Our Second Post: Project Report, Progress Update & Future Plans

Welcome and thank you for visiting our blog once again!

Throughout the past six weeks, we have been working collectively as a team, growing stronger everyday! We have been able to accomplish all of our proposed goals thus far by collaborating in an effective manner, while also holding each other accountable for their individual tasks. Although we have encountered a few obstacles, we have been able to overcome these difficulties, exemplifying our ability to be successful. We are excited to share our plans and future progress with you!

Our biggest achievements thus far are finishing our project proposal and making our first visits to the Gordon Neighbourhood House (GNH) Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) community lunch kitchen. Our proposal outlines our ideas and objectives for our Pay-What-You Can Community Lunch project with the Gordon Neighbourhood House. To read our project proposal click on this link: LFS 350 Proposal Group 16

In this blog post, we will be evaluating our current progress by presenting our objectives and achievements that we have set and accomplished thus far, as well as reflecting on a significant moment that we have experienced along our journey. We will also share our future objectives and how we plan to achieve them. All of this information is provided below in a detailed and organized description of our entire thirteen week project in a chronological fashion. We hope that sharing this information with the community will help other programs structure future initiatives. 


Weekly Objectives and Achievements

Week 1 (January 9th- 13th)

Objectives:

  • Meet and introduce ourselves to each other.
  • Contact our community partner to confirm our proposed meeting.
  • Research about the Gordon Neighbourhood House to increase our understanding of their mandate and objectives.
    • Prepare questions to ask our community partner.

Achievements:

  • Introduced ourselves and set individual roles. Established the best method to effectively communicate as a group throughout the entire project.
  • The GNH replied to our first email and confirmed our group meeting at the GNH on January 16th.

 

Week 2 (January 16th – 20th)

Objectives:

  • Visit our community partner to discuss direction of our project.  
  • Begin brainstorming ideas and divide up the tasks for the 1st blog post.
  • Introduce our group and project to the community through our blog.

Achievements:

  • Meeting with our community partner (Joey) enabled our team to eradicate uncertainties surrounding our project.
  • Joey exemplified the GNH’s goals, values, and achievements thus far, as well as how our intervention will assist them continuing their pursuit towards eliminating food insecurity and increasing food justice on West End Vancouver area.
  • Collaboratively established individual portions for the blog post that each member agreed was fair and attainable to have completed for next week.

 

Week 3 (January 23rd – 27th)

Objectives:

  • Complete and submit the 1st blog posting on January 27th.
  • Begin brainstorming how we will implement and evaluate a new menu plan, draft our ideas in for our project proposal.

Achievements:

  • 1st blog posting posted shared on January 27th.
  • Worked collaboratively to effectively complete the blog posting on time.
  • Our first group achievement enabled each of us to feel accomplished by completing the first formal written assignment for the term and become stronger as a team.

 

Week 4 (January 30th- February 3rd)

Objectives:

  • Complete revisions for our 1st blog posting due February 3rd to better convey our group’s expectations and goals for the project.
  • Create and divide tasks for project proposal report outline for February 6th.

Achievements:

  • Worked as a group to strengthen our 1st blog posting using the feedback we were given and successfully resubmitted on February 3rd.
  • Divided the tasks for project proposal evenly among all of our group members and submitted for feedback on February 6th.
  • Completed the project proposal report outline as a group.

 

Week 5 ( February 6th- 10th)

Objectives:

  • Submit final project proposal report for February 10th.
  • Complete the project proposal to solidify the structure of our project and our methods by February 10th.

Achievements:

  • Worked as a team in constructing our proposal report to ensure everyone had their individual opinion towards our project.
  • Completing this proposal as a group strengthened our team as a whole and allowed each member to have a better understanding of what our community project will entail.
  • Improved our understanding our community project and each team member’s strengths by completing the project proposal as a group.
  • Constructively utilized feedback from the February 6th review to significantly improve our report and hand in a finalized copy on time on February 10th.

 

Week 6 (February 13th – 17th)

Objectives:

  • Visit Gordon Neighbourhood House to gain a sense of the Wednesday Pay-What-You-Can lunch program.
  • Meet with the GNH chef, the GNH volunteers, and community members.
  • Establish a stronger understanding of how the Wednesday lunch program empowers the eradication of food insecurity in the surrounding community.

Achievements:

  • Two of our group members went to the Wednesday, February 15th, to familiarize themselves with the kitchen and the meal-serving procedures.
  • Familiarized ourselves with the kitchen, serving area, and community space at the GNH so we are aware of the kitchen procedures and protocols that we will need to observe during the cooking and serving our new menu plans.
  • Discussing with the volunteers exploited their passion and desire that they hold towards helping the surrounding community. We were able to witness first-hand how the Wednesday lunch program helps the community to eliminate food insecurity.
  • Shared and communicated with the rest of the team an update from our community partner and report on first experience in the GNH Wednesday Pay-What-You-Can lunch program.

