1 COMMUNITY EATS HANDBOOK Created in March 2008 by Caitlin Dorward and Heather Russell 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 4 PART A. PROGRAM INFORMATION 5 1. Program Description 5 1.1 Vision 5 1.2 Values 5 1.3 Mission 5 1.3 History, Background and Inspiration 5 2. Community Eats and the UBC Natural Food Coop 6 2.1 Community Eats’ place in the NFC constitution 6 2.2 Community Eats’ representative on the NFC Board 6 3. Future Goals 6 3.1 Expanded serving schedule 6 3.2 SUB Renewal – Permanent kitchen and serving space 7 PART B. STRUCTURE AND PEOPLE 8 1. Guiding members 8 2. Guiding Member Roles and Responsibilities 9 2.1 Community Eats Director 9 2.2 Volunteer Coordinator 10 2.3 Food Collection Coordinator 11 2.4 Kitchen Coordinator/Head Chef 11 2.5 Serving Coordinator 12 2.6 Administration and Finance Coordinator 13 2.7 Publicity Coordinator 14 3. Volunteers 14 3.1 Food Collection 14 3.2 Cooking 14 3.3 Serving 15 3.4 Other 15 PART C. PROGRAM RESOURCES AND RECORD KEEPING 16 1. Volunteer Coordination 16 1.1 E-mal Account 16 1.2 Volunteer Recruitment 16 1.3 Coordinating Volunteers 17 1.4 Things a Volunteer Should Know 18 2. Food Collection 19 2.1 Food Collection Mandate 19 2.2 About Collection 19 2.3 Logistics of collection 21 3. Cooking 22 3 3.1 Accessible and Appropriate Food Mandate 22 3.2 Food Purchasing Mandate 22 3.3 Using the AMS kitchens 23 3.4 How to Use the Kitchen Equipment 24 3.5 Keeping the Kitchens Clean 27 3.6 Record keeping 28 3.7 Food Safety Plan for Cooking 29 4. Serving 30 4.1 Food Safety Plan for Serving 30 4.2 Set-up checklist 30 4.3 Clean-up checklist 31 5. Administration and Finances 32 5.1 Financial accountability 32 5.2 Funding 32 5.3 Donations 32 5.4 Our accounts with Sprouts and the AMS 33 6. Publicity 34 6.1 Community Eats Blog 34 6.2 Community Eats Page on Sprouts’ Website 34 6.3 Ads and Announcements 34 6.3 Community Eats logo and banner 35 APPENDICIES 36 A. Community Eats Food Safety Plan 36 B. Community Eats History – September to December 2007 39 C. Template Fax/Letter to Businesses 43 D. Handout to bring to Businesses When Seeking Donations 45 E. Thanks to Businesses 47 F. Volunteer Recruitment Letter to Send on List-Serves 48 G. Community Eats Menu and Cooking Log 49 H. Community Eats Expenses Log 53 I. Example AMS Accounts Forms 55 4 We would like to introduce ourselves and begin this handbook with some explanation of why exactly we have created it and what we hope it will help achieve. We, along with Karen Ko and Laura Hsu, were the first Guiding Members of Community Eats during 2007-2008. In October 2007, when the idea for Community Eats was first being tossed around, a primary concern for all involved in the planning was how to ensure that it be an ongoing project in the coming years. Our vision was that Community Eats would become a regular feature of student-life at UBC, but with many of the people involved nearing graduation or planning to be away from UBC, we were worried that our ideas and efforts wouldn’t live on past our own time at this university. We wanted to find a way to create some institutional memory. Given these concerns, we decided as a group that it would be appropriate to compile a handbook documenting the work we did this year in starting Community Eats, in hopes that it could serve as a means to pass on what we have learned to future students who want to continue (and hopefully grow) the initiative. We embarked upon writing this handbook and directing Community Eats during the spring 2008 semester, and incorporated our work into a Directed Study under the direction of Professor Brent Skura. We also met with Brenda Sawada of the Sustainability Office to register our study as a SEEDS (social, environmental and economic development studies) project under her direction. This handbook, in addition to personal reflection papers, became the written output of our directed study. Although we are the sole authors of this handbook, we were in no way the only people behind Community Eats during its first year, and we owe a huge thanks to many others who have been involved: to Brendon Goodmurphy, for sparking our initial inspiration to create Community Eats; to the UBC Natural Food Co-op, and the members of its board, for the use of the café space and support of the initiative from its beginning; to Nancy Toogood and Steve Van Hassel and all of the other AMS Food and Beverage staff, for being so accommodating of our presence in their kitchens and for supporting us as we developed the project; to the Student Environment Centre, for their funding and promotion; and of course to the many, many volunteers who were always keen to help us out (even at the stages when we barely new what we were doing ourselves). Finally, we want to thank Karen Ko and Laura Hsu for their very dedicated involvement as the other Guiding Members of Community Eats from 2007-2008, and Elona Hoover, for her involvement in the first stages of planning in first semester. Without the help and support of all of the above mentioned people and groups this project would not have been possible. We hope that this Handbook helps the future Guiding Members of Community Eats to carry forward and expand this initiative. Good luck! PREFACE: A Note from Caitlin and Heather 5 1. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 1.1 Vision Community Eats is a student volunteer led initiative at UBC. We are dedicated to fostering food security and encouraging community engagement on and beyond our campus, and aim to create a public dialogue about food system issues. 1.2 Values • We believe in the power of food as a tool for building community. • We value food security and foster it by providing a meal that is accessible, available, affordable, appropriate, safe, and sustainable. • We appreciate that cooking food is a creative and social process, and are inspired to share this process with other people. • Value a community space to share food and conversation. • We respect the natural environment, and therefore seek ways to mitigate the amount waste created in our food system. This includes wasted food as well as packaging. Additionally, this respect guides the selection of products for staple food purchases. 1.3 Mission A free or by donation nutritious hot lunch, served to the UBC community on an ongoing basis, will be the medium through which our vision is achieved. Cooked and served as an environmentally and economically affordable, delicious alternative to a typical lunch in the SUB, Community Eats lunches will encourage community interaction and create a forum for discussion about food system issues. Food used to cook the lunches will be obtained through two avenues. In an effort to decrease the amount of edible food that goes to waste, culled produce will be collected from various grocers and/or distributors. Staple food purchases (i.e. rice, beans, spices) will be made in accordance with the values of the project. 1.4 History, Background and Inspiration For a full description of the planning from September to December 2007 please see Appendix B. The idea for Community Eats was sparked in September 2007 by then AMS VP Academic Brendon Goodmurphy, who called a meeting with representatives from a number of student groups on campus. Included in this meeting were students from Sprouts, the AMS Bike Co-op, the Student Environment Centre, Friends of the Farm, and PART A. PROGRAM INFORMATION 6 UBC Farm. Brendon’s idea was to create an initiative that would bring together a number of these groups to create a program similar to The People’s Potato, a “vegan soup kitchen” that the students of Concordia University, in Montreal, initiated to address student poverty. The first lunch was planned for October 26th 2007. At this point, the project did not yet have a name, but was referred to simple as “UBC free lunch” until the name Community Eats was decided upon in early November. Although Community Eats did not become part of the Natural Food Co-op until second semester (more about this in Part A section 2), it was decided to hold the lunch in Sprouts as it was already a food outlet equipped with a hand washing station and food-safe serving space. A second lunch was held on November 30th 2007, after which planning for second semester began. Over the winter break, contacts with produce distributors were established in preparation for a biweekly serving schedule to begin in January. The first serving of 2008 was for the Saturday of the annual Student Environment Centre Conference. Six more lunches were then held throughout the second semester, which took place every second Friday in Sprouts’ newly renovated café space. 2. COMMUNITY EATS AND THE NATURAL FOOD CO-OP 2.1 Community Eats’ place in the NFC constitution The UBC Natural Food Co-op (NFC) is a student club of the Alma Mater Society (AMS) of UBC and is the governing body of Sprouts. On January 25th 2008, a motion was passed by the board of the UBC Natural Food Co-op (NFC) that Community Eats officially become part of the NFC. At this time, the NFC Constitution was revised and the board position of Community Eats Director was created. This seemed like a natural partnership and helped to institutionalize Community Eats, giving it a governing body, a location to hold the lunches (Sprouts), and accounts with the AMS for keeping track of money. 2.2 Community Eats Director on the NFC Board The Community Eats Director will act as the main liaison between Community Eats and the NFC board members and Sprouts volunteers. Please see section 2.1 of Part B for a detailed description of the qualifications and responsibilities of the Community Eats Director. 3. FUTURE GOALS 3.1 Expanded serving schedule Community Eats’ first year started with two trial lunches in the first semester (fall 2007) and increased to biweekly lunches in the second semester (winter 2008). The two similar student initiatives which inspired the creation of Community Eats, Concordia’s The 7 People’s Potato, and McGill’s The Midnight Kitchen, now serve free lunches every day. Although the capacity of Community Eats is, at this point, far short of such a serving schedule, we sincerely hope that one day a daily free lunch could become a reality at UBC. Based on the overwhelmingly positive student response to the lunches this first year, as well as an increasing volunteer base, moving to a weekly serving schedule should be feasible in upcoming years. As a weekly serving would create a more ordinary routine, it would be beneficial to all the parties involved: a) Volunteers and Guiding Members: time commitments to Community Eats will be a regular part of their weekly schedule, rather than an “on-again, off-again” scenario. b) Distributors: similarly, a more regular routine for managers and employees at the businesses that supply Community Eats would be easier on them. In Community Eats’ first year, for example, Terra Breads was not able to donate on a biweekly basis, because weekly pick-ups were much easier for them to coordinate. c) Community members would benefit from access to this food more frequently, and increase the visibility of the sustainability movement on campus. d) Sprouts and its’ customers would benefit from a regular schedule, and come to expect that soups and baked goods are not available on Fridays (but a free lunch is!). 3.2 SUB Renewal This first year, Community Eats was extremely fortunate that the AMS kitchen staff and management were so supportive of the initiative. Were it not for their trust, the project could have been stopped in its tracks. Even granted with access to the AMS kitchens, however, we struggled with the complications inherent in sharing them with so many other groups, including AMS Catering and AMS food outlets. When this handbook was written, the AMS was administering a referendum to decide whether or not students would support an increase in student fees to help fund the construction of a new Student Union Building. While it is obvious that the realization of this renewal would not happen for many years, Community Eats supports the SUB renewal because we see within it an incredible opportunity to grow this initiative. A permanent, dedicated space for serving food, and a permanent student kitchen for storing, prepping and cooking food are the kinds of facilities that have allowed The People’s Potato and The Midnight Kitchen to serve their student populations daily, and we hope to see these included in the plans for a new SUB.. The AMS Student Executive of 07/08, the newly elected Student Executive for 08/09, the AMS Food and Beverage Manager and Head Chef as well as the SUB Renewal Promotions Coordinator have been very supportive of both Community Eats and Sprouts. With their backing, we feel that there is a great potential for the interest of Community Eats to be articulated and seriously considered during the planning stages of the SUB Renewal. 8 1. GUIDING MEMBERS Community Eats Guiding Members form the leadership base of the project. These people have committed to taking on coordinating positions, and thus should be especially knowledgeable and passionate about the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. Each Guiding Member acts as a catalyst and organizer for the activities of Community Eats within the context of their specific responsibilities outlined in section B.2. Although each is thus individually responsible for some specific aspect of the project, an expectation of mutual support comes with the positions, and it is integral that Guiding Members work together to ensure the success of the project as a whole. Guiding Members should meet regularly to coordinate their individual efforts and work amongst themselves to reach consensus on decisions about the groups’ activities, structure, or mandate. Between meetings, the Google Group discussion board can be used as a communication tool to follow up on discussion at the meeting, flesh out plans for upcoming lunches, express concerns or the need for help, etc. In Community Eats’ first year, the Guiding Member team was only four people strong. Although we did manage to work together to organize, cook, and serve Community Eats lunches every second Friday, the time commitment involved on each of our parts was unsustainable. In the interests of making these positions more manageable (especially for those who are also students), we have identified specific roles for seven possible Guiding Members: Community Eats Director, Volunteer Coordinator, Food Collection Coordinator, Kitchen Coordinator/Head Chef, Serving Coordinator, Administration and Finance Coordinator, and Publicity Coordinator. We highly recommend that anyone taking on a Guiding Member role for Community Eats is not also a board member of the NFC. Although there is a lot of overlap in the mandate and philosophy of Community Eats and Sprouts, a committed role in both groups will probably be too overwhelming. We have included, in the Guiding Member Position Descriptions (section B.3), an approximate expected amount. This should only be taken as a rough guideline, however, as it will vary from week to week, depend on the number of additional volunteers available, and change as the project evolves. Additionally, it is more than likely that some roles could be taken on by just one person (for example the Volunteer Coordinator and Publicity Coordinator positions), or that others will be more manageable if shared between two people (for example the Food Collection Coordinator, or the Kitchen Coordinator/Head Chef positions). PART B. STRUCTURE AND PEOPLE 9 2. GUIDING MEMBER POSITION DESCRIPTIONS The following sections outline the main qualifications and responsibilities of each of the seven Guiding Members. Resources that will be useful to the individuals taking on each role can be found in Part C. 2.1 Community Eats Director Approximate Time Commitment: ten hours per week Qualifications: - Is prepared to take on a leadership role among Community Eats Guiding Members and within Community Eats as a whole. - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of The UBC Natural Food Co-Op. - The Community Eats Director is concurrently a board member of the UBC Natural Food Co-Op (NFC), and must therefore be elected to this position by its members at the Annual General Meeting, in April. More about this process can be found in section 1.2.2 of this document, as well as in the constitution of the NFC. Responsibilities: - In September, seeks out students to fill the vacant Guiding Member roles within Community Eats (volunteer coordinator, if there is one at the time, assists in this). - Educates new Guiding Members as to the vision, mission, goals, and history of Community Eats; ensures new Guiding Members are informed of the full responsibilities of their position and have received any training and information they may require. - Based on the capacity of Guiding Members and volunteers, student support, as well as available facilities and funding, determines the frequency of Community Eats lunches. - Acts as a liaison between Community Eats Guiding Members and the Sprouts Executive. - Coordinates activities of Community Eats and its volunteers in order to ensure the group maintains a cohesive and sustainable relationship with Sprouts. - Attends biweekly meetings of the board of the NFC, or those which are relevant to Community Eats activities. Reviews minutes of those meetings not attended to keep up-to-date on Sprouts activities and issues. - Ensures that Community Eats Guiding Members are aware of their responsibility to maintain the standards Sprouts has set for organization/cleanliness/etc in both the kitchen and the café, and that the Guiding Members are communicating this to their volunteers. - Works with Sprouts’ Product Coordinator and Community Eats’ Head Chef to ensure that Community Eats ordering needs are met. - Works with Sprouts’ Kitchen Coordinator and Community Eats’ Head Chef to ensure continued access to the kitchens. 10 - Works with Sprouts’ Volunteer Coordinator and Community Eats’ Serving Coordinator to ensure that Sprouts volunteers working the Community Eats lunch shift are aware of their unique responsibilities. - Educates Sprouts volunteers and board members as to the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Pursues Community Eats’ goals as outlined by this document or as deemed appropriate by the Guiding Members as a whole. - With the administration coordinator, pursues increased campus community and institutional support for Community Eats in the form of funding, permanent serving or kitchen space, or other resources. - Acts as a media contact for Community Eats - Chairs regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. - In addition to the responsibilities outlined above, fulfills any additional duties specified in the position description of the Community Eats Director on the NFC Board as outlined in the constitution of the NFC. 2.2 Volunteer Coordinator Approximate Time Commitment: five hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is familiar with the contents of the Volunteer Coordination Resources (section C.1 of this document). Responsibilities: - With the Promotion Coordinator, organizes and manages a volunteer recruitment campaign at the beginning of term, through clubs days or other avenues. - With the Promotion Coordinator, organizes and manages ongoing volunteer recruitment throughout the semester, at Community Eats lunches or through other avenues. - Serves as a liaison between new volunteers and Community Eats. - Keeps track of volunteer contact information gathered through recruitment. - Informs interested individuals of the various roles that can be filled within Community Eats, as well as the overall purpose of the project, and puts them into contact with the appropriate guiding member to be informed about the details of their position. - Informs volunteers about the basic mandate of Community Eats as outlined in the Volunteer Coordination Resources in this document (C.1.1) - Communicates regularly with returning/past volunteers about upcoming volunteer opportunities and needs. - Attends regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. 11 2.3 Food Collection Coordinator Approximate Time Commitment: ten hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats - Is familiar with the contents of the Food Collection Resources (section C.2 of this document). Responsibilities: - Coordinates the efforts of food collection volunteers to ensure duties are fulfilled. - Communicates regularly with existing food donors to maintain a positive relationship and ensure their ongoing contribution to Community Eats. - Seeks out new food donations from other businesses (as needed), in accordance with the Food Collection Mandate. - Arranges food pickups and ensures all food is delivered to campus at the time specified by the Head Chef. - Ensures that, upon delivery to campus, food is stored according to the food safety plan outlined in the kitchen manual. - Communicates regularly with the Head Chef about what type of food donations are anticipated or have been received, to ensure the Head Chef can plan an appropriate menu. - Attends regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. 2.4 Head Chef Approximate Time Commitment: ten hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is food-safe certified, or will be certified within 1 month of taking on the position. - Is familiar with the contents of the Cooking Resources (section C.3 of this document). - Has an interest in culinary arts/chefing. - May, but not necessarily so, have experience with commercial and/or quantity cooking. Responsibilities: - Oversees the preparation and cooking of Community Eats lunches. - Coordinates the efforts of cooking volunteers to ensure duties are fulfilled. - Familiarizes volunteers with food-safe practices and the Food Safety Plan for Cooking (found in the Kitchen Manual, section C.3.5) and ensures that all kitchen/cooking activities, including those of volunteers, are conducted according to it. - Instructs volunteers as to the safe and proper use of kitchen tools and appliances. 12 - Communicates with the Food Collection Coordinator to determine what food is available and, keeping in mind the stipulations of the Accessible Food Mandate, plans a menu accordingly. - Purchases any necessary staple foods (i.e. spices, oil, beans/lentils, rice, etc) that the Food Collection Coordinator was unable to secure through donations, ensuring that all purchases are made in accordance to the Food Purchasing Mandate. - If cooking has taken place the day before the lunch is served, oversees reheating the food before it is served. - Ensures that kitchens, as well as the kitchen tools, dishes, and appliances, are thoroughly and properly cleaned after being used by Community Eats. - Ensures the proper maintenance of Community Eats’ cooking equipment and tools. Purchases new equipment and when necessary. - Keeps a record of new recipes and makes them available to the Publicity Coordinator to be posted on the blog. - Communicates regularly with AMS Food and Beverage Food and Beverage Manager and Kitchen Manager, and the Natural Food Co-Op Kitchen Coordinator, to maintain a positive relationship, identify any needs that haven’t been met, and ensure Community Eats’ ongoing access to the kitchen. - Attends regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. 2.5 Serving Coordinator Approximate Time Commitment: seven hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is food-safe certified, or will be certified within 1 month of taking on the position. - Is familiar with the contents of the Serving Resources (section C.4 of this document). - Is familiar with the regular operation of Sprouts café (if lunches are being served in this space). - Must be available for the duration of the time during which Community Eats lunches are served, as well as shortly before (for set up) and after (for clean up). Responsibilities: - Coordinates the efforts of serving volunteers to ensure duties are fulfilled, including those volunteers who would usually be working a Sprouts storefront shift. - Oversees set up of the serving area before lunch begins, ensuring that all items on the Set-Up Checklist have been covered. - Oversees serving through the duration of the lunch. - Familiarizes volunteers with food-safe practices and the Food Safety Plan for Serving, and ensures that serving is conducted according to it. 13 - Oversees clean-up of serving space, kitchen, and dishes when the lunch is over. Ensures that all items on the Clean-Up Checklist have been covered. - Keeps a record of the number of people served at each lunch. - Collects donations during the lunch and ensures that the Administration/Finance Coordinator receives them to be deposited. - Communicates regularly with Sprouts’ Volunteer Coordinator to ensure volunteer needs are met on the serving day, if serving is taking place in Sprouts. - Communicates regularly with the Community Eats Director and Sprouts Board members to maintain a positive relationship and ensure Community Eats ongoing use of Sprouts’ café as a space in which to serve the lunches. - Attends regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. 2.6 Administration and Finance Coordinator Approximate Time Commitment: five hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is familiar with the contents of the Administration and Finances Resources (section C.5 of this document). Responsibilities: - Organizes and serves as the Secretary at regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members. - Distributes meeting minutes to other Guiding Members after each meeting. - Obtains, records, and organizes all the records of financial transactions in an Excel file, including donations, funding, and expenditures. - Deposits and records donations received at lunches. - In coordination with the NFC Treasurer, handles reimbursement of volunteers or Guiding Members for purchases authorized collectively by the Guiding Members. - Manages existing funding and seeks out other sources of additional funding as it is needed. - With the Community Eats Director, pursues increased campus community and institutional support for Community Eats in the form of funding, permanent kitchen or serving space, or other resources. - Manages membership of the Community Eats Guiding Members Google Group (discussion board). 