Course:LFS350/Week 04

Overview

Income and Food + Developing Part 1 of Your Project Proposal

In the first hour, we will have a lecture on issues of class and income as they relate to and shape food insecurity and inequity in the food system.
In the second hour, we will deconstruct Miewald and Ostry's (2014) paper to identify the initial components of an Outcome Measurement Framework (i.e., outcomes, activities, and inputs) to prepare your group to develop your own project proposal.
In tutorial, you will have time to work on the initial sections of your project proposal directly.

Objectives

After completing this session, you should be able to:

Articulate the ways in which income relates to food insecurity
Differentiate between outcomes, activities and outputs in development and implementation of a community food security project
Complete the initial sections of your project proposal (Background & Significance + Outcomes Measurement Framework)

Key Terms + Concepts

Income
Class
Food insecurity
Project proposal development

Required Readings + Resources

Miewald, C., & Ostry, A. (2014). A Warm Meal and a Bed: Intersections of Housing and Food Security in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Housing Studies, 29(6), 709–729. Retrieved through Canvas or the UBC Library Website.

Income and Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is defined as the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints. The Canada Community Health Survey, administered by Statistics Canada, has three classifications of food insecurity based on participants' responses regarding presence of food insecure situations in the household over the last 12 months:

Marginal - Worry about running out of food and/or limit food selection because of lack of money for food.
Moderate - Compromise in quality and/or quantity of food due to a lack of money for food.
Severe - Miss meals, reduce food intake and at the most extreme go day(s) without food.

As stated in a recent PROOF publication, "nearly one third of households reliant on social assistance as their main source of income are severely food insecure, indicating serious levels of food deprivation. The rate of severe food insecurity among social assistance recipients is 11 times higher than the rate nationally." Below, Dr. Valerie Tarasuk, PROOF leader, explains how the problem of food insecurity is far greater and more complex than most Canadians realize.

Writing a Proposal

A project proposal explains the What, How and Why of your project. Conceptualizing, articulating, and receiving feedback on your proposal will help ensure that all stakeholders are clear on the objectives, procedures, and expected outcomes of your project. A well-written project proposal clarifies what you are trying to achieve together. And, equally important, it outlines what isn't to be included in your project, preventing a phenomenon called scope creep, which often leads to frustration and feeling overwhelmed. Further, your proposal will be a good place to return to when the realities of the term start to interfere with the group's vision, also known as scope change, which is inevitable (and something we will explore in more detail in later course sessions).

Our proposal templates are designed to mimic current grant proposals. We have drawn on local templates for 3 key reasons:

The template and terms in our LFS 350 proposal are commonly used across Metro Vancouver and the province, which aligns our course work with the types of documents, frameworks and terms that your community partners are familiar with.
By familiarizing yourself with these common templates and terms, you will be better able to describe your work in LFS 350 to future employers
Upon graduation, you will be better prepared to engage in proposal writing.

The following is an excellent resource for developing your proposal:

Splash and Ripple: Using outcomes to design and manage community activities

Tutorial Session

In your tutorial session, your group will...

Discuss and prepare your proposal, section by section

Next week you will receive feedback from your TA on your proposal and have time to refine your work.

Additional Material

PODCAST SERIES: On the Media - Busted: America's Poverty Myths - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

“Busted: America’s Poverty Myths” is a five-part series exploring how our understanding of the causes of poverty are formed not by facts, but by myths, media, and the tales of the American dream. Host Brooke Gladstone traveled to Ohio, a state that encompasses all types of poverty -- rural, inner city, and rust belt -- to hear from individuals who are poor how they got that way, and to understand, under current policies, why they are likely to stay that way.

WEB ARTICLE - Basic Income Would Take Canada One Huge Step Toward Gender Equality.
- This recent article in the Huffington Post explores the intersections between income, gender, and food insecurity.