Category Archives: Food marketing

Proposal presentation and Our ongoing progress

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We had our proposal presentation last week, which was a great opportunity for the groups to understand each other’s project in detail, especially because we have three groups working as the different sections under the same food recovery and redistribution project. At the very beginning of the course, we always got confused by these three projects, wondering if we are doing similar thing. As we listened to our peer groups demonstrating their proposal and methods, we figured out the linkage and difference between these three projects. The presentation, as we see, was a great motivation for us to get clear understanding of our goals and methods, and express our ideas in a passionate way. It also served as the platform for information and thoughts sharing. It was helpful to hear comments and suggestions from the groups regarding our potential obstacles and how we might overcome them. Besides, it is always inspiring to hear people talking about their own experience and opinions on our food systems. Knowing that we are actually concerned about the same issues, share the same feelings and will be working together to achieve the same goal is motivating. It makes us appreciate getting involved with CBEL projects.

Speaking of our project, we have confirmed our research scope with our community partner to develop a whole list of potential donors and recipients in Vancouver area. Also as suggested by our teaching team, we modified our research theme by combining several questions into a core one. Moreover, we got a lot of useful feedback from our peer groups in the presentation. We are hoping to get the chance to cooperate with group three to contact the food generators and see the barriers from the donor side. Our peer groups also pointed out the importance of research ethics such as informed consent when we are conducting our site investigation. With all these new approaches in mind, we came up with our final written proposal. Now we have distributed the work to individuals and started literature research. Following the work plan and procedure, we will keep going!

Our Progress

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We must admit, when we first began to look at the details of our project we all felt overwhelmed by the sheer scope of it. It appeared to be asking us to cover an awful lot of ground in a very strict time period. Individually, we all freaked out a little bit and then got together and calmed each other down….slightly! Going into our first meeting with our community partner, we were still a little daunted and pretty confused.

However, our fear subsided during our meeting with Lena (from CityStudio) and Leslie (from the City of Vancouver) and we all left with a sense of relief. The two of them were able to break everything down and give us a clear understanding of what we are hoping to accomplish and gave us some helpful ideas as to how to go about it. We all worked together to come up with a solid strategy for our project. There was some debate over what our focus should be and which approach would be the most beneficial in the long run. Over the past week, we have gone back and forth, but we have now settled on what we feel is the most efficient approach.

We have begun to break down current and potential donors across Vancouver into big grocers, retail/restaurants, food processors and communities with active farming. We have also started grouping recipients into food banks, soup kitchens and miscellaneous non-profits.

Overall, we are feeling confident about our project. We realize there will be hurdles, but we are no longer living in fear! So far, our experience with community-based experiential learning has been positive and we are looking forward to discovering its level of effectiveness, as well as its limitations. We feel privileged to be working with CityStudio and the City of Vancouver. We very much admire and respect the work they have done so far and their combined vision for food recovery in Vancouver. It is clear that both Leslie and Lena are very invested and passionate about this project; we are inspired to work with them to make a difference.

Introduction to LFS 350

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The Land, Food, and Community series is a number of classes that the students of UBC Land and Food Systems take every year.  The students of Land Food and Community II (LFS 350; formerly known as AGSC 350) complete extensive projects on food security issues in British Columbia.  Students work in groups of 6 or 7 to explore issues within their assigned communities and themes, and team up with members of the community to tackle these issues.  In this way, students can engage in their education by learning from community partners and immersing themselves in “real world” situations outside the classroom.  Community Partners can learn about what students are doing and learning at UBC, and can work with students to make a positive impact on their organizations and communities in terms of food security.  The Land and Food Series classes are unique from most other university courses as they emphasize teaching as a “community of learners” and community based research instead of top-down instruction and research.  Students learn from the teaching team, their peers and the communities of British Columbia making for an education that bridges university academics with real world issues.