Course:LFS350/Projects/Fall2016/GNH Myths

From UBC Wiki

Project Summary

Purpose

This project focus is an on-going development of food science workshops and demos for children and youth in the Out of School Program

  • Plan, implement, and evaluate creative, engaging, and exciting workshops

Areas of Focus

  • Food literacy
  • Child and youth education
  • Food science

Skills

  • Food science and literacy skills
  • Educational workshop program development
  • Workshop evaluation

Location

Background Information

Out of School Care (OSC) provides supervised and fun after-school activities and out-trips for students at Lord Roberts Elementary or Annex. The program is open to school-aged children in grades kindergarten to Grade 7 (ages 5-10). It runs from 3pm – 6pm on weekdays. We want children to experience the principles of our food philosophy at an early age, as a part of their time at Gordon House. This project complements existing programs such as the Kids community kitchen on Tuesdays, as part of OSC, where children cooperate to cook and share a meal – using recipes and/or improvisation!

We would like this to be an ongoing / repeat project that happens each term with a different group of students. As such, the students would be responsible for documenting their activities and the results (e.g. how was the activity received by the children? What were the challenges in carrying off the activity? What were the main learning outcomes?) in a log, for later students to learn from.

Organization Information

Name

Gordon Neighbourhood House

Vision + Mission

Vision: As a place-based community organization, we work alongside our community, sister organizations, local businesses and policy-makers to animate and support dynamic programs, services and initiatives that respond to the needs and dreams of the community.

Mission: Gordon Neighbourhood House strives to ensure that the West End of Vancouver is a vibrant and active community, where everyone is empowered to play an active role in civil society.

Principles + Goals

  • Gordon Neighbourhood House offers a wide variety of programs (many of which are related to food).
  • Our Food Philosophy is detailed on our website: http://gordonhouse.org/about-gordon-neighbourhood-house/right-to-food/
  • Gordon Neighbourhood House uses food to nourish our community in a variety of ways, including the facilitation of intercultural exchange and dialogue, community capacity-building, and community development.

Principles:

  • An understanding that food brings us together and can act as vehicle for community-building.
  • A recognition that all members of our community have a Right to Food based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while also acknowledging that we as a community enjoy various levels of access to food.
  • A commitment to sharing fresh, non-expired, healthy, and locally-sourced food whenever possible.
  • A commitment to sharing food that is nutrient-dense, low in refined sugar and sodium, and not overly-processed.
  • A commitment to working toward increased access to food for those who are nutritionally vulnerable.
  • A commitment to providing opportunities for increased food literacy and community capacity-building for our neighbours.
  • A commitment to sharing foods that reflect the diversity of our community, city, country and world.
  • An awareness of the impact that our food choices have on the environment.
  • A commitment to the reduction of our organizational ecological footprint by minimizing packaging and ongoing composting.
  • Support for the development of urban farms and healthy food cooperatives.

Primary Contact

  • Contact Person(s): Isabel Ashton
  • Email: Isabel@gordonhouse.org
  • Address: 1019 Broughton Street
  • Phone: 604 683 2554
  • Website: www.gordonhouse.org
  • Best time(s) method(s) to contact: Email

Project Description

  • Plan, implement, and evaluate food science and literacy workshops at GNH for the Out of School program
  • Students with an interest in food science and food literacy will be working with the Gordon Neighbourhood House Out of School Care program, ideally for 3-4 sessions.
  • Plan and complete engaging Food Science ‘experiments’ or activities that teach kids about simple food science and/or cooking principles. For example: Science experiments with eggs: floating vs. sinking, spinning boiled vs. raw, living biology of fermentation, the (basic) science behind nutrients and human health

Skills Preferred

  • Interpersonal skills
  • Collectively, skills and knowledge they can share about food science, cooking
  • Ideal for a food science student, human nutrition, etc.
  • Comfortable working with children, and able to keep them engaged

Skills to Be Developed

  • Educational workshop planning
  • Communication and engagement with children and youth
  • Food literacy

Preferred Days of Week and Hours

  • To be determined with community partner. Out of School Care program runs Mondays to Thursdays from 3pm - 6pm

Project/Partner Orientation

  • Orientation will consist in part of helping to serve community lunch (at least one) at Gordon House in order to get oriented to the kitchen, the chef, the House, and the community
  • Getting familiar with our Food Philosophy and our food programs (which can be found on our website) could be a first step before students even come to visit (for a general orientation to the House and introduction to the staff).
  • Students will also meet a staff person who is knowledgeable about the OSC program, and will have the opportunity to ask them questions

Experiential Learning Opportunities

  • Students will have the opportunity to participate in community lunch volunteering (Monday – Thursday 11am – 2pm)

http://gordonhouse.org/about-gordon-neighbourhood-house/volunteers/community-lunch-volunteer/

Expected Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

I hope students will learn about…

  • Through practice, students will learn about teaching food topics to kids in an accessible and fun way
  • Group facilitation

I think students will come to appreciate…

  • Children’s viewpoints around food (what is interesting to them about food, how to ‘package’ lessons in a way that they’ll learn and want to get their hands dirty)

Students will develop an…

  • Increased level of comfort with planning lessons and teaching groups of children about food topics

Organizational Outcomes

  • Support in offering workshops in OSC that will teach children about (accessible) science topics and food topics
  • Support at the community lunch(es)
  • A plan or guideline for future project facilitators (future students who do food science activities with OSC children)
  • Plan and guideline that will help future groups of students to carry out similar tasks