14 2.7 Publicity Coordinator Approximate Time Commitment: five hours per week Qualifications: - Is informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. - Is familiar with the contents of the Promotion Resources (section C.6 of this document). Responsibilities: - Coordinates the efforts of promotion volunteers. - Maintains and updates the Community Eats blog. - Works with the Communications and Marketing manager of the NFC to ensure Community Eats’ page on Sprouts’ website is up-to-date. - Works with other execs/volunteers to develop strategies for promoting Community Eats’ initiatives to the UBC community, - Creates promotional materials to be placed in Sprouts and elsewhere on campus that convey the vision and mission of Community Eats. - Attends regular meetings of the Community Eats Guiding Members, organized by the Administration/Finance Coordinator. 3. VOLUNTEER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Volunteers make up a more informal base of support for Community Eats. Although less responsible in terms of organizing and coordinating the project, they are equally integral to its success. Volunteering with Community Eats has been very rewarding for students during this first year, and thus we do not anticipate that it will be difficult to expand the volunteer base in future years. More details can be found in Part C, section 1. 3.1 Food Collection Food Collection volunteers are under the primary direction of the Food Collections Coordinator. These volunteers are responsible for visiting distributors and grocery stores to pick-up food donations, and bringing this food to campus as arranged by the Food Collection Coordinator via bus, bicycle, or personal vehicle. Food collection generally takes place the day before cooking, or in the morning before cooking begins. 3.2 Cooking Cooking volunteers are under the primary direction of the Head Chef. These volunteers don’t need to have previous cooking experience, only a willingness to take direction and learn as they go. Cooking volunteers can help out with either or both of the shifts: food preparation (cleaning and chopping of vegetables, and menu planning), or cooking. These shifts take place on the day before the lunch is served, during the afternoon and evening respectively. Some volunteers may also be needed in the morning before the lunch is 15 served, when the food is re-heated. More details about these shifts can be found in the Cooking Resources section of this document, C.3. If cooking volunteers aren’t food-safe certified, they must meet with the Head Chef prior to their cooking shift to be informed about general food-safety procedures. All volunteers must be briefed by the Head Chef as to the Food Safety Plan for Cooking that is outlined in section C.3 of this document. 3.3 Serving Serving volunteers are under the primary direction of the Serving Coordinator. These volunteers will help with setting up the serving space, serving the meal, and cleaning up the serving space and kitchens after the meal. If serving volunteers aren’t food-safe certified, they must meet with the Serving Coordinator prior to their cooking shift to be informed about general food-safety procedures. All volunteers must be briefed by the Serving Coordinator as to the Food Safety Plan for Serving that is outlined in this document. Additionally, these volunteers must be well informed of the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats, and be prepared to inform patrons about the project and answer any questions they might have. 3.4 Other Volunteers may be needed at times to help with other tasks such as promotion. These volunteers will be recruited as they are needed. 16 1. VOLUNTEER COORDINATION Community Eats operates entirely with volunteer power, and it is therefore essential to establish a foundation of committed volunteers each year. In the first year of running the program, one of the biggest challenges was learning how to coordinate and recruit volunteers. What follows are some of the most important lessons we have learned, which future Volunteer Coordinators may find useful. 1.1 Email account An email account has been created for Community Eats: communityeats@gmail.com At the time this document was written, the password was set to: freeisfun This email account has been useful us for communicating with volunteers and other interested parties. Using the email account has also been a good way to keep records of Community Eats activities, and all emails that have been sent through it can be found in the “sent mail” folder. In the future, it may become useful to set up email accounts specific to each Guiding Members (such as communityeats_volunteers@gmail.com, communityeats_cooking@gmail.com, etc). Thus far, however, only this account has been made. It is shared between the current Guiding Members. The address book contains the email addresses of everyone who has signed up to be on our mailing list. We send regular emails out to all of these people to inform them about upcoming lunches, volunteer meetings/opportunities. Remember to use the bcc field (blind carbon-copy) when sending to large groups, as this keeps recipients’ email addresses private. This is the account that was used to make the Blog, and thus must be signed into in order to edit it. More about this can be found in section C.6.1. 1.2 Volunteer recruitment A mailing list sign-up list at Community Eats lunches has been one of the easiest and most successful ways to recruit new volunteers. Email addresses collected should be recorded in the gmail account after each lunch. Other avenues we have pursued to recruit volunteers include the Community Eats blog (more about this can be found in section C.6.1), and campus list-serves. Contacting different faculties to see if they will send a volunteer callout on their email list-serve is a great way to reach a diversity of students on campus. Other list-serves such as the Sprouts’ and the Student Environment Centre list-serve (contact enviro@ams.ubc.ca, or visit their office in the Resource Groups Space, upstairs in the SUB) have also been used. A template volunteer recruitment letter can be found in Appendix F. PART C. PROGRAM RESOURCES 17 The AMS holds clubs promotion days at the beginning of both the fall and winter semesters. Tables are only offered to UBC clubs, so Community Eats will not directly be allotted its own space. The Volunteer Coordinator, however, can work with Sprouts’ Human Resources Coordinator to arrange for the opportunity to have some space the Sprouts/UBC Natural Food Co-op table. 1.3 Coordinating Volunteers What follows is a schedule of how we managed volunteers in Community Eats’ first year. In future years, as the serving schedule, facilities, and people involved with the project change, volunteer coordination will likely look quite different. This outline, however, may be a useful guideline. o Friday (day of the lunch): new addresses gathered at the lunch are added to the mailing list. o Monday: email is sent out to everyone on the mailing list announcing the time/location of the volunteers meeting that week. This notice is also posted on the blog. For example: o Thursday: volunteer meeting is held (find a template volunteer sign up sheet in the appendix of this document) o Monday: follow up email sent to confirm with volunteers who are signed up to help on Wednesday that they are still available. o Tuesday: follow up email sent to confirm with volunteers who are signed up to help on Thursday that they are still available. As a more reliable (or perhaps more frequent) serving schedule is established, it would probably be easier to hold volunteer meetings at a regular time and location each week. Hey Everyone, Community Eats next lunch is coming up! To make it happen, we need help on Wednesday March 26th and Thursday March 27th with food collection and cooking. If you’re interested, drop by Sprouts so that you can meet us, sign up for where you'd like to help out, and get any details you might need. Community Eats Volunteers Meeting Thursday, March 20th Drop by anytime between 12:00 - 1:00 Outside of Sprouts (SUB 66) Hope to see you then! Community Eats 18 1.4 Things a volunteer should know It is very important that every volunteer is somewhat familiar with the vision, mission, and goals of Community Eats. While preparing and serving this free feast, people inevitably ask why we are doing so – all of the volunteers should be able to inform them of our mandate. Below are some basic facts that they should know and understand. It is the responsibility of the Volunteer Coordinator to ensure that all volunteers are informed about these aspects of the project. Sprouts volunteers should also be familiar with this information because Community Eats is a project of the UBC Natural Food Co-op. This list could be used as a handout/email to all the Sprouts and Community Eats volunteers. Like some other information in this document, it may need to be revised as the project grows and evolves. Important Facts about Community Eats What? Community Eats is a student volunteer led initiative at UBC. We are dedicated to fostering food security and encouraging community engagement on and beyond our campus. To do so, we serve a free/by donation lunch every second Friday. Where and When? Lunches are served every second Friday, in Sprouts. Lunch starts at 11:30, and ends at 1:30 (or when the food runs out). I need my own container? It is essential that volunteers inform people that they need to bring their own dishes to our lunches, and why. Most other food establishments give away thousands of food take-out containers each day, all of which end up in the garbage. We’re glad that our project isn’t contributing to that waste. We ask people to bring their own dish and cutlery to Community Eats lunches, because eating from reusable containers is a really simple way to start making more sustainable food choices. Our hope is that people who come to Community Eats lunches will make a habit of bringing a reusable food container with them even when they eat elsewhere, so that they’ll never need to use a disposable one again. Where does the food come from? One of our biggest mandates is to address the issue of food waste. Our lunches are cooked with food that would otherwise be thrown out due to appearance (i.e. blemishes, bruises, etc), quality, or damage (i.e. broken or punctured packaging). Volunteers collect this food from grocers and distributors and bring it to campus to be turned into a delicious & healthy meal. How can someone get involved? We are always looking