Author Archives: katheriners

Spacial Strengths and Gaps in Richmond

Group 4 – Richmond Food Security Society – Mapping Low Income Areas with Community Meals and Kitchens

After analyzing their results, group 4 has now come up with their project conclusion for mapping out Richmond’s low-income areas with corresponding food aid service outlets. The team found that the most food banks and alike services were concentrated centrally – where the highest population density is and therefore the highest amount of food insecure residents. This result was also found in North-eastern Richmond. Group 4 defines these results as spatial strength– where the need of food aids meets the demand in a close proximity.

Group 4’s Loretta and Monisha at Bethel Church, Richmond

There were, of course, some downfalls in spatial strength in these areas. One food bank is located in an inconvenient area where there is very low demand. Spacial gap is where the outreach of food aid does not meet the demand. One such area is Steveston and West Richmond, where the team found a high food insecure population and nearly no services offered.

Group 4 has brainstormed some reasons for the spacial gaps observed and suggest that there are no suitable facilities at an affordable lease price in those particular areas. And one thing that the team would like to see more of is more nutrition and cooking classes offered for that particular demographic.

This teams efforts will certainly have use to the City of Richmond’s future food security as it aims to tackle food insecurity.

Kat.

November 25, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Kat’s Reflection

I remember from last year that LFS 250 was a whirlwind of articles, presentations, write-ups, and project business, and this year’s LFS course was no different. I always felt like I had no clear direction, even as I write this blog post. But don’t get me wrong – I had fun – just fun with a high amount of anxiety and confusion.

I learned a lot this year, mostly because I chose to stray away from my typical involvement with teaching nutrition and cooking. I thought while selecting my project preferences just choose a bunch of projects where I have no clue how to do and where ever that takes me will be great. As it turns out, I was fortunate enough to be placed in the Planning for Pollinators group where I had the pleasure of meeting some fantastic people, all with their unique backgrounds and quirks. Although I didn’t get to have as much involvement with the actual planning of the bee sites, I did get to learn a ton about bees (Did you know that there are over 50 bee species in the Lower Mainland!? I didn’t either.) So my advice to any up-coming LFS 350 students who may be reading this blog: take a leap out of your comfort zone, you (hopefully) won’t regret it.

Kat.

November 25, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Compost Education

Group 22 – Think&EatGreen@School – Assessing & Developing a Vancouver School’s Organic Waste Management Strategy

With the help of LFS’s Think&EatGreen@School project initiative four years ago, Grandview Elementary School became an Earth-friendly school (elimination of gravel fields and set-up of a school compost). Group 22 was put in charge of assessing the school’s Earthtub and planing ways to make their 3-compost system work in the cafeterias. The team found that the compost was being misused due to students putting non-compostable items in the bins; because of this, the school stopped using the bins. In order to re-implement the compost program, Group 22 made signs for the compost bins designed to help students discard their food scraps properly. In addition to the signs, the group members held compost-how-to workshops in the school and spent a day transferring compost from a nearby community garden to the school fields. The team feels that their work will have a positive effect on the school’s food system and believe that the students, teachers, and themselves learned a lot and will use that knowledge practically in their lives.

Kat.

November 23, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Pigs’ Future Brightens Up

Group 18 – Gambier Island Sea Ranch – Pig Management Project

This team is of the lucky few chosen to travel to beautiful Gambier Island for their project. They worked with the Gambier Island Sea Ranch to look into the recent health problems of their pigs – over the past 2 years all the pigs have had to be euthanized due to an unknown disease. Speculations were made (possible ring worm infections?) as a tight budget prevented the farm from hiring a veterinarian and suggestions were given (move the pigs to a different field) along with various other advice for their Gambier Island community partner. Due to the nature of their project, group 18 was left with not much else to do so they were given the task of building nesting boxes for the ranch’s chickens. They were a bit frustrated with this because it didn’t involve their specific project, however it served as a great experience for them as none of the group members had any woodworking experience and reassured them of the strength of their team’s character because the boxes actually turned out quite nicely.

Group 18 has a positive outlook on the future of Gambier Island Sea Ranch’s pig rearing because of the foundation they have set and advice given for having happy, healthy pigs. Hopefully the next round of LFS students to undertake this project will find this group’s efforts useful for improving the ranch in the years to come.

Kat.

November 23, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Van Parks Board for the Bees

Group 17 – Environmental Youth Alliance – Planning for Pollinators

Some exciting last-minute progress is happening for group 17 as answers from the Vancouver Parks Board are finally coming in! There is some keen interest from one of the commissioners for setting up a native bee friendly space in Queen Elizabeth Park as part of their Greenest City initiative. The proposed bee space will act as one of the several pollinator hotspots across west and east Vancouver to increase the viability of urban agriculture. This is not the first time the VPB has partnered with the Environmental Youth Alliance – a few years ago they together established a native bee promoting site at Fraserview Golf Course. While group 17 will not get the chance to directly be involved with the Queen Elizabeth Park site, they are definitely excited to have had the chance to get the idea started.

Kat.

November 23, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Explorations in Classroom Cooking

Group 24 – Queen Mary Elementary School – Explorations in Classroom Cooking

It’s time to get kids thinking about food in a new light, and what better way to encourage them to eat those greens than by having them cook it? Group 24 was involved with a grade 5/6 split class at Queen Mary Elementary to show these young students the basics of healthful home cooking with lessons centered around eating with Canada’s Food Guide. Since they were cooking in a classroom, simple salads, kale chips, and muffins were the go-to recipes.  And of course cooking with 30 children posed challenges for the team, particularly when they are overly excited and handling knives, but everything was handled well and the students even proved how capable they were with knife and food safety. Members of group 24 really enjoyed this project and were excited to see the keen interest of the class in cooking and learning about nutrients, while at the same time learning a great deal about classroom management. Group 24 hopes that their lessons will inspire the kids to start cooking at home and be more conscience of the foods they eat.

You can access team 24′s recipes at bettertogetherbc.ca

Kat.

November 21, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Orchard Garden

Group 29 – The Orchard Garden – The Orchard Garden Workshop Series

Situated behind the Macmillan building is the Orchard Garden. As nearly every LFS student has come to know, the Orchard Garden grows a bounty of fresh veggies for the campus and is a perfect place for outdoor-based educational workshops. This year the organizers asked what could possibly make their workshops even more interactive and fun? An outdoor kitchen! Which brings me to introducing group 29.

Group 29 was given the task of planning an outdoor kitchen next to the Orchard Garden, which was quite the undertaking and presented many ups and downs for the group members. Grant proposals were made for supplies and they even came up with their own design possibility. Things were looking good with all this hard work and it really seemed that their plan would stick around in the long run. Unfortunately it was too good to be true. After a meeting with the Macmillan building ops manager they found out that there were developmental plans for the Orchard Garden space and all their hard efforts would not last. But, ever the resilient bunch of students, they bounced back from that disappointment and found comfort in the fact that their work would still make a difference to those using the kitchen in the mean time.

Along with kitchen planning, the members of group 29 enjoyed harvesting and maintaining the fall Orchard crop to complete their CBEL experience. All in all, this project is thought of fondly by its members.

Kat.

November 21, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Planning for Pollinators

Group 17 – Environmental Youth Alliance – Planning for Pollinators

The purpose of this project is simple: to compile experience, opinions, and insights of urban farmers on the use of native pollinators (more specifically with bees). The long term goal is much more complex and involves the EYA using the previous information for planning bee-friendly urban gardens throughout Vancouver with connecting corridors to increase the native bee populations. This is all very appealing in concept and the group members are enthusiastic for what this could do for Vancouver’s flourishing agriculture. There is, however, some disappointment that collecting data is all that they are doing – no analyzing, no implementation, no involvement other than discussions with farmers. The excitement was ramped up a bit with the volunteering where group members got the chance to participate in planting apple trees, something that can be enjoyed by the community for many years to come. One group member mentions that it was a great opportunity to meet people with similar interests and views. Unfortunately the excitement plummeted down again during the weeding session. We all agree that weeding is important, but when it comes down to it weeding is weeding, especially when it’s in the rain.

Kat.

November 21, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Project Upcycle

Group 6 –  Quest Food Exchange – Project Upcycle

Quest is a non-profit organization that collects food donations from over 300 donators and sells the products at a marked down price for people in need. There are a range of volunteering opportunities at Quest with many tasks including: preparation of meals, giving cooking lessons, food sales, re-stocking, organizing shelves, disposal of inappropriate foods, recycling, and office work. One of the group 6 members explains that working with Quest is enjoyable since the organization is relatively new, and its coordinators are open-minded towards new ideas. He also mentioned that his experience volunteering at Quest has improved skills in organization, management, and efficiency. However, some of the work may be a bit dry if done for too long (for example, opening jars of expired peanut butter, disposing of the peanut butter, and recycling the empty jars – for four hours).

Kat.

November 21, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Richmond Food Security Society

Group 4 – Richmond Food Security Society – Mapping Low Income Areas with Community Meals and Kitchens

I’m lucky enough to have convenient access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food (a minute walk to my closest grocer!) but sadly many people have very poor food security, particularly among the low-income. Richmond is such a place where there is a wide range of food securities and incomes, and it was group 4′s job to map out and measure the spacial gaps between food service outlets and low-income, food insecure households. Many phone calls were made by the team to collect service information from these specialized food establishments to draw out the map. The members did many site visits and helped out during the active hours. As a plus, many made new contacts with dietitians, a huge advantage for many LFS students! The general consensus by the members is that this project made a significant improvement on their time management skills and taught them the frustrations of getting contact from many, many sources.

As the due date for this project is nearing, group 4 is finalizing their results and a conclusion for how food secure the low income households of Richmond are is coming soon.

Kat.

November 21, 2012Permalink Leave a comment