TWIAG – A Personal Reflection.

My CBL project was with the community partner The World In A Garden. The details of what my group and I did can be found in an earlier post titled “TWIAG.” But right now, I’m not writing to discuss what we did but rather to reflect on my sentiments towards our project as a whole and discuss some of the steps that we as a group took in order to accomplish what I mentioned in the earlier post.

The primary idea of the project was building a survey that would be able to reflect the knowledge of the community and interests of the community. To figure this out we initially began with a list of questions that evaluated people’s nutritional knowledge such as “which of the following has the most vitamin C” and other questions that matched the sort. This then brought into question whether the populations in depth nutritional knowledge was as important, the main idea of the survey was to figure out how to better serve the community. In this case, we determined to ask a larger variety of food lated questions and value based questions such as “which of the following about food matter more to you?”, “Which of these grows in the fall?”, and the like. This different approach, we thought would give us a much better understanding of what they knew about the food they consumed beyond the nutrients, things about food they found important, and due to the rarity of being asked such questions may cause a stirring of interest towards this subject of food. We then decided to further add open ended questions that blatantly asked “what would you like to hear more about” and the like. These questions would allow us to understand more of what they cared about and would give them a chance to elaborate or rationalize their answers. Finally, we added in statistical questions that would help us understand the person taking the survey by asking about how many they feed, and their approximate age grouping. The culmination of these ideas created a rough draft of the survey.

The survey was then further refined and the questions made to be more specific to what we wanted to know in specific. Each question now gave us very precise information which could be graphed and statistically analyzed (of course the open ended questions couldn’t be analyzed in this way, so accordingly, the open ended questions would be individually interpreted.  This allowed us to arrive at our final set of survey questions. We initially posted the survey on surveymonkey but then found it to be a poor medium for our purposes. So we created PDF versions of the survey, one with pictures and one without. We ended up using the one without pictures so that the questions would all be “fair” and not left for people to interpret according to the pictures. The final survey was then pilot tested at TWIAG at an event. A variety of cooperative individuals filled the survey out, although not everyone took it as seriously as we hoped. Regardless, this process of survey development proved to be useful and I really find it to be an asset for future projects that require the use of such tools. Currently, we are in the analysis phase and the results seem to get more interesting daily.

All in all, I’d like to think of TWIAG as a positive experience, albeit patches of miscommunication with our community partner as well as minor group misunderstandings. Really, I’m thankful for my group and being given the opportunity to be part of such a project.

`rtang

Connections.

Our universe is made consists of many connections that exists between the tiniest particles to the largest ones. Every day life itself is filled with connections between ourselves, other people, and even the earth we stand on. These connections form our relationships, and our values. Utilization of these connections can be a truly empowering process in which true balance can occur between different things, peace can be achieved. Group 11 and their community partner, Village Vancouver’s FED-AP, understand the power of these connections as they work together to bring communities of Vancouver together to encourage a more food resilient society.

Group 11 helped with Village Vancouver’s FED-AP and their action plan which intends to bring Vancouver from a high energy usage state to a low energy usage state. The did this in part by volunteering at a Village Vancouver event called Neighbour Savour. Neighbour Savour is an event that encourages the community to share foods and recipes together in a potluck type format, and tin support of local artists, seed saving, composting, and waste-free meals. The potluck was designed for any Vancouver resident and each attendee was encouraged to bring something to share at the special dinner. Village Vancouver rented a hall and provided entertainment in variety of forms as well as beer. Group 11 recalls helping at this event “very rewarding” as they were able to assist to make this event a huge success with over 300 people attending! This event is sure to be remembered and have long lasting impacts in the form of community awareness and participation.

