program like ours, and were willing to come on participate with our program right away!

March 6th-10th

• Visiting Kiwassa Neighbourhood House Breakfast Program, which serves the students who attend Tillicum Community Annex, on March 6th
• The check-in meeting  with Robin on March 3rd  was postponed to March 6th

 

Achievements

We met with Robin on Monday and visited a breakfast program held at the Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, which serves the students at Tillicum Community Annex.  The program opens Monday to Friday at  8:00 a.m. and ends at 8:55 a.m. All students are welcome and parents or guardians  are encouraged to bring their children to the breakfast program.  We had the pleasure of helping by cutting the fruits and serving some breakfast.  Typically on  Mondays, the breakfast program serves a simpler breakfast compared to the rest of the week, consisting of healthy cereal options with milk, fresh fruit, and yogurt and fruit smoothies.  There are no hot items on Monday’ s menu, because the facility is closed on the weekends, and there is not enough time to prepare more extravagant breakfast options. , The menu for the rest of the week however, consists of  egg sandwiches, pancakes, oatmeal, French toast, etc. all with the option of seasonal fruit.

 

Moment of Significant Change

During our tutorial session, our T.A. had us graph what our Moment of Significant Change was thus far into our project. Through graphing our emotions vs. time we came to realize  how similar all of our group members were feeling throughout the different stages, good and bad, of our project.  We noticed that we all started off on a ‘high’, feeling really good about how our project would unfold. However, low feelings have emerged as we have progressed through this project. Drawing this graph allowed us to collectively reflect on why we were feeling this way and identify areas we can build upon. We realized that one of the reasons why we were feeling uncertain about our project was due to the initial phone calls and visits to the local Farmer’s Markets, which had turned out to be more difficult than we had expected. Many farmers were appearing to not be interested in donating some of their product or did not answer their phone. Although we experienced some unexpected setbacks with building relationships with farmers, we are still very optimistic moving forward.   After our meeting with Robin on March 6th, we are feeling a bit steadier, and we are starting to receive more interest from farmers via phone calls and farmers-market visits – possibly due to re-accessing our approaches of contact. It is important to participate in activities like this as a group in order to reflect on our feelings about the progress of the project. This is not as easily done without a structured platform. Moving forward, we will be sure to perform more group ‘check-ins’ to ensure everyone is on the same page, and to identify areas of our group dynamics that can be improved.   We also realize that as a group we need to realize that what works in other groups, might not always work for us, as seen with Dan Barber in “The American Life” podcast when he tried to recreate the best tasting goose liver following the exact process, it did not turn out well.  

 

The Graceful Dismount

So far, we are finding that this project did not go as smoothly as we thought it would, however, as a group, we were able to quickly find solutions to our problems by thinking of the project as “having already failed” (Freakonomics, 2015).  We are learning lots from the farmers that we are calling and from the Farmer’s Markets, as well as, Robin.  Robin has been a great community partner to have as he is supportive and has given us great tools to succeed.  In addition, our instructor and T.A., Will and Carrie have been great help in outlining what is expected of us.  We plan to continue with the way we are communicating as a group as it has been successful so far.  Stay tuned to see our final farewell!

 

References
Freakonomics. (2015, May 20). Failure Is Your Friend: A Freakonomics Radio Rebroadcast [Audio file]. Retrieved from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/failure-is-your-friend-a-freakonomics-radio-rebroadcast/

This American Life. (2011, December 2).  Latin Liver [Audio file].  Retrieved from https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/452/poultry-slam-2011?act=3

 

Our project is starting to roll and it is slowly
becoming a bigger roller coaster
ride than we initially thought!  We are still very excited
to see our end goal and
have prepared a proposal to guide
us along the way, available here.

Weekly Objectives

Week of January 16^th-January 27^th

• Brainstorm questions and research more about the Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC) to prepare for our first meeting with Robin on January 23^rd
• Questions discussed included:
  • How do schools become part of the BCC?
  • How is funding distributed for BCC schools?
  • What are the expectations and desired outcomes of this project?
  • What are the guidelines for finding farmers in B.C. to contact?  What criteria must they meet?  Any specific product or quantity?
  • What information do we need to gather from each farmer?
  • What should our final product look like?
• Complete the first blog post introducing our expectations and group members for January 27^th

Achievements
Completing the first blog assignment allowed us to further understand our project with The Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC) and establish our group’s goals, as well as learn more about each group members backgrounds and interests. We felt that our first meeting with Robin was successful as we left the meeting feeling more prepared and certain of what was expected of us!

