Weekly Objectives and Achievements
This past weekend, our group visited Galiano Island to see firsthand the different aspects of the community’s food system, and gather more information to develop our local food index of the island. We accomplished our goals of visiting the various farms, stores, and restaurants that we had contacted beforehand to interview in person. Additionally, we completed the community service portion of our project by volunteering at Supper’s Ready and the island’s garlic Co-op. Supper’s Ready is a community dinner hosted at the Town Hall, where we helped with the dinner preparation as well as clean-up. Later on during our stay, we visited the garlic Co-op where we assisted in the garlic production process by shoveling manure for fertilizer and raking leaves for mulch.
This week, we plan to continue collecting information about more of Galiano’s local producers, as some farm and restaurant owners were unable to meet up with us, and we will begin to compile our index based on their responses. We were unable to meet with every producer on the island due to time constraints and scheduling issues. Due to this reason, the remainder of the interviews will be conducted via telephone or email. As soon as we have completed the lasts of these interviews, we will be able to begin creating our final report and presentation. Seeing as how the semester is quickly coming to an end, we hope to begin making headway with the final products of our research this week, in order to ensure the end result is accurate and thorough.
Moment of Significant Change
Some of the most significant moments of change that affected our group were the weather forecast and the re-scheduled list of events that our community partner sent us not long before we had planned to arrive on the island. We were worried about how we would manage to finish the main task of this project with a changed schedule, but were more prepared to take on the uncertainties that were to come our way once we started. Most of our group’s graphs of excitement about the project took a major dip after the five-day weather forecast was posted on our LFS 350 group Facebook page. The weather did appear a little gloomy and last minute scheduling issues definitely presented a struggle for coordinating the remainder of every other objective.
For a couple of us who had been tasked with setting up interviews and making the itinerary for the island, the large change of plans occurred when our community partner emailed us her list of things to do over the three days that we would be there. It became a little stressful as it seemed like all the calls made and the time used to set the interviews up went down the drain. Despite these challenges, we were able to explore Galiano and learn about other aspects of community that we would otherwise not have had a chance to if our plans did not change. We were welcomed with such warmth that only a true community could have given us. We learned a lot more about smaller communities, and realized that even though it is a small island with a little over a thousand residents, the community was very tight-knit, and the fact that everyone knows each other felt very heartwarming and different from city life.
Levels of excitement nonetheless crept back up on most people’s graphs as we got closer to our trip. Excitement over the ferry ride and having a weekend away from the mainland brought up the morale of most group members. In the end, the weather report proved to be unreliable as we had great weather, aside from a downpour the day we were outside shovelling manure and raking leaves. In comparison to what we’d thought we were in for, it still qualified as relatively good weather, so even if the bad weather made us feel uncertain about making the most of this trip, going with the flow made it better.
Purple: Angela
Pink: Alexis
Red: Ashraf
Green: April
Brown: Nic
Light Blue: Sarah
Before our visit, while working on this project on the Mainland, a few of us expected Galiano to be very deserted, while some thought of it to resemble Victoria, BC with many small buildings. Obviously, it was very interesting to see what the Island was like in actual fact. It was a mixture of the two expected versions. It had a few small buildings here and there, restaurants and shops, but at the same time majority of the scenery was forest trees.
The weather was an unavoidable drawback, and we planned accordingly – packing warm clothes, boots and raingear. Although we were expecting heavier rain, the rain we did experience did not dampen our mood as we originally predicted on the graph above. Similarly, we thought that the re-scheduling of the weekend would decrease our productivity on the island, but we all agreed in the end that it was for the better. Instead of arranging a steeple-chase of interviews, one after the other and rushing around the island just trying to fit everything in, we were welcomed into the island lifestyle, and got a taste of the community and the lives of the people who have chosen to call Galiano home. Indeed, we finished with a lot of excitement and a great experience (as shown in the graph)! Our community partner, Jane, knew almost all of the farmers and restaurant managers we visited by name, and had close connections with people involved in all kinds of community projects on the island. She showed us the lands that the Island Trust has protected, and had us prepare meals for seniors with the Galiano Food Program initiative called Supper’s Ready that took off a few years ago. As previously mentioned, we also shovelled manure and raked leaves for the garlic co-op in order to help make their compost and rejuvenate their soils for next year.
All in all, following Jane’s programme, despite it being significantly different to what we had imagined, it was a much more fulfilling and enriching experience. Not only did we meet and learn a lot about agricultural knowledge, but we also appreciated how the residents of Galiano build a community.
Strategy for Successful Project Completion
Our strategy for a successful project completion is to compile and clarify notes from in person, phone and email interviews. We will validate the information by cross-referencing each group member’s different set of notes to ensure that we publish the correct facts. Afterwards, we will decide on the formatting of our flyer. Currently we are considering splitting the availability of products into seasons, as well as plotting the locations of all vendors on a map for a visual representation. This will allow consumers to have the necessary information in one spot instead of looking up the address of each farm, restaurant, or grocery store to see how close it is to their residence. From there it is simply a matter of creating the index in a manner that is easy to read and use, aesthetically pleasing, and economically feasible, since the flyers will need to be printed and distributed, and will be relevant for years to come.
Some factors that we will be considering are the choice of font and font size, the choice of map style, how large the final flyer will be, and what products sold by each individual will be included on the index, since some people mentioned that they plan on discontinuing certain current products in the future. Along the way we will be conferring with the Galiano Food Program for their feedback on how the flyer is coming along and utilize their suggestions, as they represent the community in which our flyer serves and thus listening to the needs of the community will ensure the success of our project.