In reflection, group 11 recognizes that the exposure to LFS 250 and 350 have opened their eyes on the benefits and impacts of community involvement, particularly the effectiveness of CBL methodology. CBL gave them first hand experience and made the experience truly unique for them, personally. In communicating with group 11, they commented how much they appreciated the time spent volunteering at the Community Potluck Dinner hosted by FED-AP. Setting up and cleaning up allowed group 11 to be present throughout the entire event and watch people interact with each other. Group 11 comments on how the potluck facilitated a sense of community and allowed people to mingle and meet each other. As the night went on, people volunteered to get on stage and play music while some even gave salsa dancing lessons on the side. In a closing remark group 11 says “It felt good to have contributed to something that allowed people to connect with and appreciate each other. I hope strengthening community ties will significantly contribute to sustainability and reduce our energy intake as a society”. Indeed, the power of connections.

`rtang
EDIT: Great news from the group, photos from their affiliate groups will be posted soon.

Mirrors; Hattaw’s Reflection

Looking back at LFS 250, unlike most people I’ve talked to,  I loved that course! I made some lifetime friends; my breakout room members and I went to dinner together a lot (almost all 30 of us!) and I gained a lot of hands on experience. I was hoping this year would be even more amazing but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

I’m not sure why but the sense of community wasn’t there. I believe that it dependents on which project and community partner you get to work with, and I think that’s what made the difference for me.

For next year, I recommend that community partners be clear on the projects they provide. In my case, our community partner said that they provided a describtion of a project they didn’t need just because it was required that community partners provide a quick summery of the CBEL project. Because we based our choices on the description that was provided, we ended up working on something we weren’t interested or invested in. It wasn’t hands on nor did we get to work with the community that much. Either way, none of my group members got any of their top 3 choices for the CBEL projects.

All in all, it was a great opportunity to learn that you don’t always get what you want but regardless of that you should give it your all because your community partner and your team members are all depending on you and your group dynamic.

-H

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.

TA Q&A: Rachel Gutman

As we reach the end of this academic term we start to wonder where has all the scheduling and planning and promises to stay on top on our work gone. We’ve all taken at least one LFS course before, and by this time we know our way around our piling towers of essays and papers. But encouragement is always needed, so here’s a Q&A I got to do with my homeroom TA, Rachel Gutman. Rachel was once an LFS350 student herself, now she gets to sit in the first row on the left-side of our lectures with all the other TAs and gets to mark our awesome reflections and papers.

Thanks for your supportive feedback Rachel!

And to everyone else, hold on, the end is near. The end of the term that is.

-H

Q&A

Q: What is your educational background?

A: I am in my final semester of my BSc in Global Resource Systems where I have focused on Food and Resource economics. Before UBC, I spent two years at Uvic studying biology. Over the course of my degree I’ve taken courses at 4 Universities!
When did you take LFS 350
I took LFS 350 in the fall 2011 semester

Q: What made you want to TA LFS 350?

A: Many reasons. Last year I worked at a local high school mentoring a garden club. There, I realized how much I enjoyed teaching and thought helping LFS students through their projects would be a meaningful experience. Also, I’m planning on going to graduate school in the next few years and thought that TA-ing as an undergrad would give me a leg up when applying.

Q: What is it like TA-ing LFS courses?

A: This is the first class I’ve ever been a TA for so I don’t have anything to compare it to! But I’d imagine you have the opportunity to interact more with your students. In the LFC series, there is a lot of time spent in homeroom and I get to interact with all my students every class. As a TA, it’s really wonderful to get to know everyone and their projects.

Q: What advise do you have for students from your past experience as a student?

A: Keep in touch with your community partners! The most valuable thing I’ve gained from the LFC series and CBEL projects are the connections I’ve made with my community partners. My community partner in LFS 250 was the Environmental Youth Alliance. Through this connection I was able to get an internship with their Growing Kids program the following year.

Q: What advise do you have for students from a TA perspective?

A: Take time to critically reflect on the skills you’ve gained through your projects, many of these are transferable to the work place. Community mapping, survey building, interviewing, soil sampling- all these things can go on a CV! Even if your project did not go as well as you hoped, being able to work effectively in-group settings is an invaluable skill to have.

