Minutes From Andrew's meeting
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
LFS 350 – Meeting with Andrew at Gordon Neighbourhood House
Initial goal was for the herb garden group to collaborate with the meal-sharing group
Clarification and details of projects
o Herb Garden Toolkit
Will be setting up an informational table to promote the toolkit to
o Meal-sharing event/Potluck (encouraged to not focus on this any longer)
Was initially intended to encourage people to hang around after learning
community members
Challenges: it’s around dinner time and when folks end work, community
about the toolkit, to engage with their neighbours, and an incentive for
participants to stay and mingle over food
members may already be hungry, may be hard to prepare a meal in such
a short period of time
o Online Survey from both groups (will still be able to do this and will be
promoted at one of the tables at the event)
Andrew expressed interest in this
Success factor: Lucy mentioned to Esther that even 5 responses from
Challenge: the results of the survey will probably not be broad enough for
community would be helpful
GNH to use in their strategic plan, but the data will still be extremely
valuable and used for reflection purposes at the neighbourhood house
Food Demonstration Event (the event that we will now be focusing on and
promoting)
o Where: room downstairs at GNH
o Objective/purpose
To show community members how to prepare different and easy dishes
A great way to transfer knowledge and provide resources to community
that incorporates various vegetables from the garden (kale, dark leafy
greens, brussel sprouts, winter squash, etc.)
members, including the available toolkits
o Activities
Snacks to share
1 table for the Urban Farm Toolkit
1 table for the Herb Garden Toolkit
1 table for Neighbourhood Small Grants
1 table for the online survey
2 tables for 2-3 food demonstration stations
Both groups to clarify their individuals questions and consolidate
them together afterwards
Recommended to have demos for homemade salad dressing,
salad, and roasted root veg dish – try to include/highlight
ingredients from both urban farm and herb garden
o Materials
All utensils and food demonstration equipment will be provided by GNH
Will have to wash dishes later (don’t want to use disposable stuff to
reduce waste)
o Resources/Assets: Matt teaches classes at the Dirty Apron, Esther works with
Sprouts at UBC, Andrew is a Red Seal chef, etc.
o Target audience (within the West End Community): folks who are interested in
developing community gardens (elderly folks, youth, ethnic community
members, families, gardeners or others who are interested in promoting safe
and comfortable communities)
o Allies to contact to promote the event
Community members who manage community gardens/community
garden associations
(http://vancouver.ca/people-programs/community-gardens.aspx)
Village Vancouver (major outreach across the city)
Friends for Life Society, etc. (all organizations listed on GNH’s Food
LGBTQ-related organizations
Seniors: West End Seniors Network, Gathering Place Community Centre
Youth: GAB Youth, King George Secondary (Community Service Team)
Ethnic communities: Russian Community who volunteers at the Thrift
Resource guide)
Store
o Promotions (to be taken on by Promotions Team, Kirianna, Kalin, Shelby &
Cassandra, but to also be promoted by everyone to their personal networks!)
Shelby from group 14 drafted up an awesome poster previously for the
potluck; will be using the same one after making necessary changes to it
and it will be turned into an invitation (smaller version of the poster)
It will include the following details: the seed library, food demonstration
stations, toolkits; date, time, contact information with a temporary Gmail
account for general inquires from the public, Facebook event
Should set up a Facebook event before the poster gets sent out
Set up EventBrite event (will give us a preliminary idea of how many
people are coming)
** Every group member MUST bring at least one friend to the event!**
Requested by Andrew
Action Items/Due dates
o WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH
o THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH
o FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH
o FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY
o WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12th
Draft up a contact list on Excel of all the organizations/individuals we are
hoping to connect with; will send to Andrew and he will reply back to us
in regard to which folks he will directly contact
Confirm the event name (ensure that it is “garden or farm-related”;
Andrew will notify us in regard to the garden inventory on what produce
they currently have (and in season) and what we would need to purchase
Andrew will connect with Will to clarify if there is funding for the project
to purchase snacks
Start compiling a master list of all the things to do before and during the
event + delegating roles must show Andrew this.
Andrew will be meeting with the management team and they will provide
feedback in regard to the event and poster; we’ll receive feedback
immediately after and make any necessary changes
Will communicate with us re: contact list + the people he wants to reach
out to himself and the people we are allowed to contact
Create Facebook event (“private setting” for now)
All event details to be APPROVED and FINALIZED
Promotion, promotion, promotion!
Menu/descriptions of food demonstration stations drafted up
CBEL HOURS
o Andrew is looking for volunteers for more long-term commitments, but they
o Most effective to email Jim, the Volunteer Coordinator, for more information
may need volunteers for community lunches
and other opportunities (jim@gordonhouse.org)