Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.
– Paul Ryan
As the weeks progress, we feel surmounting pressure to deliver a successful project that will help strengthen the BCC organization. As we acknowledge that we are still primarily in the planning stage of our project, we would like to develop a clear plan and timeline to help us stay on track and achieve maximum efficiency. We would also like to remain in frequent communication with our community partner, Robin, to allow him to follow our progress. By keeping Robin updated, he will have the ability to offer suggestions and modifications throughout the process to help us achieve a product that aligns with the vision of the BCC. Below, we present strategies as well as our weekly goals that will guide us towards accomplishing our aims and objectives.
To view our proposal, click the link below.
Week 1
Objectives: Meet our group, identify strengths of our group and individuals, narrow down our community project choices
Achievements:
-Came to a consensus of our top three choices for our community projects
-Identified each other’s strengths
-Took time to understand the different personalities within our group
Week 2
Objectives: Start blog post one, research about the BCC, and contact our community partner, Robin
Achievements:
-Established strategies to complete our blog posts that reflects the opinions of all team members
-Educated ourselves about the organization and created a document of questions to be answered throughout our research
-Organized a meeting with our community partner to ask questions for clarification about the organization and to gain a better understanding of our roles
-Successfully completed blog post one
Week 3
Objectives: Meet with Robin to understand how the BCC system works
Achievements:
-Met with Robin’s coworker, Virginie, and were able to receive answers to some of our questions
-Gained a better understanding of how the organization works, such as who is buying the ingredients, who is preparing the meals, and how the funding is distributed
Week 4
Objectives: Identify our main objectives for the project proposal and discuss it with Robin
Achievements:
-Identified our aim and objectives
-Composed inquiry questions
-Identified tasks that will address our objectives
-Proposed our ideas to Robin for feedback
Week 5
Objectives: Complete the proposal. Visit a Breakfast Club.
Achievements:
-Visited a Breakfast Club at Strathcona Elementary School
-Successfully tailored our objectives and tasks to best assist the Breakfast Clubs
-Completed our project proposal
-Received approval of our proposal from our community partner in contact: Robin
Week 6
Objectives:
-Start to research for bulk cooking tips and ways to involve more students in cooking
-Start composing new menu items and developing charts for nutritional and cost comparison of three essential food items
-Start thinking about items that can be added to the essential food items list
Achievements:
-Complete Blog 2
What?
On Wednesday, February 3rd we had the opportunity to observe a Breakfast Club Program in action at Lord Strathcona Elementary. We were able to see the workers and volunteer “breakfast buddies” interact and work with the children and parents that attended the program. We also had a chance to talk with the some of the workers and the families that attended. This allowed us to become familiar with how the breakfast program functions. The Strathcona breakfast program is a model program for other schools because it has a wide array of equipment, a high participation rate, and a large amount of funding and donations. This enables them to run a program with an environment that is warm, inclusive, and nutritionally focused. Since this program represents an ideal system, it is difficult for us to conceptualize the major challenges of programs that are less well funded. However, according to Tim Harford (2016), uncertainty and obstacles can actually be beneficial because they may allow us to be more thoughtful and creative. By slowing down and trying to analyze the situation from multiple angles and by consulting with our community partner, we believe we will able to find solutions that will best assist the community’s vision of success. As mentioned by Sirolli (2012), if we want to be successful in helping a community, we must first listen to their desires and shape our vision around this to comply with their ideas of success.
At our visit to Strathcona, we had the opportunity to meet our BCC community project contact, Robin. By discussing his ideas for us and how they aligned with our thoughts, we were able to clarify our objectives for the project. We established our initial broad objectives through email, and eventually focused them into more specific plans that both our group and Robin agreed would be useful for the BCC. This marks the first important milestone of our community project, and it provides us with a clear direction to continue forward.
So What?
By visiting a breakfast program, we were able to see who is involved and how it functions as a whole. We observed that while the BCC mainly focuses on providing meals for children, an effort was made to develop a sense of community as caregivers and children attended. Prior to our visit at the Breakfast club at Lord Strathcona Elementary, we assumed that the program was exclusive for children and that it was organized at a set time every morning. To our pleasant surprise, the program felt a lot more like a family gathering where parents and their children gather around tables to enjoy a hearty breakfast. The staff also interact with the program attendees and seem to cultivate strong relationships. While we realize that Lord Strathcona Elementary is an exemplary example of what the BCC aims to achieve through their programs, it gives us a better idea of what can it can accomplish within a community, and we were very impressed. During our visit, we asked Robin many questions regarding the functioning of the program as we wanted to fully understand the current situation. We actively listened to Robin so we could understand how we could be helpful before voicing our additional suggestions. Sirolli (2012) states that listening is crucial since community members are most knowledgeable about their own communities, so by listening we can avoid wasting effort and resources producing an undesirable product.
During this visit, we were able to align our goals for the project with Robin’s and get a better understanding of our role to help the BCC.
What Now?
After our first hand experience observing a breakfast program as well as our meeting with Robin, we now have more direction for moving forward with our project. With a better understanding of what tips, suggestions, and recipes will be suitable for the children and staff that are involved, we will be able to begin researching for information that will ideally be practical for the BBC. We will be researching useful bulk cooking tips and ways to engage students in food preparations step, as well as developing new menu items that are cost effective, nutritious, and appealing to students. We will also brainstorm new items that would be beneficial to include in the essential food item lists. Over the next two weeks, our group will visit Costco, Superstore, and Safeway to do a nutrition and cost analysis of different brands of bread, cereals, and yogurts. Until we actually begin our task, we will not know what obstacles we may face; however, we will be updating our blog posts to include the challenges, our actions, and the consequences that they bring.
Ernesto Sirolli (2012) claims that in order to be successful, we must listen to community members and work with the assets of the community. We have taken this advice and listened to Robin’s requests so we can develop a plan that can help strengthen the BCC’s current breakfast programs. As we can now start our work for the Breakfast Club of Canada, we will need to make our objectives a reality in order to achieve our aims. To do this, we will establish goal deadlines for each task to keep our group organized and to maximize our efficiency. Our group is very optimistic about this project and we will take on challenges to the best our our abilities. We understand that things may not always turn out how we expect, however, experiencing some failure throughout our project can help our learning process and may eventually prove to be beneficial in achieving our end goal (Dubner, 2015).
In the upcoming week, we plan to address our first objective: Provide bulk cooking tips for the recipes used at the BCC. As mentioned in our proposal we will review past recipes to analyze steps and seek areas that could be expanded on. To start, we will equally divide the existing 20 recipes amongst the 5 members of our group. We will then individually research web sources that discuss relevant bulk cooking tips applicable to the recipes provided and create a spreadsheet with a tally of the most useful tips. We will be identifying tips that utilize less equipment, fewer ingredients, and include steps for ease of preparation. Before finalizing our list, we will collaborate as a group to ensure consistency and agreement in our findings.
Week 7
Objectives:
-Provide bulk cooking tips for the recipes used at the BCC
-Identify tips that utilize less equipment, and fewer ingredients and steps for ease of preparation
Strategies:
-Review past recipes to analyze steps and seek areas that could be expanded on
-Equally divide the existing 20 recipes amongst the 5 of us
-Individually research online sources that discuss relevant bulk cooking tips applicable to the recipes provided
-Create an excel spreadsheet with a tally of the most useful tips from research
Week 8
Objectives:
-Increase student involvement in the breakfast program for both the preparation and presentation of BCC recipes.
Strategies:
-Analyze 20 BCC recipes to determine which steps should be focused on
-Refer to 1-2 literature resources each with recipes tailored to children of varying ages focusing on the practicality, safety, and ease of preparation for the younger population
– Focus on the age groups 5-7, 7-9, 9-11 to incorporate age appropriate activities aligning with the “functioning” of the program, from set up to cleanup
-Use an excel spreadsheet to tally which recommended tips are currently used or could be incorporated into existing BCC recipes.
Week 9
Objectives:
-Modify existing recipes and generate new ones- include smoothie recipes
-Develop recipes that can be prepared in large quantities and are not repetitive
Strategies:
-Review 20 existing recipes and modify them to comply with BCC standards: healthy, appealing, and practical with accessible and affordable ingredients
-Remove or adjust recipes and ingredients accordingly and make substitutions that have similar nutritional value
-Research online resources that suggest appropriate recipes for children
-Incorporate modified and/or new recipes into tables with recipe names, ingredients, equipment, preparation steps and tips.
Week 10
Objectives:
-Extend the 11 essential food items list to 15 items with items commonly used in BCC recipes
Strategies:
-After modifying and developing new recipes, we will include the additional necessary items in a complete list by comparing each recipe and required ingredients
Week 11
Objectives:
-Create a list of top 5 brand suggestions based on nutritional value for 3 (yogurts, cereals, and whole wheat or multigrain breads) of the 15 essential food items.
-Develop a list of top 5 products with cost analysis included
Strategies:
-Visit 3 different grocery stores commonly visited by schools affiliated with the BCC – Safeway, Superstore, and Costco
-Explore available common and commercialized brands for the three food categories and collect data for price and nutritional content/tables
-Create a list of the top five products based on their nutritional value by comparing content of fibre, fat, sugar, and protein between brands
-Determine recommended products from the Health Canada website and valid nutrition web sources, which will be used in comparison with our findings
Week 12
Objectives:
-Create a functional, and engaging document that comprises all of the necessary information addressing our aim and objectives
Strategies:
-Gather all tables with collected data
-Ask Robin for guidance as to how the document should be presented
From this schedule, we can work towards our aim in a timely manner. It is expected that along the way, we will face many hardships and difficulties. Through effective communication, we hope to be able to express our thoughts and ideas to one another, in hopes of providing a high quality product.
References
Cohn, G. (2015, May 20). Failure is you friend. [Audio file]. Retrieved from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/failure-is-your-friend-a-freakonomics-radio-rebroadcast/
Siroli, E. (2012, November 26). Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM
Harford, T. (2016, February 12). How frustration can make us more creative. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7wF2AdVy2Q
