So now it’s the end of November and we have worked together for almost three months.  The whole experience has been significant to us in many ways so we are sharing both from the perspective of teamwork and learning about ourselves (Overall group experience) as well as the ups and downs of the course/project itself (Overall project experience )

Overall Group Experience

“ We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do.” Martha Grimes

WHAT were the challenges?

Time flies and this semester is almost at an end.  As a group and as individuals, we encountered many new experiences and challenges.  

Uncertainty:  

On that first day, as we looked forward to meeting our group members, everyone felt uncertain.  We had very little time then to learn much about each other before we had to assign roles and move forward with tasks.

Workload and Stress:

This course entailed a heavy workload.  At some points, especially during midterms, most of us felt stress as we studied for and sat exams, while trying to keep our project on schedule.

Skills and Strengths:

We each came to the group with  beliefs about our own skills and our own shortcomings; our past group experiences; and our expectations for each other and for the team.  We all wanted to participate in creating the best experience possible but it wasn’t clear at first how that would look, if our skills would be important or valued, if others had the knowledge and experience in areas we lacked and if we could fit it all together to be a cohesive team where everyone’s contribution was respected and appreciated.

Communication:

There was uncertainty and doubt about when to speak out or step up and when to hold back or allow others to shine.  Some of us were naturally more talkative and inclined to take the lead while  others were quieter, weighing up the right time to contribute or volunteer for a task.

SO WHAT?  How did we overcome the challenges?

After our first tutorial, we began to feel comfortable within the group and keen to step into this exciting project and by the end of the semester, we agreed that we had a great time working together.

Uncertainty: Encouraging each other

Being forced out of our comfort zones had unexpected benefits.  It made us work harder,  think of different ways to approach tasks and challenge ourselves.  We didn’t know enough about each other to assume anything or simply let someone else do it.  After all, nothing might get done.  So, we reached out with the knowledge and experience we had and encouraged others.  When phoning community partners was a daunting task for some, other group members teamed up to help or share the task.  When interviewees were not available at the times we had expected, we stepped in for someone else, we changed our schedules, we went in pairs.  Every time someone was uncertain, confused or stuck, someone would always reach out to try to help that person out.  When the whole team faced uncertainty, as we did with the infographic, or an unexpected outcome, as we did with the feedback interviews,  everyone shared in the responsibility, the humour and ultimately, the learning that ensued.

Workload and Stress: Divide and Conquer

By the time midterms were upon us, we had developed a rapport and were able to more easily take on and complete tasks.  We survived blogs 2 and 3 and drafting the project proposal  by using strategies such as assigning each part of the whole task to one individual and  brainstorming the outline for each part  in all upcoming tasks every time we met in person.  That way, we divided the work so it was more manageable and we left the meeting with a clear idea of how our part would fit within the whole.  We made certain that every person played a role in every task, whether it was writing, designing, interviewing, emailing, filling our excel spreadsheets.  That way, all of our ideas were considered and everyone benefitted from the group’s co-operation.

Skills and Strengths: Learning to step up and learning when to let go

It turned our that our team was composed of people proficient in writing, communicating, designing, keeping the project on task, note taking, technology  or adapting to any role that was needed.   Everyone attended every meeting and own our comfort levels in certain skills became clear.  At first, we didn’t necessarily volunteer for what we thought we could do but gradually, we became more confident and offered to take on certain roles.  At the same time, we became comfortable about letting go of control and trusting in each other to complete each part of the task.  It became clear to all of us that everyone’s contribution was valuable and essential for the best outcome.

Communication:  Styles are different

From the beginning, we all understood the importance of communication in a group project but throughout the weeks, we had to discuss and clarify more issues small and large  than we could have imagined.  Facebook messenger was a lifeline to get messages back and forth, links to documents, ideas, pictures, ask and answer questions.  In person communication was extremely important too and every chance we got, we sat down as a group and went through what was done and what was upcoming.  Even with many text messages and emails, some things are better discussed in person and those sessions helped us to solidify our approach and make sure we all understood each other that  we were all on the same page.  We saw the importance  of as much communication as possible in different ways to ensure everyone’s needs were met.