 

Week 7 (February 20-24th  26th)

Objectives:

  • Visit the GNH to present our project proposal report to Joey and set up a meeting for next week.
  • Complete our 2nd blog posting and post on February. 26th.

Achievements:

  • Two more of our group members went to the Wednesday, February 22nd, to familiarize themselves with the kitchen and the meal-serving procedures.
  • Meeting scheduled for March 1st at the GNH to discuss the details of our proposal with our community partner.
  • Evaluated feedback from our final project proposal submission.
  • Evenly distributed the work among the group members for the 2nd blog posting. Everyone felt pleased with their individual work load.
  • Developed a stronger team unity by working constructively to ensure our 2nd blog posting was submitted on time on February 26th.

 

Week 8 (February 27th – March 3rd)

Objectives:

  •  Attend All group members attend March 1st meeting with our community partner, cook, and kitchen volunteers to ensure everyone’s ideas and views for the new menu implementation align.
  • Complete revisions for our 2nd blog posting due March 5th to convey the progress and future objectives of our project to the community.
  • Begin our 3rd blog posting due March 10.
  • Prepare for our intervention on March 8th at the GNH. Compile necessary ingredients for our proposed meal and print our surveys for the guests.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • Divide tasks required for blog 2 edits, and blog 3 writing and posting evenly between the group Ensure to divide the work evenly among all group members to function effectively in completing the revisions for the 2nd blog posting on time, while also ensuring  to ensure that the work is manageable for each group member in regards to the 3rd blog posting.
  • Create question list for collaborative meeting to clarify the logistics of our intervention. 
  • During March 1st meeting, finalize menu for our first cooking day, detailing what supplies are in stock, what will need to be purchased, and who will be in change of shopping.
  • To ensure our intervention runs smoothly and provides informative data:
    • Set up individual tasks throughout our group to ensure the required ingredients and tools are obtained.
    • Create question list for collaborative meeting to clarify the logistics of our intervention.
    • Construct a checklist to ensure that we are prepared for our intervention next week.
    • Discuss transportation and time of arrival, to ensure everyone in the group is accounted to arrive at the same time at GNH on March 8th.
    • Print surveys in advance and coordinate who will bring writing utensils to guarantee our data collection runs smoothly.  

 

Week 9 (March 6th- 10th)

Objectives:

  • Prepare and serve our meal on March 8th at the GNH.
  • Conduct our survey for the GNH guests.
  • Interview the chef, the volunteers, and the GNH community partners.
  • Complete our 3rd blog posting after our first menu change implementation visit to discuss our successes, moments of significant change and future objectives for our second visit  (due March 10).
  • Submit our 3rd blog posting on March 10th.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • Integrate feedback from collaborative meeting into our intervention plan.
  • Effective planning and organization is necessary towards facilitating a successful intervention. Each group member will have a specific task that will allow the intervention to go smoothly.
  • Designating particular tasks throughout our group will limit the amount of uncertainties we might encounter.
  • Discuss and collectively agree as a group to remain level-headed in high-stress situations to ensure our success.
  • Work collectively to finalize and submit our 3rd blog posting as a cohesive group.

 

Week 10 (March 13th – 17th)

Objectives:

  • Complete revisions for our 3rd blog posting due March 17th.
  • Compile our information and data gathered from our GNH community lunch intervention.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • Ensure that the work is divided evenly among group members to maintain team unity, fairness, and equality.
  • Submit revisions on time as a group.
  • Gather and organize all of our information into a folder.

 

Week 11 (March 20th – 24st)

Objectives:

  • Put all of the Compile information and data into excel and word documents  in order to be analyzed. for analysis of our implemented menu change’s success and shortcomings.
  • Interpret the information and data to identify if our meal may help the GNH to improve their Wednesday lunch programs.
  • Begin preparing our final project report, presentation, and infographic to share our project’s success and lessons with the community.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • As a group we must interpret the data and identify if our proposed meal can be sustainable for future meals.
  • We must send our detailed recipe to the GNH and future recipe suggestions, along with our results, in order to present our detailed information that describe the improvements and benefits of our meal.
  • To complete our final project report, presentation, and infographic all on time and to the best of our ability, we must develop an exceptional divided work plan that will ensure everyone has an even amount of work that they can finish in the allotted time.

 

Week 12 (March 27th – March 31st)

Objectives:

  • Divide tasks for the 4th blog posting to say farewell to our blog’s followers (due April 2nd).
  • Complete our infographic to effectively convey our project’s outcomes and prepare for our presentation on April 3rd.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • Reflect on our experiences and difficulties throughout this project both individually and as a group.
  • Identify key difficulties GNH community members face in regards to becoming food secure. Also, critically identify further improvements that can be attained at the GNH based on their assets.
  • Revise everyone’s progression in their individual work and ensure that everyone is meeting the proposed deadlines. Work as a group to function effectively in completing the final assignments.
  • Meet as a group to go over the logistics of the group presentation and practice presenting.

 

Week 13 (April 3rd – April 7th)

Objectives:

  • Submit and post our 4th and final blog posting on April 2nd.
  • Present our project and infographic on April 3rd to share our project and results with the community, sharing why our results matter and what we learned through our experiences completing the project.
  • Begin finalizing our final project report to submit on April 10th.

Strategies on how to achieve them:

  • Ensure all of our work is completed ahead of time to the best of our ability.
  • As a group hold each other accountable to be prepared for the presentation to ensure it goes smoothly.
  • Update each other on our progression for the final project report and ensure that editing is done a couple days ahead of time.

What?

Thus far our project has progressed smoothly with only exposing our group to a few hurdles that we have successfully overcome. Our community partner Joey expressed her preference that our group should split up into groups of two and visit multiple times due to the limited kitchen space. Also, she indicated that multiple groups will allow each of us to visit and familiarize ourselves with the other volunteers and get a sense of the kitchen before executing our planned meal.

One of the most significant difficulties we have encountered is coordinating around our busy schedules in order to split our visits to the Gordon Neighbourhood House. In the end, we managed to work around everybody’s schedule to choose the best weeks for pairs to visit. On February 15th and 22nd, members of our group visited the GNH to get a sense of the atmosphere of the Wednesday PWYC lunch program, as well as to meet the GNH volunteers and community members. From this we found out we could not all execute the planned meal on one day and it was suggested that three members of the team would implement the planned meal and three others make the sauces on a different day or after the lunch that can be used for future meals.

Group members (Tiffany and Yasaman) helping out during the Wednesday PWYC lunch on February 22nd!

PWYC dining set up

Sandwiches and wraps served during the lunch

Setting up for the community lunch!

Yum!


So What?

As told in the TED talk “How messy problems can inspire creativity” by Tim Harford (2016), we are told that uncertainty and messiness in situations can be greatly advantageous. Problems such as ours, that may seem messy and uncertain at first are to be appreciated as they provide us with the opportunity to be more attentive and focussed in particular situation. This higher level of attentiveness is key because it enables one to promote their learning, creativity, and achievement. In addition to this, Tim Harford (2016) identifies that a wider diversity in the individuals in the group further promotes a group’s success by harbouring a larger subset of ideas and inputs. We will benefit greatly by promoting everyone’s individual strengths.

Furthermore, Harford mentions the benefits of working with strangers.  He states that working with strangers enhances the quality of the results because it forces the group to work in a slower pace and put more effort in understanding the tasks at hand (Harford, 2016). This is an important piece of advice that we can benefit greatly from by learning on how to make things work, instead of stressing about why things did not work out the way we planned. So, as a diverse team where we all met through this project, we will benefit from better problem solving.

Also, by our several meetings from GNH, we gained better understanding of our project and how we are going to achieve our goals.


Now What?

Ernesto Sirolli mentions to achieve success, we must listen to the needs of others (2012). We plan to use this advice during our group meeting on March 1st with Joey and the Wednesday PWYC team. During this meeting we will discuss possible meal options and any limitations our community members anticipate. Working to incorporate so many opinions may create some “messiness,” but we hope, as Tim Harford suggests, that it will foster creativity and produce a more meaningful solution. It is our aim to develop a meal plan that the volunteers are excited about and believe is feasible and sustainable, as they will be the ones preparing it in the future. Also, it would be more attractive for the community members, who participate in this program every week.

Joey has also agreed to show us the kitchen’s pantry during our meeting in order for our group to be aware of what ingredients are available and which may need to be purchased. We will ensure to work effectively with Joey at our meeting by identifying the most suitable option to prepare and serve. Most importantly we will collaboratively plan our proposed meal at the group meeting with our community partner on March 1st, in order to constructively align with the GNH’s goals.

After conducting the meal on March 8th, we will ask guests to complete a survey and evaluate our meal. Furthermore, we will observe and interview our GNH community partners, the GNH chef, and volunteers. All of the information and data obtained from the survey, interviews, and observations will be reviewed and put into excel and word documents in order to be analyzed. This cross-analysis method will pinpoint if our proposed meal aligns with the preferences of the GNH community, as well as the goals of our community partner Joey and the GNH team. Interpreting this qualitative information will be significant by allowing our group to identify if our proposed meal is suitable to be implemented in future PYWC Wednesday lunches


We hope that you are just as excited as we are to conduct our project in the upcoming month! Stay tuned for our next update of our journey that will be available on March 17th.  Until next time! – Group 16


References

Harford, H., (2016, September). How messy problems can inspire creativity [Video file].

Retrieved from, https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford_how_messy_problems_can_inspire_creativity

Sirolli, E.(2012, September). Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! [Video file].

Retrieved from, https://www.ted.com/talks/ernesto_sirolli_want_to_help_someone_shut_up_and_listen/transcript?language=en

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