Week of January 30^th-February 17^th

• Assign different regions of B.C. to each group member to research and locate farmers near BCC schools
• Learn the appropriate dialog to farmers through a cold call  
• Create a spreadsheet that organizes the farmers into different regions within B.C. and sent to Robin by February 17th
• Think of any questions that still need clarifications from Robin for our second meeting on February 3rd

Achievements

Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature had some plans of her own on Friday, February 3rd with the weather.  We all woke up to heavy snow, which made the commute to Robin’s office much longer than we had anticipated. Despite the lateness, we able to arrived safely. During this meeting, Robin went over the protocols with regards to calling the farmers.. He showed us a test call to a random farmer from the Farmers’ Directory.  Before our meeting, we were apprehensive about cold calling farmers. But after Robin’s successful demonstration, we were put at ease.

After the meeting, we decided to divide the work up,  researching and finding farmers to add to our GoogleDoc directory by Friday, February 17th and to send the list to Robin for suggestions.  Using the map provided to us by Robin, which indicated the location of all the schools supported by the Breakfast Club of Canada in B.C., we grouped the school clusters and found farms nearby.  We completed this task successfully (found a total of 123 farms) and sent it over to him by the deadline.  It was a bit difficult to categorize the farms and decide on what were breakfast appropriate foods.  For us, when we hear the word “breakfast,” the first image that comes to mind are waffles with bacon or sausage and eggs, and maybe some fruits.  Considering this time of the year, a lot of what is being grown is squash and mushrooms and both are not very breakfast friendly foods (breakfast friendly foods in our opinion are foods that require very little preparation in the morning). However, after further discussion as a group, and recalling our conversation with Robin, we decided to include the farmers that would have more breakfast appropriate foods available later in the year (such as fresh fruits).  

Week of February 20^th-March 3^rd

• Start calling the farmers by regions to see if they are interested in potentially donating some of their products to local schools
• Visit two local Farmers’ Market to hand out Breakfast Club of Canada cards and connect with farmers, using the B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit as an incentive to donate to BCC schools

Achievements

We are still in the process of calling farmers to see if they are interested in donating any of their produce to any of the local Breakfast Club of Canada schools that are near them.  We plan to have contacted roughly half of the farmers on our directory  by March 2nd in order to show Robin what we have completed thus far and to address any questions or concerns that have come up during the contacting process, for our third meeting on March 6th.

We visited one of the two Farmer’s Market that is still currently open is Hastings Park and spoke to some of the local farmers. We mentioned the newly implemented B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit and left them with a BCC business card to contact Robin if they were interested in pursuing the program.  A few of the farmers were receptive, however, will need some time to think about it.  Hopefully we will hear back from them soon!

What?
For our second meeting, although it was very chaotic in the morning trying to maneuver through the traffic and transit in the snow, we still made it there alive! The meeting went well, however, as the weeks go by, we are starting to feel uncertain and anxious about our first calls to the farmers.  Robin made it look very easy to cold call a farmer and have them provide their contact information. Which led us feeling very optimistic about the process. Unfortunately that optimism was met with the reality of our first few calls. The farmers that have been contacted either didn’t answer or not interested in donating their products.  In addition, one of our group member’s meeting with the Farmer’s Market farmers did not go as well as we had hoped, and many were hesitant to give their contact information, however we hope that with the Breakfast Club of Canada cards that were handed out to them, they would be able to reach out soon.  Even though, these hurdles seem discouraging, we are hopeful we can overcome them as we still have over a hundred more farmers to contact, and a great support team from our community partner  Robin, our instructor Will, and our teaching assistant Carrie!

 

So What?
Our first few calls to farmers and attending the Farmer’s Market did pose as hurdle for our group, leaving us feeling a bit discouraged and more uncertain of the final outcome of our project. However,  as Tim Harford explains in his TED Talk of a pianist with a broken piano,“messes can inspire creativity,”.  In the TED talk, the pianist overcame this barrier and it led them to be more creative, in the end, having a successful tour.  This talk also showed us that the uncertainty we are seeing with our initial hurdles is a good thing as messes and uncertainty forces us to focus and pay more attention, building to our learning and expand our creativity (Harford, 2016). In relation to our first few calls not going according to plan, we forced ourselves to really reassess how we were approaching farmers in the phone calls. We agreed that we need to be more confident and positive when speaking with the farmers, as this is an organization that we believe in as well. This is an opportunity for our group to leave a lasting impression with farmers and hopefully contribute to a decline in students hunger prior to starting their first class in the morning.

Now What?

We plan to use problem solving strategies that incorporate our small “messes”, to re-evaluate our approaches on how we were calling the farmers (i.e. calling them during the week as suppose to the weekends). As for the farmers at the Farmer’s Market, we plan to visit a larger Farmer’s Market as a group to introduce our project and how the B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit would be an incentive to them. We hope that by attending the Farmer’s Market as a group, this would show the farmers that we care about this project. To help us with figuring out how to overcome these hurdles, we plan to use a pre-mortem as described in the Freakonomics’ “Failure is Your Friend” podcast.  A pre-mortem is when we assume that the project has failed and we retrace the steps to see where the project would fail. By doing this, it can help us reduce any over-confidence that we have and will increase participation from our group mates who have not expressed any ideas yet (Freakonomics, 2015).

Upcoming Objectives
Our upcoming objectives include contacting all the farmers in the following regions by March 2^nd, 2017:

• Abbotsford
• Aldergrove, Surrey, Burnaby, Delta, Matsqui, Sicamous, Summerland
• Chilliwack, Maple Ridge, Langley, Mission, Agassiz
• Quesnel, Prince George, Vanderhoof, Fort Steele, Willow River, Fort George, Grand Forks, Chase, Merritt
• Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, Okanagan, Westbank, Salmon Arm, Armstrong
• Nanaimo, Parksville, Salt Spring, Courtenay, Ladysmith, Nanoose Bay, Saanich, Victoria, Lantzville

To Visit the Nat Bailey Farmer’s Market as a small group by March 11^th, 2017

Strategies to Achieve Them

In total, there are 6 regions with 20 farms total, each member in the group will be responsible for contacting the 20 farms in the region, which they have signed up for on March 2nd.  As some of these regions are considered “long distance calling,” we have asked group members who have Canada-Wide calling on their phone plans to kindly take regions that require “long distance calling.”  Calling will be done individually at their convenience.  However, since this needs to be completed by the end of the day on March 2nd, we will not be running into the trouble of calling the farmers on the weekends when they might be busy with their families.

As the Nat Bailey Farmer’s Market is only once a week on Saturdays, we hope to visit them on March 4th or March 11th. We will be deciding this together on our Whatsapp Group Chat of who is available to attend.

Stay tuned to see how our adventure is going!  We are all very excited that the project is starting to get rolling!

 

References
Freakonomics. (2015, May 20). Failure Is Your Friend: A Freakonomics Radio Rebroadcast [Audio file]. Retrieved from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/failure-is-your-friend-a-freakonomics-radio-rebroadcast/

Hartford, Tim. (2016, January 17). How Messy Problems Can Inspire Creativity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_j_kw_jZQ&feature=youtu.be.

“Serving students a healthy, balanced breakfast helps them develop better social skills and makes them more inclined to learn.”

– Isabelle Huot, PhD in Nutrition

Who are we?  What are our interests?
Hello Everyone! Welcome to our Breakfast Club blog as we document the adventures we encounter with our community partner , the Breakfast Club of Canada.  We are a group of students enrolled in a course called Land, Food, and Community II (LFS 350) at the University of British Columbia.  This core course gives us the learning opportunity to become citizens, professionals, and leaders who understand the opportunities and challenges when creating a regional, national and global food system that is ecologically, socially and economically sustainable (Land, Food, and Community II, 2017).  Every year, students from LFS 350 are offered the opportunity to choose which community partner to pair up with.  A community partner or organization in our case is defined as an organization that exists in the community to help with food security, either by providing free meals, growing crops, or indicating where an individual can access food through food asset maps.  These community partners and organizations range greatly, from the Breakfast Club of Canada to a trip to Galiano Island, you can check them out here.  We have been offered the opportunity to partner with the Breakfast Club of Canada, non-profit organization to bolster food security in our communities. Our team emerge from diverse backgrounds, some grew  up in the Lower Mainland and others abroad. We are also from different walks of life, some of us are in our 2nd year, some in our 3rd, and one in our last!  Diversity makes us smarter and is seen to invoke new innovations and new ideas as Katherine Philips writes in her 2014 article for the Scientific American.  Philips (2014) states this variant in backgrounds will force us to work harder, which also means we will have a diverse way of tackling problems that arise and ultimately gain new perspectives and benefit as a team.   Our interest encompass the utilizing of our classroom knowledge,  working with organizations to increase food literacy among children. This includes  building relationships with local and regional farmers, and to teach children where food root  from and how much is produced locally in British Columbia.  With this project, we hope to attain a broader understanding of food justice within our community, and build stronger characters as a team. So come on board with us on this journey as we connect local farmers to local schools!