NOW WHAT?  

Three months have passed and we are finally coming to the end of term and it’s time for us to show what our group achieved to the public and write up our final report.  As we present our infographic next week, we will be showing the Richmond Food Asset Map but also the collaboration and teamwork that was involved.  LFS 350 threw us in at the deep end with a heavy workload and many, diverse tasks but the confidence that we have gained in our own skills and strengths and well as our ability to work effectively within a team will serve us well in the future wherever our careers ake us.  Although the term ends soon, what we’ve gained throughout the whole course will be with us for a long time, even forever.

Overall project experience

“In any project, the  most important factor is the belief in success” William James

WHAT were the challenges?

Uncertainty:

At the beginning phase of joining VCH on Richmond Food Asset Map (RFAM), all of us including the assigned community partners, were new to this project. We were the first group of UBC students  launching this project into Richmond whereas, in Vancouver, the process had started several years ago. During the first meeting, the atmosphere was a little tense.  No one was sure what we were expected to accomplish, exactly what our goal was and how to set up the map where there was none. At this phase until the next phase, we just moved one step at the time since the future project was still a blur to us.

Deadlines and Stress:

The most challenging part during the process was getting the email replies and the setting the interview with other community partners before the deadline caught up with us. During phase one, we had to contact all existing food assets within our categories in the Richmond community. Emailing was not difficult since we had a template to follow; however, the waiting period for the replies with the knowledge that the deadline was approaching was stressful. Issues arose that we hadn’t anticipated.  The email template was lengthy and wordy and not sufficiently clear for representatives of the food assets to understand that we needed current information and their permission to appear on the map.  Our time was tight and we had to balance politeness and patience with further attempts at contacting people with further emails or phone calls.

Communication and Scheduling:

More obstacles came up at phase two, when we had to set up times for the interviews with selected community partners. The interview phase allowed us three weeks period including emailing and interviewing. Some of the community partners only replied to their emails during office hours  and some worked part-time.  Their limited availability often conflicted with our class times.

SO WHAT?  How did we overcome the challenges?

Uncertainty: Don’t expect to (ever) know all the answers.

We began to learn to accept uncertainty and live  with it.  Instead of leaving individual group members work out their own assigned tasks, we often brainstormed ideas as a group to minimize any confusion. Moreover, as the project moved forward, we learned how to effectively communicate with our community partners  when our group encountered issues that required their clarification.  We realized that they were new to this process too and bumps in the road would arise for us all.  We made plans but when things took an unexpected turn, we learned that we could adapt our own strategy or at the very least, gain some knowledge and experience that could be passed on to the next group.  For example, contacting community members to get information, approval or set up meetings almost always took much longer than we had anticipated so allowing enough time for this part is important.  We had to learn and accept that some organizations did not want to take part in the project nor appear on the map and not everyone embraced the project as we did.

Deadlines and Stress:  Encourage, adapt and think out of the box

As deadlines approached, we encouraged and helped each other but sometimes, we simply couldn’t deliver on time.  We could not complete the interviews in the two weeks we had anticipated and we requested an extra few days from VCH to deliver a comprehensive feedback summary.  They were willing to allow us the extra time and our report was completed.

We also learned to step up and provide our community partners with alternative solutions that we thought of to solve the problems that both our group and our community partners have never encountered before. For instance, in the second phase of our project, our community partners expected us to conduct in-person or phone interviews with other organization directors for feedback on the RFAM. However, due to time constraint and conflicts with our school schedules and despite repeated attempts, we had trouble  setting up meetings with some directors.  Rather than giving up getting feedback from those organizations, we suggested to our community partners obtaining feedback by phone or by email and ultimately, we received one very detailed response to our feedback questions via email.  We had to adapt to circumstances but were tenacious and did not give up.

Communication and Scheduling:  Sometimes it’s  worth the trouble

Although we were facing all these challenges when we were working on the project, our group did an amazing job in communicating and expressing our feelings about the project with each other.  Although arranging the interviews was troublesome with difficulties in communications and scheduling we managed meet with most organizations and conduct a quality interview with them. Because of the face to face meeting, we obtained a lot of valuable comments about the map and insights about the community.  We were pleasantly surprised about the depth of knowledge, the enthusiasm for the Richmond Food Asset Map and the thoughtful feedback we received.  Having been initially  disappointed that we could not give out surveys to a larger number of people, we saw the value in qualitative feedback that we received.

NOW WHAT?

We will be holding a booth in UBC next week to deliver our presentation to the people passing by, with our infographic exhibited. There will be one or two people in the group talk, but all of the group members will be there to attract people, answer questions and show support to the speakers. After the presentation, there will be only one assignment left for us to do as a group in LFS 350, which is the final project report. With the experience of collaborating for 3 months, we believe we can wrap this up in style.

We accomplished a lot by starting this project in Richmond and getting the community members engaged and excited about the idea of a food asset map for their community.  The people that we interviewed represented many organizations with diverse groups of clients and we are now aware of how much knowledge is out there, far from academia.  Richmond has many resources and assets and a variety of rich cultural  backgrounds.  Moving forward, we must ensure that all segments of the community are invited to be heard.  There are many layers in the community and in our short time there, we only felt we touched the surface. Knowledge, food and social networks and experience reside with the members of the community itself and our advice to the next team here  would be to talk to people as soon as they can to learn from them how to help the community with issues such as food security.  As a team, we have learned skills that will help us in the real  world from the VCH dietitians, community members of Richmond and from each other.  Moving on is bittersweet but we are confident that we will leave the project in good hands.

“Overall, our team spirit has provided us incredible strength and motivation in completing this project”  (quote from a member of our group)

References

James, W. (1956). The will to believe: and other essays in popular philosophy. New York: Dover Publications.

Martha Grimes > Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2017, from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/14150.Martha_Grimes

“I never fall off, I just dismount with style!”

What have we achieved so far?

Finally, we were able to gather the information about our food assets.  Everyone had anticipated this moment and we were excited to get started.  We divided up the list of known resources among us and, for the past two weeks, we each contacted several organizations by email and/ or phone to ensure all information was current and to obtain their permission to be part of the food asset map. Our research also resulted in discovering assets not currently listed.  All the pertinent information was collated and organized onto excel spreadsheets that were provided by our VCH partners.  Updates to information were highlighted in red and every email, phone call  and request for permission was logged.  By the evening of November 1st, the compilation of our assigned food assets was completed and submitted to our community partner, on time.

Some of our group members went to volunteer with Richmond Food Bank on Sunday of Week 8 to build a  ”can-struction”.   We used hundreds of cans to build a giant peanut butter jar and had lots of fun!   The goal of this exhibition is to raise public awareness of food bank and fill up the food bank shelves using all the cans donated by sponsors, schools and community members. . We look forward to more opportunities to participate in community events.

Week 9 ended with our mid point check in which was a teleconference held with Rani and Anne on Friday November 3rd. The Richmond Food Asset map was live, based on the information we gathered, and it looked awesome! We are eager to start Phase 2 in the coming weeks. VCH has already approved  a list of organizations that we will visit and conduct a presentation on how to use the map and obtain feedback. After the teleconference, we were all clear about our next steps.

So far, we can check off…

• Proposal done
• Gathering, updating and collating  free/low-cost meal/grocery information, done
• 3 meetings attended with our community partners (two telephone conference + one meeting in person), done
• Our first  opportunity to volunteer in our community, done
• 3 blogs to share our journey, done.

Our Weekly Objectives

TIMELINE

Moments of Significant Change

New knowledge and skills

Getting to know our community:

In the first seven weeks of our project, we started to get to know about our community on paper.  Discussions with the VCH dietitians about the Richmond area and our own research on demographics and current food assets helped us form our ideas on what might be important in this multicultural community.  In the last two weeks, we have gained a new perspective by communicating directly through emails and in phone calls with community members representing various organizations.   When we shared our vision, we discovered how those on the front line, those who were serving free meals and distributing groceries, would react to our invitation for inclusion on the food asset map.  We learned that each organization had different goals, target audiences and capabilities.  Some greeted our proposal enthusiastically, but, others, after some consideration, declined  our offer.  It became clear to us that we were mapping out free or subsidized food assets, most of the work was done by volunteers.  Promoting their services on line caused concerns about whether they could meet the needs of additional people.  This was a valuable insight for us.  Current information, conveniently catalogued and available in the click of a mouse, was not without risk and some community organizations were uncertain that the asset map provided a net benefit.

Connecting our knowledge to to our community:

Our learning about the many inequalities in the food system has often touched upon the issue of food insecurity.  Although Richmond appears fairly affluent at first glance, there are some in the community for whom access to adequate, affordable and culturally appropriate food is challenging.  We discovered that, due to financial constraints, the free community meal programmes  are well attended  and some are even at full capacity  The Richmond Food Bank feeds over 2200 people each week, 32% of whom are children.  Our volunteer experience with the Food Bank, which involved raising awareness about the need for donations, also helped us make the connection between “food justice” and “food insecurity” in theory and the very real need for secure access to appropriate food for those in the local community.  We realize that “food insecurity” is not just a phrase appearing in the news, but a serious issue that impacts a huge number of people worldwide. As  university students in a developed country, we may have felt that food justice issues or food insecurity did not apply to us but our classroom learning, reading and project are helping us to see that we are all connected to those issues and realize how intractable some of the problems are.

Moments of emotional significance:

At the outset, as a group we felt uncertain, with lots of mixed feelings as to how our project might unfold. Some of us were nervous and others were excited to start our collective project. After meeting with our community partners in week 3, everyone gained more confidence and our emotions finally passed the neutral line!

As the next couple of weeks passed, our emotions plummeted as tasks such as blogs and the project proposal were assigned to us. In this stage, we faced several obstacles. Everyone had different writing styles and different strengths, we had to consider input from various sources and we were still figuring out the most efficient and best way to work together as a group. The pressures came not only from the project as those  weeks were also midterm weeks for all of our group members. Fortunately, all our hard work was rewarded with positive feedback so you can see that there is a sudden upward surge in week 5.

We were happy to know that both our TA and the community partners approved our proposal. This allowed us to move to the active phase of the project, where we could apply our theoretical plan, the proposal, to the real life situation. To our surprise, not all the organizations chose to be incorporated into our project. We were suddenly forced to face several rejections and our enthusiasm cooled  a bit from the excitement of the proposal feedback. It was significant for us to reassess what we were doing and its value to those in the community.  We had imagined that every organization would be to be represented on the map, without considering that some volunteer organizations are only just able to meet the needs of their current clients.  Unlike business such as grocery stores, increased visibility may be a challenge for those offering free food.  We understood and respected this position and it enhanced our understanding of the differences among food assets in a community,.  So, after adjusting to this emotional law, we are moving upwards again, excited to begin phase two.

Strategies for Successful Project Completion

Although we have only made it through phase 1 of the project, this phase would not have been successful without group encouragement and communication skills.

1.Team Encouragement

Phase 1 of the project involved a lot of first time experiences.  For example, we met our community project partners for the first time in week 3; we wrote a group blog post for the first time;  and we had a teleconference with professionals outside of school for the first time. As a group, we all found that doing things for the first time always caused us fear and anxiety because of all the uncertainties and unknowns. However, instead of avoiding all these challenges, we provided positive emotional support to each other and encouraged each other to be adventurous.

2.Communication

Our effective communication skills within the team, with community partners and with the food assets have helped us in problem solving and conflicts resolution. When talking to our community partners and the majority of the food assets, although they are easy to approach, they are often busy with their day jobs, so prefer our conversations to be concise. Effective communication skills are not only essential for connecting with our community partners and food assets, but also important in group discussion. When we do any group assignment, we always brainstorm ideas, listen to everyone’s opinion and give each other feedback for improvements. These discussion helps us hear diverse ideas within the team which enhances our creativity and innovation.

In phase 2, as we go in pairs to present the new Richmond Food Asset Map and interview interested parties, we will continue to build on the skills we have earned.  Working as a team, we will continue to encourage each other, communicating with respect and always listening and learning from each other and from those in our community.

“The past is where you learned the lesson.  The future is where you apply the lesson.  Don’t give up in the middle”

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Andrew Carnegie

PDF of project proposal:

Proposal

Our Weekly Objectives

TIMELINE

What have we achieved so far?

For the past two weeks,  the majority of our group effort has been directed towards compiling a comprehensive and clear proposal. The proposal has been constructed to align with the objectives set out by VCH public dietitians, Anne and Rani and who represent our community partner, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).  Moreover, the proposal will serve as a guideline for us to develop an  action plan for the establishment of Richmond food asset map  along with our community partner.  In the proposal, we discussed the significance, objectives and intended benefits  of creating a food asset map for Richmond.  In addition, methods and strategies to achieve the objectives of the project are stated in the proposal.

After the completion of the proposal, our group held a teleconference with Anne and Rani to discuss our proposal and establish the steps we need to take in the forthcoming weeks. During the conference, Anne and Rani have given us valuable feedback on our proposal and advised us  on how to best to move forward with our project. With their advice and feedback, we established a series of weekly objectives to assist us in putting on plan into action.  

Overall, as a group, we look forward to building the Richmond Food Asset Map, making a difference in the Richmond community and overcoming any challenges as a group.

So far, we can check off…

• Proposal done, aligned with our partner’s objectives.
• 2 meetings attended with our community partners (one telephone conference + one meeting in person) done.
• 2 blogs to share our journey, done.

What has been significant to us?

In order to turn this massive Food Asset Map Project into reality, our group had to work hard to compile a thorough proposal which required integration of different opinions. Integrating all the ideas, not only from our group members, but also from our teaching assistant and community partners made the process complex, time-consuming and, at times, difficult. However, since we aimed to develop the proposal as a guideline for our future plan, we needed it to be as thoughtful as possible. Agreement among everyone involved would be crucial to our long term success.

So, how did we transform our ideas into action plans? First, we discussed  our draft proposal with our teaching assistant who gave us some valuable feedbacks. From there, we went through a series of project revisions through the use of  a Google doc that is shared among group members. We shared our proposal with Anne and Rani and later set up a teleconference with them to listen to their feedback, clarify some points and  answer their questions. This helped to ensure that everyone involved in the project was on the same page and assure us that our proposal meet their expectations.  Most importantly, after a walk through of our revised proposal, Anne and Rani agreed to let us move to the implementation of our project and to begin contacting the community members in Richmond.

As a result, our proposal is now ready to go and is waiting for us to be transformed into actions. We feel well prepared and informed because of the teleconference and discussion with our teaching assistant. We also believe that our community partners feel the same way and have confidence in us.

At times, we have found it difficult to make connections between our project and the lecture material. Although our project involves components of the food system, such as food security in a community based setting, it is not always easy to associate food related issues in terms of race, gender, or other minority groups directly with our project or implement some of the ideas in practical terms.

However, we did want  to reflect our learning in our project design. So, we started by contemplating the significance of our roles within this community-based project, considering  what gap(s)  we are trying to fill.   For instance, we tried to design the project using the concept of asset-based community development, in the hope of  maximizing  the community capacity. To achieve our goal of bridging the gap between community members and their resources through participation with local organizations, we felt that communicating by meeting in person and talking on the phone rather than by email only was essential.  So, we have met in-person and by telecommunication with our community partner and we anticipate a great deal more in-person communication and hands-on learning with community organizations through the interviews we will conduct in the second phase of our project.  The idea of helping the community members recognize and appreciate their neighbouring resources hands on, gave our group a sense of physical engagement and excitement.  We also felt more immersed in the community after Anne and Rani told us more about Richmond itself and its unique demographics.   Although linking our learning to the real physical project can be difficult, we are enjoying the process of overcoming the challenge and shaping our project into something realistic enough to be put into action.

So what did we learn?

The feedback we received from our teaching assistant and community partners gave us an insight into whether we were on track with our project  .Overall, we did a good job completing the initial part of the project. However, there were a couples of suggestions that we needed to take into consideration. While we are compiling proposal, we had to be more logically clear with every sentence we put it down. Each idea had to be closely  related to the project and our goals. In addition, we learned that we had to illustrate why our project was  important based on the background of the community in Richmond.

Furthermore, our community partners provided clarity about each task in the project. Anne and Rani reminded us about the existence of scattered information (e.g. from brochures that are already developed) relating  to free food or low cost food in Richmond.  It was their expectation that we take advantage of that resources, confirm the information and finally gather them in one useful tool (the food asset map).  We agreed upon how to make contact with those organisations and businesses:  email (optimal) or phone or in person.  Issues about requirements  of written and oral consent were discussed and we realized that further clarification of this would be  necessary after we checked UBC requirements/protocol with our instructors  Finally, we learned  that when we go  in pairs to meet with the interviewees who are selected by community partner, we will be delivering a presentation showing them how to use the map. In addition,  they will answer our questions, fill the evaluation interview form, and give us feedback of the map.  This objective was significantly different from the one we had envisaged and that had been included in our original proposal. After making the necessary changes we feel clear about what we are going to do overall, and ready to move to the next step of our project.

Now what?

So , with our proposal in hand, we are ready to move forward into the community with a keener awareness of the challenges of the task ahead.  Already, our experiences have taught us some important lessons.

• Adapt and be flexible.

“The best laid plans of Mice and Men often go awry”  -Robert Burns.

Throughout this process, we have had ideas, drafts, plans and we have realized that the process involves continual change.  Sometimes, incremental changes, other times big changes due to differences in understanding or a new context or environment.  We need to adjust meetings to fit with schedules, in-person meetings may change to on the phone, and dates may have to altered at times. As we learned in lecture, we need to embrace uncertainty and be confident that we can use our experience and skills to deal with whatever may arise.

• Communication is Key

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world”  -Tony Robbins

It turns out that, however clear things appear to one person, they may be interpreted differently by another.  Our teaching assistant made this point to us with an exercise where one person had to draw what another described, with interesting results.  In much the same way, we discovered, at times, that group  members had different understandings of our objectives and our community partner certainly did.  We needed effective communication in writing and through talking and listening to clarify exactly what we intended to convey to others.  We need to continue to regularly checking our understanding and others to ensure we stay on the same page.

• Details details details

“The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail” – Charles R. Swindoll

At the outset, the project looked straightforward.  Although we were starting the process of asset mapping in Richmond, it was not a completely new concept.  The Vancouver map was up and running and various tools were available to us.  However, we realized that there is a large gap between a concept and a completed project.  In that gap are the details, hammered out one by one.  Goals needed to become objectives and to achieve those objectives we needed a method.  The method involves many steps, timelines and dates, each one important to keep the project on task.  We are aware now of the importance of clarifying all the details so we can work together effectively as a group.

• No man is an island

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” –Phil Jackson

As we move into the next phase of our project,  the skills and strengths  of everyone in our team are becoming apparent.  Everyone is a team player, plays a part in every task, shows up for every meeting.  We are deep thinkers, talkers, organizers, writers, planners, do-ers.   We have different technical and interpersonal skills.  Everyone is a valuable member of the group and we need to go forward learning from each other, listening to each other and appreciating the different qualities we have to share.

Upcoming objectives and strategies

Our next objective is to collect information from the community organizations in Richmond and secure their consent for releasing information publicly. We have agreed to reach out to them first by email, including our phone number in the email in case they prefer contact by phone.  Our goal  is have all the information gathered and entered into an Excel spreadsheet to be passed to our community partner, VCH by November 1st. VCH will be responsible for inputting the data into the  Richmond Food Asset Map.

After the map is available,  we will train individuals from community organizations  to use the map and get feedback from them on its perceived usefulness. A list of the selected organizations will be given to us by VCH and we will schedule in person meetings with them or in pairs. During the meeting, we will provide instructions about how to use the map, and after they have tried it, we will give them a series of questions about their experience using of the map. The results will be submitted to our community partners and included in our final report .

At the end of November, our team will give a project infographic presentation representing a summary of our project and  deliver our final project report in early December.