2021 Community Project Healthy Eating and Donating Food to the Community
Crispin M & Nikita R
Community Project Coach: Mr. Opie
Our Topic: Healthy Eating and Food Insecurity Awareness
Why were we interested in this topic?
We thought that it would be a good idea to help the community by giving donating food and talking about how a healthy diet is important.
Who is the community that we are serving?
Our target focus group are the disadvantaged people that don’t have the opportunities to getting the best food there is or any food at all.
Guiding Question:
How can we help disadvantaged families during the pandemic, positively change their eating habits, and bring awareness to food insecurity?
Global Context
What is our global context?
The global context that best fits our project is fairness and development because we shared a finite resource, which was food, with the community. We also allowed equal access to opportunities by providing a pamphlet filled with health information.
Prior Knowledge
What did we already know about this topic?
Before our research, we knew that people were suffering from food insecurity, but we didn’t know that it was as bad as it is. We had also known that not nearly enough people were eating healthy and some weren’t even aware of the benefits of eating healthy.
What did we already know about the community need?
We knew that the majority of people in our community weren't aware of the importance and benefits of eating healthy. We also knew that food insecurity went up from 8% in 2018 to 13% in 2020 due to covid.
Our Research Results
What research did we do on our topic:
We researched a bunch of different trusted health websites to figure out the benefits of eating healthy. We also looked at statistics to find out how many people were actually affected by food insecurity to see how we could possibly help out our community.
What we found out:
We found that eating healthy has a lot of great benefits, such as being cheaper, providing better nutrients, and even improving your sleep and memory! The average amount of people that are food insecure in the U.S is 35 million. We found out that this number has gone up by over 10 million since coronavirus started.
Planning Process
Did our project change over time?
Yes, our project did change over time. When we first started out, we knew that we wanted to help the community because of the impact coronavirus has had on it, but we’re planning to take a different approach.
What steps did we take to get there?
First, we chose which global context our projected matched the best. Then, we made a proposal of action in which we made a detailed step-by-step plan. We did some research on our topic, recorded the information on a separate google doc, and finally, we started putting the information on the slides.
Planning Process
How did we plan our project?
We thought about the current situation in the world, and about how we could make a change in our community, and used process journals to keep our ideas organized. For example, we used the proposal for action below to keep track of when certain thing needed to be done by.
The link to our proposal for action: https://docs.google.com/document/d/137ZZs2HSf3PTSF7jY6Vi7SXPZuTQW4cnBN0p3NU1raw/edit?usp=sharing
Communication and Collaboration
Did we work well together?
We did work well together. Because it was just the two of us working together, we could communicate directly without having to confirm with somebody else. We’ve also been friends for a long time, so we knew what to expect from each other.
Communication techniques used:
We used text messages, and Wednesday community project meetings with our coach.
Taking Action
What did we do about it?
We decided to do our own research and inform students in MCPS about the benefits of eating healthy. We did that by creating pamphlets and we would have liked to hand them out whenever we donated food. We will also give back to the community by donating food to food banks.
Taking Action
Reflection
Did we meet our goal/guiding question?
Yes, we did. We chose to help disadvantaged families in MCPS, bring awareness to food insecurity as well as provide a solution, and give reasons for why someone should want to eat healthier.
Reflection
How did this project make us more knowledgeable?
This project has made us more knowledgeable by showing us how many people are actually suffering from food insecurity. We also learned about all the amazing benefits that can come from a healthy diet.
How does service learning help the community?
Service learning an experience that teaches responsibility which can change students in a way that will allow them to make an impact on their community.
Reflection
What Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills did we use in the completion of this project?
RESEARCH: We sited many sources to help us have valid information on our topic.
CRITICAL THINKING: We had to think outside of the box
COMMUNICATION: We used this skill to help us stay in touch with the dates of our project process in order to not fall behind.
SELF-MANAGEMENT: This skill helped us manage our time efficiently in order to finish the final project.
Citations:
Thank You
Thanks you for listening to our community project. We hope that we’ve encouraged you to make a change in you community too!