What are our goals?
Our goal is to form relationships between local farmers and the schools under the Breakfast Club of Canada. We will be inviting farmers to contribute locally farmed resources as a mean of promoting healthy eating for children in these breakfast programs. Last year, the Government of British Columbia passed the B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit, which allows for farmers to receive 25% of their fair market value of food product donated as tax credit (Government of British Columbia, 2017).  With this, we hope to encourage farmers to donate any surplus of food product to local schools.  We also realize the cost that accompany these sorts of donations, such as labour and transportation, however we hope that by promoting the new B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit, it will help alleviate the burden from our farmers while increasing accessibility of nutritious food for school students (2017). In doing so, it addresses food justice issues for farmers, that is not often emphasized (Allen, 2008), and food security issues that impact schools.

Why the Breakfast Club of Canada?
We chose the Breakfast Club of Canada because the values in which the organization was built upon,  aligned very much with ours.  We  believe  it is important to cultivate healthy students, and we all know the importance of having a healthy breakfast. Breakfast is brain food, which can promote positive behaviour and better concentration, thus improve performance in school. Knowing that almost one million children across Canada do not have access to a proper breakfast before starting school each morning is very concerning (Breakfast Club of Canada, 2016).    Their mission to provide the necessary equipment and funding to schools to start breakfast programs draws us  to be a part of it.

Our project objectives
Following our project summary as outlined on our class website, our project objectives include:

▪   Supporting the present ongoing efforts to bolster food security for our communities and ensure that we are able to reach the greatest number of children possible (Land, Food, and Community II, 2017).

▪   Contacting farms to build relationships, to advise prospective partners on suitable foods, investigate transportation logistics, and to develop systems to track value of product received (2017).

In addition to the objectives outlined above, we also hope to focus on the bigger picture of building relationships with local and regional farms in the community to help children at school with hunger.  We hope that with our diverse group in backgrounds, that we can achieve these objectives and bring everything from our other classes to the mix.

Our community organization
The Breakfast Club of Canada started out as Club des petits déjeuners du Québec in 1994 and then merged with Breakfast Clubs of Canada 5 years ago (Breakfast Club of Canada, 2016).  It is now a Canada-wide non-profit with 10 years in British Columbia already.  Its mission is to nurture and develop healthy students and giving them an equal chance of success; one breakfast at a time.  The Breakfast Club of Canada helps feed 163,000 students everyday with schools in Western Canada, Ontario, Quebec, and Eastern Canada (2016).  The amount of students that they are able to feed on a daily basis in the last 22 years is astonishing and we can’t wait to be a part of this!

Our first impressions
Before our first meeting with Robin Ryan, our community partner contact from the Breakfast Club of Canada, we were all feeling anxious about the exact details of the project, what it was, and how we could help.  However, to prepare ourselves for the meeting, we all sat down together to go over questions we had for him for some clarification. From our first meeting with Robin, we learnt that food insecurity is a big issue but to start with the first meal of the day can make a big difference.  Often times, students who start their day off with no breakfast, are generally those who also do not have access to a healthy lunch or dinner.  Watching Ernesto Sirolli’s Ted Talk helped us all understand how to be better listeners to one another in the group, as well as, to Robin.  It was a good reminder that we should not go into this project with the mindset that we are a team of experts, but rather as a team of learners ourselves, invited to work in collaboration on our ABCD (asset based community development). Our first meeting with Robin turned out to be very insightful and it gave us a more solid understanding of what the project is and how to approach it.  It was helpful to meet with him because we are all geared towards Type A personalities that wanted to get started immediately. But from the meeting, we learned that it is important to pace ourselves.  Although it was a bit of a challenge, we followed  Sirolli’s advice: we walked into the meeting with attentive ears to find out what the organization and Robin would like us to help with and gave them our utmost respect (Sirolli, 2017).  This was helpful as we were struggling not to get ahead of ourselves and already discouraged by the challenges that could potentially arise, such as to figure out the transport system between  the local farmers and all the schools.  From the meeting, we were assured  that it was a lot simpler than we had thought, that the  local farmers we connect with would be in close proximity to the schools that would benefit, making it convenient for both the farmers and the schools.

With our project, we hope to bring focus to the assets that already exist within the community, by recognizing the potential strengths of the farmers, rather than nitpicking what is lacking (Mathie & Cunningham, 2010).  This way, the relationships formed can become sustainable and is community-driven (2010).  As Sirolli pointed out,  we want  to help where help is needed, not impose our expertise on others.  Through this experience, we will be able to recognize  food justice issues relevant to the specific groups of people, community, and time (Dixon, 2013).  So journey with us as we jump on board this project, connecting local farmers to their  schools. As with any project we may encounter unexpected challenges, such as only finding a small number of farmers who are interested in partnering with the Breakfast Club of Canada schools. We also realize that the transportation of fruits and vegetables to schools might be an issue, however, we have been reassured that this is a challenge we are hoping to happen as that means there is a large donation.  Our main challenge might be the small number of farmers who are willing to participate, however, after seeing Robin show us tips on how to contact farmers, we are feeling a bit more prepared and ready to start sailing on this journey!  Furthermore, we are prepared to overcome these challenges by working cohesively as a team and with Robin,  to benefit the health of  the students who are lacking  a simple, nutritious breakfast every morning.   

Through the guidance of  the Breakfast Club, we will give the students more opportunities to  learn and grow, while reaping the benefits of a variety of locally grown B.C. fruits and vegetables. Stay tuned to see where this journey takes us!

 

Introductions

Angel Cao
I’m a 2^nd year student majoring in Food, Nutrition, and Health, and applying into Dietetics.  I am aiming to incorporate the relationship between local farmers, children, and dietitians into the Canadian school food program, much like what is already in progress in France. Having worked in the pharmacy setting for over 5 years with experience in retail, long-term care, and hospital. I witness the rise in chronic illness in correlation of the obesity rate in Canada, my direction of focus shifted to preventative care.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
I chose the Breakfast Club of Canada because the values and goals the club has for children’s health align with what I hope to improve on as a future dietitian.
What do you hope to achieve after this project?
I want this project to be the stepping stone and experience, giving me insight on what I can look forward to in the future.

Aysan Vahabzadeh Memari
I’m a 4^th year student majoring in Food, Nutrition and Health (FNH), and I am planning on pursuing a pharmacy degree after graduation. I am currently working in a Pharmacy as a pharmacy assistant and teach math to students with disabilities. I am planning to combine what I have learned from FNH courses (improving nutritional status and maintaining a healthy diet) with my pharmacy knowledge (medication) to help the people that are diagnosed with diabetes in future. In addition to working in a pharmacy and tutoring math, I enjoy playing violin, hiking, reading, and spending time with my friends and family.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
Although the number of food insecure people in my home country, Iran, is higher than in Canada, we never had organizations that provide food and breakfast for students in different schools.  Therefore, I chose this project to learn more about the organization of breakfast clubs, and how they prepare food for students.

What do you hope to achieve after this project?
After this project, I hope to understand the meaning of community food security.  As well as, to learn how to listen and collaborate with our community partner and group members in order to make sustainable and long-term impact in our community.

Elizabeth Ngo
I’m a 3^rd year student majoring in Food, Health, and Nutrition.  I really love eating and trying new cuisines as I feel that you can learn a lot from a culture through their food.  In my spare time, I enjoy taking walks around the city to see different neighbourhoods and to try new restaurants. I love that I can take the knowledge I learn in class and apply it to everyday life. And I am excited to be working with the Breakfast Club of Canada to help more children get the breakfast that they need to start their day at school.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
I chose the Breakfast Club of Canada because I have experienced first-hand the benefits of a healthy breakfast in the morning.  Growing up in an inner-city school, I benefitted from a breakfast and hot lunch program.  I remember fond memories of waking up and getting to school early with my brother to have breakfast, every day we would look forward to a new breakfast item.  Some days we had French toast, waffles, pancakes, English muffins, or oatmeal with a glass of milk or juice.  I never realized how important and how fortunate I was to have breakfast every day at school, until I moved schools and had to now frantically figure out what breakfast was in the morning.  My school motto was also “Breakfast is Brain Food” and whenever a student was acting out, our teacher would always recommend that their parents take them to the breakfast program in the morning.  From what I can recall, it seemed that that worked and there were not many students who were kept after school for detention.

What do you hope to achieve after this project?
I hope to understand more about food security and how I can help to make it better.  I also hope to raise awareness of the benefits of having breakfast in the morning for children.  And to benefit from the diversity of my LFS 350 group, as well as, to gain knowledge from our community partner.

Natalie Cryderman
I’m a 3^rd year Food, Nutrition, and Health student and my interests are running, skiing, baking, and travelling.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
We are told from a young age that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is especially true for young children, whose brains and bodies are still developing rapidly. A nutritious breakfast affects all aspects of a child’s life; a well-nourished child is more likely to perform well in school and participate in after-school activities. As a child, I was fortunate enough to never have to worry about whether or not I would have breakfast on the table in the morning. I was able to foster a positive relationship with food at a young age, which is when my passion to learn more about food initially sparked,  and I believe that it is vital for all young children to experience this relationship. I chose to work with BCC as my community partner with the hope that my efforts will help to make this a reality.

What do you hope to achieve after this project?
The BCC has already opened up my eyes to the severe amount of food insecurity children across Canada are experiencing daily. I am looking forward to working with the BCC and connecting their schools to numerous farmers across BC. I hope to build a lasting relationship between the two, which provides healthful food to children and supports farmers, while reducing food insecurity in Canada.

Danelle Kvalheim
I am a 3^rd year student majoring in Food, Nutrition and Health at UBC. I am tremendously interested in how the production, marketing, processing, and consumption of food impacts our individual health, and the health of our community. I am passionate about healthy eating, and leading a lifestyle of wellness.  In my spare time, I enjoy playing tennis, trying new recipes, learning new languages, and working on sewing projects.

I am a certified tennis instructor by Tennis Canada, and have spent the last four years teaching tennis. I have had the opportunity to coach people from all walks of life, however, I have spent most of my coaching time teaching students from the tender age of three all the way to eighteen. I especially enjoy teaching fundamental tennis skills to children who may have never picked up a racket before. Their zeal for life, and enthusiasm for learning is infectious.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
My interest for the Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC) stems from my passion of healthy eating, and teaching tennis to children. Through coaching, I witness firsthand the importance of a healthy breakfast, and how going without can be detrimental to the child’s physical, social, and mental wellbeing. I am very privileged, and excited to be apart of this team working alongside the BCC this term.

What do you hope to achieve after this project?
From our combined efforts, I trust that we will be able to create and foster meaningful connections between the BCC, local farmers in our community, and the schools that they surround. I believe that the completion of this project will provide each of us with numerous skills that will be extremely useful in projects to come, as well as in the workforce. I hope that our project and blog will garner the attention of those who have not yet heard of the BCC, and acknowledge the importance for grade school students to have a nutritious breakfast, no matter their socio-economic background. I am optimistic for what we plan to achieve this term. I look forward to working hard alongside the team and the BCC Western Canada division, to create connections, and engage with the local community to create a positive impact in the lives of children all over BC, one breakfast at a time.

Michelle Fan
I’m a 2^nd year student majoring in nutritional sciences.  I’ve always been interested in the role nutrition plays in our health because we are what we eat. My interests are exercising, shopping, and hanging out with friends.

Why did you choose the Breakfast Club of Canada?
For the low-income population who may not be fortunate enough to be able feed themselves three meals a day, this program could potentially change their lives and help minimize their food insecurity issues.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So by providing these people the first meal of the day, it could not only satisfy their body needs but also help them set a positive outlook of the day.

What do you want to achieve after this project?
I want to be to learn about the different determinants that dictate the supply and demand chain and also what it takes to transport food from farms to distributors.  I hope to help more people who are experiencing food security receive the services that the program provides and also gain some insightful perspectives of different stakeholders.

References

Allen, P. (2008, June). Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and Human Values, 157-161.

Breakfast Club of Canada. (2016). Our Mission. Retrieved January 24, 2017, from Breakfast Club of Canada: http://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/the-club/our-mission/

Dixon, B. A. (2013). Learning to see food justice. Agriculture and Human Values, 175-184.

Government of British Columbia. (2017, January 24). B.C. Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit. Retrieved from Tax Credits: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/income-taxes/corporate/credits/farmers-food-donation

Land, Food, and Community II. (2017). Breakfast Club of Canada-Connecting to Local Farms. Retrieved from Community Projects: http://lfs350.landfood.ubc.ca/community-projects/2017-winter-projects/breakfast-club-of-canada-connecting-to-local-farms/

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2010, July 1). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474-486.

Philips, K. W. (2014, October 1). How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

Sirolli, E. (2017, January 24). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! Retrieved from TED Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM