Welcome to our blog! We are Group 22 from the course LFS 350: Land, Food, and Community II. As we are working on a community kitchen assessment project, we would like to share the journey with you on this blog site!
About Us
Group 22 is composed of four individuals, Patrick Munyurangabo, Xiaofan Liang, Benjamin Chiu and Ningrong Fu. Patrick, Benjamin and Liang are in Food Nutrition and Health, while Ningrong is in the Food and Nutritional Sciences discipline. As individuals, we hope we can come together in order to achieve goals we can only accomplish as a team. Throughout the course of LFS 350, we hope our work can provide a window and better understanding of the community kitchens of Kerrisdale and Marpole.
Within the group, each member can offer different skills and interests that can contribute to the strength of our team.
Benjamin believes what we can do now, can not only impact the people of our time, but society in the future. Throughout the course, he hope to develop skills and knowledge to eventually have his work make a difference.
Liang’s interests lie in nutrients and how they play a role in the human body. Looking into the future, she does not have a clear plan, but with the nutritional knowledge she acquires, she can provide insight into a healthier life for her family and herself. Since her father works in the Department of Food Safety in China, she has a great interests in understanding how differently the community kitchens work in different countries with respect to the food safety aspect.
Patrick enjoys outdoor activities and social interactions. The course is well suited for him since it will enable him to better understand the community he is a part of and how to best serve it now, and in the future.
With great passion in safety and quality analysis of food and related products, Ningrong is now planning to pursue a career in food safety and quality assurance and control. She is also interested in microbiology related product analysis with similar affinity to organic farming. Because of the previous experiences as a nutrition workshop instructor at elementary schools around the Marpole area, Ningrong is very excited to be a part of this project, and she’s also looking forward to obtaining deeper understandings about community kitchen systems through this project.
Group Interests, Goals & Reasons for Choosing This Project
While we each share common goals and interests, three commonalities tend to be of importance in this course: food safety and quality, skill development, and giving back to the community. The groups is interested in understanding how food is served in community kitchens and how it is obtained. As to our knowledge in the matter, we believe the food resources and kitchen facilities are donated or acquired through financial contributions to the kitchen, which raises the concern of whether the food is of quality, and whether the facilities are well maintained to achieve safety and sanitation standards. We are also looking forward to developing our skills through communicating and working with different community partners and group members. Lastly, our team hopes to develop individually and acquire different sources of knowledge: from obstacles faced by the organization, to the larger issues that surround the community in terms of nutritional status and food accessibility. From what we receive from the community partners, we hope to make tangible recommendations and suggestions that could be useful to The City of Vancouver’s Food Strategy, and to acquire the knowledge that could better serve the community and Vancouver’s residents in general. We are also focused on providing a useful contribution to the community through this project, and this is also one of the reasons why we have chosen this project.
Project Objectives
As our project is dedicated to obtaining information about community kitchen infrastructure, our group will be focusing on achieving the following objectives:
- To successfully build partnership throughout the project with 3 to 6 community kitchens while applying the principles of Asset-Based Community Development to ensure proper and efficient communication.
- To critically evaluate the food safety and accessibility conditions within the kitchen and related communities (i.e. the Kerrisdale and Marpole areas) in order to enhance the understanding of different community kitchen infrastructures and various challenges they are facing.
- To gain and develop skills such as communication and data analysis skills by participating in this community based project in a group setting.
Potential Community Partner
While we are actively searching for potential community partners, our attention is highly attracted by the Tzu Chi Foundation Canada. The Tzu Chi Foundation is a privately run organization dedicated to ‘bringing the essence of Buddhism into practice’ by providing active volunteer services for seniors, students facing the poverty issue, and other populations with disadvantages. Its main office is located in the marpole area. The breakfast program is one of their major programs that are currently of emphasis. With the help from volunteers, Tzu Chi has been offering free and nutritious breakfast in several elementary and secondary schools to ensure students’ health and reduce the negative impact of hunger on their learning ability. We are planning to obtain more information about and to conduct our research and evaluation on the breakfast program and their kitchen facilities. (Tzu Chi’s website: http://www.tzuchi.ca/index.php/en/). The Tzu Chi Foundation will not be the only potential partners that we will contact with — we aim to build partnerships with a minimum of 3 community kitchens through this project.
First Impressions
When we were looking at the description of this project, we initially saw a lot of similarities to some of the past projects done in LFS 250, particularly the assignment working with school districts and promoting food knowledge. After watching and understanding what Ernesto Sirolli presented, our first impression was actually quite the contrary (Sirolli, 2012). Although the mechanics of the projects are similar in nature, the way we approach and engage with the community partner makes this assignment entirely different. In the past, we had an agenda, a task we were determined to accomplish. We were less concerned with listening and responding to what they said, and we had our ideas and the way we wanted to proceed with accomplishing those ideas. However, for our current project the main difference won’t be the content, but the way we work with the community partner. We hope to establish a strong partnership with them by which we expect to find a place where they may need our help (Sirolli, 2012; van der Walt et al., 2014).
While accomplishing our tasks, we will respect and follow the rules and instructions provided by community partners upon visiting in order to work towards a common goal (Sirolli, 2012). That being said, we are simply visitors in their home, and we must respect their way of operating and their acceptance for assistance. For example, as mentioned earlier a potential community partner we might be working with is the Tzu Chi foundation. Even though we do not have any background information about Buddhism, we must respect the privacy and beliefs of their organization, while being enthusiastic about the opportunity. Although we might have our own understanding of student poverty, we should acknowledge their current work and past achievements in the field.
Therefore, in regards to the project, we hope to focus more on the reality of the community, instead of merging the community into a fixed template (van der Walt et al., 2014). We will approach each opportunity by putting aside our needs, and to focus on the larger and more purposeful cause, to appreciate the effort that the community partner has put into their programs, and hopefully contribute in a beneficial way.
References
Sirolli, E. ( 2012, November 26). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM
van der Walt, L., Hawley, A., Carter, S. (2014, October 16) ABCD Animation [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_muFMCLebZ4
