Welcome to our 5th blog post!

Last week we received feedbacks of our written proposal and we got a satisfactory grade, which is encouraging since we had put a lot of effort into it. The feedbacks from Bryanna are very helpful. Here is a brief explanation of our research proposal: our original research question was how the Food Choice Kitchens canning workshops contribute to the improvement of food security in the aspects of food affordability and food safety in the Strathcona community? Today our group had a teleconference with our community contacts Diane and Shona to talk about and clarify our research proposal. However, after our talk with our community partner, we decide to modify our research question since the Fresh Choice Kitchens does not work directly with the general public; instead, they work with trainers who would deliver canning workshops to the general public over the British Columbia. Our new research question would be focusing on the need of “training the trainer” and how it relates to food literacy. Since we just had the conversation later this afternoon, we still need time to work on the research question as a group. Our research method will include literature review and discussions with a focus group. The method of literature review will produce reliable scientific information on canning processes for the canning manual. Second research method is conducting focus group interviews with trainers and possibly environmental health officers organized by our community partner to ensure the clarity and understandability of the added sections of the canning manual. So we could make adjustments to the new section based on their responses. By the end of this project, we hope to produce user-friendly material about the safety and science of canning that provides necessary safe home-canning information to the trainers of the canning workshops and increases the awareness of food literacy. Our research action plan is clearly stated in our written proposal, specific to completion date and work distribution. As Bryanna recommended, we would make our plenary presentation interesting and creative.

For the coming week: our group members are working efficiently on the frequently asked questions provided by our community partner by conducting background literature research, hopefully we would be able to complete the section by this Wednesday and start working on the new chapter of the canning manual. For our added section of the canning manual, we decide to focus on the science behind first two chapters of the original manual as suggested by our community partner and make sure the scientific information is clearly explained. Meanwhile, our group will also be putting effort on formulating our final research question and designing potential focus group questions. Today our group briefly talked about potential focus group questions including: 1) Did the trainers think the workshop and the manual is useful? Did the additional information on the manual increase their knowledge on food safety? 2) Which part of BC are the trainers from? Where will they hold their workshops? 3) Will the trainees from their workshops be able to apply the knowledge they gained from the workshop at home, i.e. do they can at home after attending the workshop? What do the trainers expect the trainees to take out from the workshops? 4) How many workshops do the trainers usually hold throughout the year? What is the average size of the workshop? What are the most popular workshops? 5) Why do the trainers hold these workshops? Why do the trainees attend the workshops? 6) What are the usual sources of the foods to be canned?  Are they from supermarkets, local farms, by donation, or self-grown? We will meet again on next Tuesday to talk about our project and keep each other updated. See you all next week!