As this is our last blog post before the final report, we’d like to treat you to a sneak peak of the report in the form of an executive summary. We have also done a final group reflection on the project.
Executive Summary
Community kitchens are assets for food security in Vancouver (Vancouver Food Strategy, 2013). As part of a larger project that targets neighborhoods throughout Vancouver, the aim of this specific project is to collect data and make observations on community kitchens in the residential Victoria-Fraserview neighborhood in southeast Vancouver. We want to understand how and where food programming occurs in Victoria-Fraserview. In addition, we want to understand what sort of assets these kitchens have, and the condition they’re in. So we ask how accessible are these kitchens physically, economically, and culturally? What is the infrastructure of these kitchens?
We used a mixed methods approach to try to answer these questions with a combination of an interview and survey of Wilson Heights Church’s community kitchen and research on community food security. Our contact with this church followed standard ethical procedures and incorporated Asset-Based Community Development.
Wilson Heights Church is easy to get to, and the building is handicap accessible. Some food programming is available, which is free and often open to any and all community members. The kitchen is well equipped, supplied, and stocked.
Wilson Heights Church, a community kitchen in Victoria-Fraserview, is physically, economically, and culturally accessible. It utilizes its assets well through various food programming. This reflects the positive effect this kitchen has on the neighborhood’s food security, as accessibility and utilization are important components of food security.
Wilson Heights Church is an example of how a community kitchen can be an asset to food security in Victoria-Fraserview. It contributes to accessibility and utilization components of food security. However, our recommendation for the church kitchen to contribute more is to improve advertising, to recruit more participatory community members. Our recommendation for the city is to provide funding for the church to improve food programming. Our recommendation for the course is to improve clarity on critical project concepts.
Final Reflection
What?
Since the last blog post, we have had a major moment of significance. We were able to find a community kitchen that was willing to participate in our survey. After two visits to Victoria-Fraserview, lots of calls, and even more e-mails, we finally got a positive response from Wilson Heights Church. Our interview went great, and we finally have some data to start writing our report.
So What?
We had a very successful interview with our community partner partly because we were able to utilize principles of Asset-Based Community Development in our interactions with her. Our positivity and excitement about the kitchen and the food programs she single-handedly organizes was rewarded with reciprocal positivity. Even when discussing improvements that could be made to the kitchen and programming, such as funding and advertising, we were building on the amazing assets the kitchen already has, such as the various and plentiful kitchen equipment, the monthly dinner prepared in it, and the garden that contributes to it. This style of community engagement and perspective is drawn from ABCD (Calabash Trust, 2012). During the interview, we also made sure to, as Ernesto Sirolli advises, “shut up and listen” to our partner (Sirolli, 2012). We found that once we were talking in person to her, it was much easier to incorporate all of these values than it was when we were trying to conceptualize the project from outside the community.
Now What?
The most important thing we have taken from this interaction is a better understanding of the value to getting into the community. From the beginning, this project has been all about the community. However, no amount of preparation and studying could have given us a more complete understanding of our project and its purposes than our interactions with the community.
In our future studies and projects of all kinds, we hope to be able to keep this in mind, and to put ourselves in the shoes of all parties involved in making change in a community.
We, group 18, hope that you enjoyed our documented stages of a community based project developing.
Thanks for reading!
References:
Calabash Trust. (2014, October 16). ABCD Animation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_muFMCLebZ4
Ted Talks. (2012, November 26). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM
