Having presented our project proposal and completed our proposal report last week, we are now on our way to taking what we have proposed and transforming it into reality! Here are our objectives and achievements for this week:

Objective

Touch base with prospective stakeholders to provide information about our project and to give a heads-up that we will conduct interviews in a few weeks to collect data – invite stakeholders to participate!

Email LFS 350 Group 5 to collaborate questions relevant to each of our projects

Create a draft of our interview questions

Send our draft to Joanne and Kim for revising and approval by the Hastings Sunrise Steering Committee

Achievements

Completed proposal report

Finished draft of interview questions

 

A Moment of Significance

What

The moment of significance for our group these past few days is when we visited Hastings Sunrise Community Centre.

At the community centre, we had the pleasure of meeting up with our community partner, Kim De Valle Garcia and also getting a first-hand look at Hastings Sunrise Community Learning Garden – the main site and focus of our project. There, Kim walked us through the history, background, trials, and tribulations of the Learning Garden and how it got to be what it is today. We learned that the Learning Garden is currently doing something unique and separate from other community gardens which is that it follows and shares an agricultural practice known as permaculture. We now have the foundational understanding that it is a sustainable gardening method that uses minimal human interaction, and mimics a natural ecosystem. From our observations, there are no straight lines, no raised beds, plants are interplanted with each other, and everything is general looks quite “messy” and dare we say – “unattractive”. Kim assured us that this how it is meant to be and that it should model after a forest. Through our communications, we also discovered that permaculture, in reality, has been a practice that around “forever”. However, over the years it has been appropriated by white folks and culture, and is for that reason make it no longer accessible. It is therefore Kim’s goal as well as the organization she is tied to, Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network (and conveniently our community partner), to make the practice accessible so that people can share and learn about it.

So What?

Learning about the Learning Garden and seeing it in person was significant to us because it provided us with context for why Hastings Sunrise Community Food Network (HSCFN) is interested in re-vamping current programs and improving attendance numbers at the Community Learning Garden. We recall very clearly that upon first glance of the garden, our group was not very enthused and had very if-little appreciation for it due to its lack of picturesque appeal. Basically, it looked nothing like we envisioned a garden to look like. Yet, when Kim began explaining to us the garden and all its unique components and characteristics, we found ourselves saying, “Cool! That’s so awesome. Why don’t people do that more often?” Our views and thoughts of the garden did a 360-degree change. We started with having no idea of what permaculture was, how it operated, and if we were honest – having little care for it based on first look. Now we find ourselves appreciating the little insect house, the raspberry bushes, the key-hole garden, the microfiltration bed made out of mushrooms, and so much more! We are now more interested in permaculture and how it could help to achieve community food security via community participation, which ironically is also the mission of HSCFN. Perhaps more importantly, the visit allowed us to finally see why Asset-based Community Development is invaluable for solving a community problem and why it is important for minimizing tensions between community organizations and residents within it. Speaking of tensions, our group also discovered that our initial impression of the Learning Garden is shared amongst local residents and is perhaps one of the tensions that exists in preventing people from accessing the garden and learning more about it.

Now What?

Through our interviews with stakeholders in the HSCFN, we will be able to determine how we can increase community involvement at the Learning Garden, which can assist the mission of HSCFN. Using what we learned from the podcasts in Session 6, we will ensure that we listen before we make any recommendations, look at how our analysis can help the whole community and not just specific individuals, and that we would be practicing what recommendations we suggest.

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Upcoming Objectives and Strategies for Achieving Objectives

  • Await approval from Steering Committee about our interview questions
  • Contact stakeholders to schedule an interview
    • Email our stakeholders – give them at least a week’s notice
  • Conduct our in-person interviews
    • Delegate interviewers and note-takers
    • Familiarize ourselves with each of the stakeholders we will be interviewing by learning about their history, background, and mission
  • Collecting data
    • Keeping our interview questions “short and sweet” and to the point
    • Post-interviews: compiling all our notes together
    • Aggregate data by similar themes or categories

Works Cited

Msimang, S. (2015, April 14). A Pragmatic Idealist. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://themoth.org/posts/stories/a-pragmatic-idealist

Sartin, J. (2015, April 14). The Fish Bank. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://themoth.org/posts/stories/the-fish-bank

Sibanda, L. (2015, April 14). Grandma Mahembe’s Farm. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://themoth.org/posts/stories/grandma-mahembes-farm