Group 9: Village Vancouver Transition Society

As it is my job to bring the various projects in LFS together and create that network and sense of connectivity, it is also group 9’s job to connect the various projects in Village Vancouver. Village Vancouver is part of a global movement called Transition Town aimed to reducing foil fuels, so everything is as local as it could get. These projects are situated in Kitsilano. Anybody is welcome to join these initiatives because anyone can make a difference. As witnessed by group 9, everyone seems to have different expertise in different things but they are all pieces of a greater puzzle that pieces together. “A lot of the people seemed really talented, which is amazing” as one of the members expressed to me their admiration for the interactions amongst the individuals that are involved.

Some of these individual projects and initiatives include community gardens, farmers markets and community pot locks. The involvement within these projects is extremely diversified; people of all ages, all ethnicities and demographics are involved.

But group 9 did face some unforeseen limitations that they believe may have hindered the effectiveness of their project. Some members felt that they were not given enough time to connect to the community, to feel a part of the community. And others felt that the community partners needed to be committed to working with the groups. Many groups faced communication difficulties and hopefully that will be improved for all LFS 350 projects next year.

-H

Welfare Challenge with Etienne Nemanishen

Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Etienne Nemanishen and discuss how the welfare challenge that she partook in went. The welfare challenge is an activity that some members of group 5 decided to take on based on the fact that an average person on welfare only receives $26 a week for food. Etienne is a Nutritional Science major and based on her educational background she said that it was hard for her to meet her nutritional requirements for the week because she was not able to purchase as many fruits and vegetables as she hopped she would. She was only able to purchase a day’s worth of fruits and vegetables, which she consumed over the course of a week.  All of her shopping was done at No Frills because it was the only thing she could afford.

Part of the challenge was to not add salt, spices and herbs unless you bought them with the $26 and to not accept free food from others. “It’s impossible to live on welfare without accepting free food” she said. She reported that she felt unsatisfied throughout the week and pointed out that if she did not like the food that she had cooked she didn’t have the luxury of making a new meal or freezing it for later, she had to eat what she made otherwise she would go hungry for the day. Other limitations and restrictions that she faced were no alcohol, coffee or eating out. But it was worth it as she got to challenge herself and gain the human experience.

The biggest hurdle that she faced was the low calorie intake and having little energy to get her through the day. “My friends would see how tired I looked and would offer to buy me food but I couldn’t accept.” Etienne’s productivity with schoolwork was hindered; she was tired most of the day and could not concentrate.

Now that you know your fellow classmates have taken the initiative to live in someone else’s shoes, will you?

-H

Group 26: Fundraising Booklet

Remember hot lunches in elementary school? Hot dogs sales, pizza sales and lots of other delicious junk food that our parents didn’t pack for us but our schools treated us to once in a while. Well contrary to popular belief schools did not have those because they think we’re special students, they’re held to raise money for the school and various activities.

At Sexsmith Community School, they have recognized that fundraising can be done in ways that are beneficial to students and potentially educational and so they have asked group 26 to help them create a healthy fundraising booklet. The school has two parties that require funding, the PAC and the Green team. The Parent Advisory Committee needs $25,000 to buy a new adventure playground of their new school and the Green team wants to buy new garden beds to be used as outdoor classrooms. So group 26 has went ahead and prepared a booklet with multiple ideas, ranging from raffle baskets, breakfast with parents and a walking-bus. This booklet should provide teachers and parents with ideas that are reusable and profitable.

What was your favorite school fundraiser?

-H

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2012 Land, Food & Community 350 series!

This blog is a composite of the many terrific experiential learning stories taking place within our LFS 350 class this term! Our students are working together and with community partners to solve land and food system sustainability issues using their knowledge and skills to enhance food security and create a positive relationship with their community.

October 19, 2012Permalink 1 Comment