Click this link to see our: Galiano Project Proposal 2017

Weekly Objectives & Achievements

Week 1

Objectives:

  • Identify personal goals and interests.
  • Review course learning objectives and community projects.
  • Identify top 3 preferences for the term’s community-based projects.
  • Define Community Food Security and relate it to broader food system theories, such as global food security, food system sustainability and food sovereignty.
  • Describe key elements of the transdisciplinary science of sustainable food systems.

Achievements:

  • Submitted our top 3 preferences for community-based projects based on our personal interests.
  • Defined key topics such as Community Food Security, global food security, food system sustainability and food sovereignty during group discussions in lecture and quiz #1, which was done individually.
  • Discussed the need for non-academic engagement beyond expert knowledge. Learned that the most recognized need for the interdisciplinary approach is the need to avoid “blind spots” associated with particular disciplines and professions (UBC Wiki, 2017).

Week 2:

Objectives:

  • Meet our group and set expectations for group work, as well as identify key roles of each member through developing a team charter.
  • Set-up our group’s UBC blog.
  • Articulate the principles of Asset-based Community Development (ABCD and Food Justice)
  • Identify elements of professional conduct to prepare for engaging with the Galiano community.

Achievements:

  • Created roles for each team member through the team charter, as well as expectations for the group (such as having one person communicate with any member that falls behind the work we have going on in this course, and to respond to Facebook messages within a day or earlier).
  • Set-up our group’s UBC blog, called “Galiano Island Fall 2017”
  • Articulated the principles of Asset-based Community Development and Food Justice during lecture and tutorial.
  • Emailed Jane Wolverton and set up a meeting to call and discuss the community project.
  • Set-up a Facebook chat, exchanged phone numbers and emails as our 3 platforms of communication (Facebook being the main platform).

Week 3:

Objectives:

  • Reflect on the reasons that well-funded, well-conceived community-based projects may fail, through Ernesto Sirolli’s story.
  • Deconstruct Ernesto Sirolli’s story through a Food Justice lens.
  • Consider, and possibly refine, how your group has been framing your approach to your community-based project with respect to how you “see” yourself and your community.
  • Book the cabins that we will stay at for the duration of our time on Galiano Island.
  • Book the LFS vans for transportation from Richmond to Galiano, as well as to use around Galiano.
  • Talk to Jane about Galiano Island demographics, the importance of the Galiano Club, and the duration of our visit to Galiano Island.
  • Finish our first blog post.

Achievements:

  • Watched Ernesto Sirolli’s TED Talk, called “Want to Help Someone? Shut up and listen!”, and discussed within our group how previous projects have failed by not recognizing that respect is the first principle of aid and that if we want to help a community we have to listen to their values of what they want us to do, instead of doing what we want to do (TED, 2012). This is because you can give ideas to people, but it is up to them to implement it (TED, 2012). We don’t want to patronize communities about what they should be doing (TED, 2012). Instead, we should sit down with them and identify their strengths and values, instead of sitting in offices to implement our own ideas of what they need (TED, 2012).
  • Understood the value of teamwork in both Ernesto Sirolli’s TED talk, and in terms of Food Justice, as outlined in our first blog post.
  • Reconstructed our approach to our project through the lens of a bottom-up collaborative process, as explained our first blog post.
  • Talked to Jane in our first phone-call about the Galiano community about the percentage of people that were food-insecure, sensitive topics in the community (ex. Isolated seniors, a large proportion of homosexuals, and land-use arguments), as well as the history of the island. We wanted to gain a better understanding of how to approach our interviews with the Islanders to avoid sensitive topics and the importance of the Galiano Club to the island. From our understanding, the Galiano Club was the central hub of community engagement through food for the island.
  • Posted our first blog post. We also decided during our phone-call that in order to complete Jane’s itinerary for us, we would have to stay overnight at Galiano. As a group, we decided Oct. 14-15 was the best day for us to go.
  • Jane booked 2 cabins at Driftwood Village for Oct. 14th, 2017, the day that we will go to Galiano Island.
  • Megan helped us book the LFS Vans that Tracy will drive on Oct. 14th to pick us all up in for the ferry at 8:55 am, that will take us to Galiano Island.
  • Completed Quiz #1.
  • Completed TCPS 2 Tutorial Course on Research Ethics.

Week 4

Objectives:

  • Articulate the ways in which income and class relate to food insecurity.
  • Articulate the importance of a proposal in the development and implementation of a community food security project.
  • Identify strategies for embracing uncertainty.
  • Develop a proposal draft with sections: Introduction, Background & Significance, Methods.
  • Book ferry tickets to Galiano Island for Oct. 14th, 2017 and for the return trip on Oct. 15th, 2017.
  • Revise our blog post.

Achievements:

  • Discussed the prevalence of food security in Canada, and the socioeconomic factors associated with it, in lecture and tutorial.
  • Communicated within our group of ways to cope with uncertainty. Since we recognize that our project may not work out the way we want it to, we have to be able to go to the island and adapt our nutritional recommendations to the strengths of the community (food the community has access to) and to what the community wants (ex. Cultural preferences for food), instead of recommending tips that are unrealistic for the community.
  • Developed a proposal draft in the tutorial.
  • Booked ferry tickets for the round trip to Galiano and back on Oct. 14th and Oct. 15th.
  • Revised our blog post based on our TA’s instructions.

Week 5

Objectives:

  • Articulate the ways in which gender issues relate to food justice and community food security.
  • Identify areas of improvement for your proposal.
  • Complete our proposal.

Achievements:

  • Completed our proposal based on the areas of improvement identified by our TA.
  • Discussed the gender inequalities in the food system that still exist during lecture and tutorial. For example, women are more likely to cook in cafeterias, and not as likely to cook in restaurants (where they would be paid more) (W. Valley, personal communication, October 4th, 2017). There is a not a lot of women in agribusiness and academia, where the major resources and decision-making power lies in the food industry (W. Valley, personal communication, October 4th, 2017). We also talked about the argument that a women’s service to her family in the kitchen reinforces a woman’s subservience and other family members’ entitlement. Some people disagree with this argument and believe that a woman’s relationship with food at home is not subordination, and is instead powerful.

Week 6

Objectives:

  • Finalize itinerary for Oct. 14th, 2017 with Jane Wolverton.
  • Complete Blog Post #2
  • Consider how behavior, identity, and action is shaped by and shapes an individual’s efforts to engage in positive change in the food system.

Achievements:

  • Finalized itinerary for Oct. 14th, 2017 with Jane Wolverton. To see the itinerary, scroll down to Upcoming Objectives
  • Packed for our overnight visit to Galiano Island this Saturday, Oct. 14th, 2017.
  • Discussed where to meet and when to get to the ferry (so our reservation would still hold) within our group.
  • Discovered areas of improvement within our group after discussion, such as having more interaction with Jane Wolverton from now on. Before this week, we didn’t realize we should have sent her our blog posts and proposal reports. In order to show her that we care about the community project, we should email her more often about our progress.
  • Came up with questions to ask the Islanders, such as “what are some cultural foods on the island that are commonly prepared?”, “can you tell me how you prepare certain foods you mention?”, and “what kind of foods are available on the island?”.

What, So What, Now What

What (a moment of significant)                                                                                

For the past month, the six of us has built a strong relationship and united for every group work. Although we had only known each other for just a few weeks, everyone on our team is willing to communicate, share ideas and cooperate with the group. Yet we did encounter some difficulties a few weeks ago when we tried to design our trip to Galiano Island. We had a great interview with Jane, our project partner, from which we gathered lots of helpful information and additional help for our blog posts. However, we found that the ferry schedule was very limited, and the times to go to and from Galiano Island were either very early in the morning or super late at night. Some group members suggested that we should go early in the morning so that we won’t be wasting a whole night on Galiano Island, which would have helped us save money in our budget at the same time. Others thought that it would be better to take the night ferry because some of us live far away from the ferry and didn’t want to miss the early ferry. It seemed like the conflict couldn’t be solved unless some group members sacrificed their study time for the group.

The other problem was that the timing of the trip was not the best. Many of us had a few midterms that week, so we had to try to work out the best time to go. Thankfully, a few of our members were able to sacrifice one day of study, which we compromised by leaving early the next morning so they could get home and continue studying for their midterms. Without complaining and blaming group members for not having an ideal schedule, all of us were willing to cooperate and compromise with each other. We worked together to maximize our budget, and also managed the best route to pick everyone up at.

So What (Why did this happen?)

From this experience, we have learned that every member of our group is contributing to the team and is willing to help each other out. We also designed the trip to work for the majority of us. The weekend we chose was the one that most of us were able to go without any other conflicts on those exact dates, which was October 14-15. Initially, we thought that September or early October was too early to go to Galiano since previous groups went even later than October 14-15. We realized after getting back our proposals that going earlier was likely to have helped us create a more in-depth proposal for our project. This is because there is more valuable information regarding the nutrition assessment from all the Club’s executives that is given during the trip (not just from Jane).

Overall, this was a great experience for us and helped strengthen us as a group. Expanding from this situation, we have a greater understanding of the island than before, as we now know that the way of transportation to other islands or cities for them is very limited with minimal ferry rides available. This problem not only brought us group members together but also provided more information about the island.

Overcoming this small issue at the beginning of our journey shows that all of us are trying to make this project and collaboration work as we are all putting in efforts in group works and solving problems together. Everyone is sacrificing time and energy for the greater good of the group, which is amazing to see when we have only met each other not long ago. We based our actions on the fact that we want everyone in the group to do well rather than just caring about ourselves.

Now What (What we can do to prevent it from happening)

To prevent this from happening again, we will meet more frequently to discuss the logistics of our project to keep everyone in the loop. Previously, we communicated solely through Facebook or in class, once a week during our LFS 350 tutorial.

If we were to do this again, we would try to find another weekend sooner than mid-October and before midterms to go to Galiano Island. We would also spend two full days (which was Jane’s recommendation) to gain the best experience and attain more information for our project. We recommend future groups to go in September or early October to avoid midterm season and also to gain a better understanding of the project to write the proposal (which was due before our Galiano Island trip). Unlike other groups, meeting with our project partner is not as convenient due to our location. Although phone calls with Jane are helpful, in our experience we think meeting all the Club executives and community members in person is extremely necessary to create an action plan for the project (which was needed in the proposal).

Upcoming Objectives

As mentioned above, our upcoming objectives are to meet with the community at Galiano Island, discuss and identify their key strengths, and identify some of their special dietary requirements. In order to accomplish our goals, we are planning on developing a bond with the community members by chatting with them and discussing with them what their opinions are on what their strengths are, what sort of foods are available on the island, what are some cultural foods they commonly make and how do they make them?

Jane planned our schedule for the day on the island and that includes having breakfast at her house, a short hike, meeting with coordinators of the Galiano Club, and other fun activities. We’re planning on staying on the island until Sunday morning, but if needed we have the option to come back to Vancouver later at night. Overall we aim to gather enough information for us to complete the project itself and our upcoming Academic and Experiential Review Paper.

Tentative Plan (Weather Dependent) with Approximate Times

Saturday
Catch Ferry at Tsawwassen   8:55 a.m. You need to be at Tsawwassen at least 40 minutes ahead for your vehicle reservation. You are going to Sturdies Bay on the Gulf Island ferry. There is a cafeteria on board for breakfast. Don’t eat too much as we will have an early lunch and dinner.
Arrive at Sturdies Bay, Galiano Island   9:49 a.m. Met by Jane Wolverton with a sign “UBC”
Drop off some gear at Driftwood Village

(2 cabins).

10:00 a.m. Jane + Students
Tea at Jane’s 10:30 a.m. Jane + Alison + Students
Short Hike 11:00 a.m. Jane + Students
Lunch – Flying Black Dog (outdoors) 12:15 p.m. Jane + Students
Proceed to the Hall to Help with Breakdown of the Stock Up Market   1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Emma
School Garden – Help Garden Coordinator   2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Jane + Janna
Dinner at Babes in the Woods (about $15 each without drinks)   5:30 p.m. Jane
Optional evening at the Hall for Hard Rock Concert   7:30 p.m. Jane

 

Sunday
Catch the Ferry    9:15 a.m.  10:00 a.m. Tsawwassen
Catch the Ferry    7:45 p.m.    8:40 p.m. Tsawwasse


Hosts:
 Jane Wolverton (President, The Galiano Club), Alison Colwell Food Program Manager, Emma Davis, Barry New, Janna Feldman (Food Program Coordinators)

Next week’s objectives (after our Island visit), our focus will transition from the island into making the nutritional analysis of the foods from the menu provided by the Galiano Club. We will need to look for a dietitian, preferable at UBC since it will make our interactions much more simple. Our requirement for the dietitian is that they are able to dedicate one or two meetings (around 1 hour-2 hours long), in order to help us identify areas of improvement for the menus.

By Oct 29th (2 weeks after our Galiano Island visit), we hope to have finished the nutritional recommendations and analysis of Galiano Club menus. We will be writing up a report to Jane Wolverton on areas of improvement, what we believe the Club should keep the same if it’s working out well, and small changes that can be made to the foods to increase the nutrient density of the foods. We want our nutritional recommendations to follow the S.M.A.R.T goals outline, which is used by many professionals in client interactions. We want each change we suggest to be specific to the population (by taking into account cultural preferences of food), measurable (our dietitian can help us quantify measurements of menu ingredients that should stay the same or change), achievable (emphasis on small changes that are easy to do or can be easily incorporated), realistic (taking account of the access to foods Galiano Island has), and time-sensitive (when we think the Club can incorporate our recommendations into their menus by). We believe that the S.M.A.R.T. goals outline will ensure that our recommendations are thorough, while still being attainable and specific to our community.


References

UBC Wiki. Course: LFS350/ Week 1. Retrieved September 13th, 2017, from

http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:LFS350/Week_01

TED. 2012, November 26). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! [Video

file]. Retrieved September 20th, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM