This week was quite busy with midterms and assignments, but we managed to organize our time and meet up with our community partner, Victoria, and project manager, Liska. We also had our first official group meeting outside of class time, where we discussed suggestions that were given to us by Victoria and Liska and re-examined the project together to make sure we had a shared understanding and a unified approach to it. We also used this opportunity to split the CBEL proposal and presentation into different sections and group members volunteered for the parts they wanted to work on.
Outcome of Meeting with Victoria and Liska
Tyra and Judy met up with Victoria and Liska on Monday, September 23rd, to discuss and ask questions regarding the Gage Snack Vending Model. Two of the more relevant and important topics for our project were:
- Implementing healthy beverage options across campus
- Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the Gage Snack Vending Model that was created by previous LFS 450 students in April, 2012.
In terms of beverages, our selection of healthy beverage options on campus is limited to drinks from within the Coca Cola brand family, the campus’ contractor. We therefore need to visit Coca Colas’ Canadian website and compile a list of beverages that we, as a group, recommend and think are healthy to add to the campus vending machines. Odwalla, Minute Maid, and Zico coconut water are all possible examples. If you are personally interested in what is available, here is the link to their website: http://www.cocacola.ca/brands.html
Rehearsing our project proposal presentation
Meanwhile, we need to research previous work that has been done involving vending machines on campus. Victoria wants our group to audit the snack options and ensure that each snack from “choose most” to “choose least” is labelled correctly, by assessing their nutritional value. We need to remember to keep in mind that snacks that can go in the vending machines need to be shelf-stable at room temperature: snacks such as yogurt and cheese are therefore not suitable. Lastly, we need to make sure the vending machine is visually appealing (dust free, signage is displayed nicely, etc).
Our group got together shortly after the meeting with Victoria and Liska, to discuss their suggestions. We exchanged ideas on how to meet our community partner’s expectations: for example, suggesting VendMaster to bring in more local companies to provide healthy products for UBC vending machines. To promote healthy products, we discussed the idea of putting brightly coloured labels on healthy foods in the vending machines to help encourage consumers to try them.
Once we have our beverage and snack options approved, by both Victoria and Liska, we will work on creating consumer tasting surveys and set up stations at the Student Union Building (SUB) on the week of October 14th.
Progress on our Project Proposal Presentation and Paper
As the deadlines for our written project proposal and presentation quickly approach, our group decided the best way to efficiently finish the project proposal was by assigning specific components of the paper to each group member. The task for each member is as follows:
CBEL project proposal:
- Introduction of our team team and community: Rosemary
- Research Question: Tyra
- Methods: Alex
- Work plan: Avier
- Budget: Judy
- References: All group members
- Editing, and addition of ideas to each section: All group members!
CBEL project presentation:
- Summary of project focus: Carmen and Rosemary
- Narrative of Discussion that has taken place in the group: Judy
- Personal Reflections: All group members
- In addition to this we had someone in charge of working on this blog post: Katherine
A rainy day on UBC campus on October 2, 2013
Our group is planning to meet up on Wednesday, October 2nd, to rehearse our CBEL project proposal presentation together. Prior to the meeting, all members will have rehearsed their parts on their own. After the presentation, our group will have another meeting at the end of the week to add finishing touches to the CBEL project proposal and to discuss previous research done by LFS 450 students on the vending machines. Our goal for this week is to fully understand our role in this CBEL project and to use this to appreciate what UBCFS is trying to do to promote healthy lifestyles on campus.
Attitudes and Perceptions Towards CBEL
Our group feels privileged to be working on this CBEL project as our contributions have a small but important impact on the UBC community; trying to improve sustainability in vending machines takes time and effort, and only with patience and dedication can this project advance. We, ourselves, are facing many challenges with this project. For instance, we find it challenging to nutritionally assess two very similar already existing products in UBC vending machines (that are locally produced, healthy, and tasty) to be compared by consumers in time for our taste testing event. Nevertheless, we are confident that we can solve this problem by researching these products for the taste testing event, which will be conducted by our group from October 15th to October 18th at the SUB. The goal is to collect student input on potential vending machine snacks. We are optimistic that the event will attract hundreds of interested consumers and impact the food choices consumers within UBC make. Moreover, these changes on vending machines provide UBC members to have healthier lifestyle. We are glad that the CBEL project is providing us an opportunity to allow us to apply our knowledge on healthy and sustainable food systems into a community we call home.
To our fellow students, good luck on your midterm exams and projects!
Cheers,
Group 26