BEGINNINGS
Who are we?
Amy Wong
Major: Food Nutrition and Health
About Me: I am currently a 3rd year student in the University of British Columbia studying Food Nutrition and Health. During my spare time I enjoy socializing with others, whether it is through social media, or at my part-time job which involves communicating with strangers on a regular basis. I enjoy meeting new people, because I strongly believe that I can learn a lot through conversation with others. My communication skills is one asset I have that I am proud of, and I am glad I am given the chance to talk to and be educated by others in the community through our project.
Kathleen He
Major: Nutritional Science
Interests: I am currently majoring in Nutritional Science and it is my 3rd year at UBC. I volunteered at the UBC farm, and the Sprout Cafe, which is a student-run organization with the endeavours to make healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food accessible to everyone at UBC. I am very interested in how local food products are distributed in our community. I believe that we could know more about the accessibility and affordability of local food and imported food in our community through this course project.
Alison Feng
Major: Food and Nutritional Science
Interests: As a third year student, I enjoy participating in group projects, learning and utilizing old and new knowledge. Through my studies in this faculty I became highly interest in the connection between food and people. I believe food is not just a commodity in our daily lives but means much more. From this community project I wish to further explore the complex relationship between food and the community.
Timothy Wong
Major: Food Nutrition and Health
Interests: I am currently a 3rd year student in the University of British Columbia. I have a great interest in working with others, and fulfilling tasks in a team environment. Being in Land and Food Systems I am given many opportunities to work with others, and I hope with good teamwork with my group mates we will be able to learn a lot during our community-based assessment project.
Our Interests, Our Goals
Nutrition, Health and the Community
Our course coordinator William Valley brought our team together, to engage in this community kitchen project. Initially, we had a very vague idea of how we will implement all our individual interests and goals into this project. As a group we have narrowed down our shared interests as nutrition, health, and the community. Through this project we look forward to expanding on our interests as well as applying our theoretical knowledge in our surround environment.
Through this community-based project, we are excited to meet with the diverse groups that make use of community kitchens. We are glad to be given the chance to observe how food is distributed within the neighborhood, and how food can bring people together. Through this unique experience we hope to gain skills in kitchen assessment, observation, and communication, also we wish to recognize the challenges of providing food-based programs.
Our team identifies community kitchens as not just a space for cooking, but also a place that brings individuals together for many different reasons. We understand that our interests in nutrition and health may not necessarily be directly relevant to this particular project, but we are hoping it will be able to motivate us further to learn how we may implicate our knowledge into real life settings. We look forward to meeting and conversing with different members of community kitchens, and being able to expand our perspectives on how self-run neighborhood organizations get involved in public food assets.
Objectives:
In partnership with the City of Vancouver Social Policy Department – Food Strategy Implementation Team, we are hoping the data and knowledge we obtain from community kitchens would help the Vancouver Food Strategy have a better understanding about self-governed organizations involved in producing or distributing public food assets. We hope to help Vancouver’s Food Strategy team to achieve their goals.
- Support Food Friendly Neighbourhoods
- Empowered Residence
- Improved Access – to healthy, affordable, culturally diverse foods
- Green Economy – making food a centre piece
- Just, Sustainable System – with the power of the government and public or nonpublic organizations
We understand that our work may just be a small milestone to achieving very ambitious goals, however we hope that our communication with community kitchens will help the City of Vancouver create the “ideal” food system.
Source: http://vancouver.ca/people-programs/food-strategy-goals.aspx
First Impression:
We familiarized ourselves with the expectations of this project through the help of our instructors, and were eager to contact local community kitchens. In the beginning the lack of reply from all the potential partners we contacted was discouraging and we became very lost and desperate. We were mentally prepared for the rough path to finding a suitable community kitchen, but the difficulty still caught us off guard. Thankfully, after sending out countless emails, we received an approval from one of the kitchens we contacted. The first encounter with a community partner motivated our team, and rejuvenated our hopes for more kitchens to contact us. Although the challenge still exists, we are hopeful for more future replies from other kitchens that may be interested to participate in our study.
According to Ernesto Sirolli’s TED Talk, the best way to facilitate and empower a community is to identify individual’s passion and needs by communicating with them in a real life setting. Instead of “telling people what to do”, we should acknowledge their goals and finding ways to assist them. In the case of our community kitchen project, we are trying to find and connect with different organizations and identify their plans and purposes for the community around them. Our group wishes to understand and appreciate the local communities’ wisdom and enthusiasm and help them go further with what they are passionate about.
In relation to the Asset-based community development (ABCD) we understand how important it is for us to promote and build a sustainable community-driven development. We facilitate our community kitchen project with ABCD’s attempt to help individuals, institutions and associations in the neighborhood to come together and build on the assets that already exist. Alternately, the key ideology of the ABCD is to identify the strength a community holds and to help them identify what assets the community can provide to them for their growth as a whole. As a team we look forward to making a positive impact on the community through our community-kitchen project.
Ernesto Sirolli’s TED Talk and the Assest-based community development article allowed us to broaden our views, and further recognize how we will complete this project in a suitable manner. We realize that the community is the basis of this project, and we are not trying to change any aspect of it. In fact, we are trying to help the community grow from what they already have. From the answers we will receive from these kitchens, we are hoping their methods could be incorporated into similar organizations. Furthermore we hope from the questions we ask them they may even find new ideas that can be included in their existing programs. In conclusion, we wish that these community kitchens can continue to serve the community in their own way, while teaching us what we may not already know.
Reference
1.Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474–486.
2.Sirolli,E.(2012,Nov 26).Want to help someone?Shut up and Listen! Ted Talk retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM