Introduction:
Hello everyone, welcome to our blog! From the left we have Timothy Wong, Michael Chang, Emily Yuen, Selena Chua, Licca Zhu.
In the following sections, we will take you on a little journey to let you know more about each of us individually, what motivated us to work on the Richmond Food Asset Map and what a food asset map is. Without further delay, here is our first member, Timothy Wong!
Timothy Wong
My name is Timothy Wong and I am a third year student in the Nutritional Sciences Major. Aside from my current studies, I have am interested in food, traveling and hiking. This past year, I studied abroad at the University of Hong Kong as an exchange student whilst visiting Japan and Korea, gaining new experiences and insight. Aside from viewing food from a nutritional and biochemical standpoint, I find it intriguing to look at food from a food systems perspective, which LFS 250 has enabled me to do. With my previous experiences and knowledge, I hope to fulfill my role as a community member through tackling issues present in the community food system.
Michael Chang
My name is Michael and I am a 3rd year student in the Food, Nutrition and Health major. During my free time I like to tinker with mechanical and electronic objects.
Everyone should have the right to food, no matter where you are in the world. Richmond, being a relatively new and fast growing city, should have structured ways of delivering food to those who need them.
This project peaked my interest from its simple idea of feeding everyone through the use of communication, distribution and teaching. I hope to learn these very skills and apply it back to the community, in addition to talking to and teaching the community partners about the project and resources available to them, so that food can reach everyone in the city.
Emily Yuen
My name is Emily. I am a 3rd year student majoring in Food, Nutrition and Health with hopes of getting into the Dietetics major. My interests include hiking and playing Ultimate Frisbee. In the future, I hope to help different families know what to eat in order to achieve adequate nutritional status as well as how and where they can access these food products. Through this project, I wish to become more aware of the different locations where families in Richmond will be able to access food and learn food skills to help them reach adequate nutritional level.
Selena Chua
My name is Selena and I am a third year FNH student. As a student in LFS, I have not been actively participating in my faculty in my first two years of being here. Through this course, I hope to become more active in LFS and make more friends in the faculty. Being an efficient communicator, I hope to be able to use this to my group’s advantage in approaching food assets in this project.
Licca Zhu
My name is Licca and I am a 3rd year student in the Food & Nutritional Sciences Double Major who likes to travel and spend time with close friends. I find it interesting that the physical, biological, and chemical makeup of food can be extremely diverse and that there are a variety of ways to work with food. I realizef that not everyone in a community has the opportunity to work with food possibly because they are unaware of places providing food resources and because of that, I hope to positively contribute to the Richmond community through collaboration with Vancouver Coastal Health!
Goals and Reasons for Choosing this Project
In this project, we will be working together with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) in producing a simple to use food asset map that will be accessible online. Part of the project requires locating possible food assets, such as community kitchen programs, food skills workshops, and public kitchens, and contacting them in getting permission to include their information on the food asset map. In addition, after VCH produces the map, we will get feedback from the community partners and VCH staff members on how to improve the map.
By the end of this project, we hope to provide the community partners and agencies with the necessary tools to allow locals to access the community’s food assets, and to determine possible gaps that exists in the current food assets map. We would also like to raise awareness to the community members about the food assets and programs available to them. Through LFS 350, we hope to gain a better understanding of the food related programs that are available in the Richmond community to help families of low socioeconomic status as well as gain experiences in working with community partners and learn to develop professional relationships.
There were various reasons for choosing to work on the Richmond Food Asset Map as our project for LFS 350. Each of us have personal goals that we would like to achieve through this project. For example, Emily stated that she wanted to learn more about the job of a dietitian; while Licca wants to learn about the different resources available, especially food skill workshop availability to help one of her neighbourhood friends. As a group, we hope to develop a tool that will benefit people of the community to have greater access to food related programs. Moreover, some members of our group members live in Richmond and are eager to positively contribute to their local community food system.
Project Objectives
-
To develop a simple map as a tool for members of the community to identify and locate food assets available to them in the community
-
To raise awareness of public food assets, including community kitchens, food skills programs, and kitchen spaces, where the members of the Richmond community can gain education and training, as well as participate in social gathering opportunities
-
To allow members of the Richmond community to quickly and easily pinpoint gaps in the local community
Pictures showing the community working together in the kitchen
Community Organization
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is a health authority striving to support the healthy lives of community members by providing care, education, and research (“Strategy,” n.d.). Within VCH, registered dietitians promote healthy attitudes toward food and eating through sharing evidenced-based information and education to community members (“Food Asset Map,” n.d.). The dietitians, along with their partners, Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, UBC Land and Food Systems’ students and instructors, the City of Vancouver, and Fresh Roots, create food asset maps in local communities to allow community members to become knowledgeable in the available support with health and food (“Food Asset Map,” n.d.).
First Impressions: Integration of Food Justice and Asset-Based Community Development
Ernesto Sirolli (2012) highlighted many ideas in his TED Talk that aligned with the principles of Asset-Based Community Development and food justice. Through this project with Vancouver Coastal Health to develop a food asset map for Richmond, many of these principles and ideas will be put into effect. Much like how Sirolli (2012) stated that success cannot be achieved alone, our project to create a food asset map for the community relies on collaborative work between us, the students of LFS 350, and Vancouver Coastal Health. Moreover, our work as students is to connect with community partners, such as community centres and local churches, to identify food assets that are available and help Vancouver Coastal Health develop a food asset map that is accurate and easy to use. Our project is a prime opportunity for voices of community members to be heard and for us to actively listen rather than paternalize (Sirolli, 2012) to collectively contribute to the improvement of our food system.
With regards to food justice, the development of the Richmond Food Asset Map will result in promoting food security in the community and tackling inequalities in socioeconomic status, which has been a major cause for food insecurity (Cadieux & Slocum, 2015). Furthermore, in the development of this tool, communal reliance and control is heavily emphasized, allowing for members of the community to freely access the city’s food assets (Cadieux & Slocum, 2015).
With these ideas and concept in mind, we hope that our work with VCH this semester can contribute to the bigger picture of solving food insecurity in families in Richmond.
References
Cadieux, K. V., & Slocum, R. (2015). What does it mean to do food justice? Journal of Political Ecology, 22, 1-26.
Diversecity Photo. Retrieved Feb 06 2018 from http://www.dcrs.ca/services/settlement-services-and-community-programs-department/food-security-program/
Food Asset Map. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vch.ca/public-health/nutrition/food-asset-map
Greater Vancouver Food Bank Picture. Retrieved Feb 06 2018 from https://www.foodbank.bc.ca/our-programs/community-kitchens/
Sirolli, E. [TED]. (2012, November 26). Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM
Strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vch.ca/about-us/strategy/
Vancouver Coastal Health Logo. Retrieved Feb 06 2018 from http://www.vch.ca/