for collection and cooking volunteers. Anyone is welcome to help us out. Volunteers can direct anyone who wants more information to a Guiding Member, or to the blog (which contains all of this information and more): www.communityeats.blogspot.com If Guiding Members aren’t present, they can be contacted by email at communityeats@gmail.com 19 2. FOOD COLLECTION 2.1 Food Collection Mandate We seek way to mitigate the amount of fresh food that is wasted in our food system. Community Eats lunches are thus cooked with food that would otherwise be thrown out due to appearance (i.e. blemishes, bruises, etc), quality, or damage (i.e. broken or punctured packaging). During Community Eats’ first year, we began by collecting food from grocery stores. Although we managed this for a few lunches, it was obviously inefficient and extremely time consuming to make the number of trips required to collect enough food. Larger chain grocery stores (Safeway, Superstore, Capers) were very unwilling to participate in our project, and the smaller stores that did (East West Market, New Apple Farm Market, and others) had little to give us. As any dollar-wise student cook knows, many of these stores simply sell their older produce in discount dollar bags! We soon turned instead to collecting our food from distributors. This made the food collection process much, much easier on us – from our distributors, we received cases of produce rather than a few assorted vegetables that we would receive from grocery stores. This made it possible to make only two food collection trips rather than the six or more that we had been making when collecting from grocery stores. Additionally, collecting from distributors really addresses the issue of food waste more effectively. Because of their position in the food-supply-chain, a significant proportion of food waste in our food system comes from distributors. Their clients (grocery stores) only buy produce that is at its peak of freshness, or even under-ripe (just think of all the green tomatoes at your grocery store). Any food past this point becomes the waste that we are able to make use of. 2.2 About Collecting It can be challenging to convince businesses to participate in the project by making contributions of their “spoiled” food. When contacting new businesses, we found that making a visit in person and speaking directly with a manager made a much better impression than did a phone call. This can be an intimidating prospect at first, but after a few visits it becomes natural. Some tips we learned include: - Arrive prepared to give a confident, concise description of the project and exactly what you are asking for. - Remember that people (and especially business-people) are busy. They will be appreciative if you take up less of their time, and potentially more likely to be receptive to your request. - Be sure to stress that their involvement will not prove to be an inconvenience to themselves or their staff. Nor will it cost them anything. - Bring a letter to leave with the manager so that they have something to remember you by. A template can be found in Appendix D. 20 If a personal visit is impossible, or if a formal letter is required, a template letter/fax to businesses can be found in Appendix C. Finally, once a business is on board with the project, be grateful! Remember to thank the staff who helped you each time you visit to pickup food, and consider presenting some token of appreciation (fair trade chocolate from Sprouts?) and a letter of thanks at the end of the year. A template letter can be found in Appendix E. At the time this handbook was written, no regular donor of non-perishable dry goods (i.e. rice, beans) had been found. We imagine, however, that there must be instances in which bags/packaging of dry goods is broken or punctured and thus unfit to be sold. We encourage future Food Collection Coordinators to seek out distributors who may be able to contribute this to the project, as a donated supply of these items would increase the financial feasibility of the Community Eats. The following is a list of the suppliers we had from September 2007 – April 2008, as well as some details about each one. These suppliers would probably be good candidates to contact when the project starts again. North American Produce: 645 Malkin Ave, telephone: 604 255 6684 fax: 604 251 9692 - Dennis Tom is a higher-up (manager?), who initially approved helping us out. He works in the office above the warehouse and would usually rather not be bothered. We communicate mostly with Ben, who works in the warehouse. - In future years, initial contact should probably first be resumed through Dennis, but following that Ben will be the one who the Collections Coordinator should talk to. - We usually picked up food from North American on Wednesday afternoons, after confirming with Ben in the morning that he would have something for us. Discovery Organics: 2635 Kaslo Street; telephone 604 299 1683 - We have been in contact with Ursula and Anna. - We usually picked up food from Discovery at 10:00 on Thursday mornings. Ursula or Anna always has the food ready for us, as well as an invoice (totaling $0!) that needs to be signed. Terra Breads: - We contacted Lisa Baton (lisa@terrabreads.com). She is in charge of the donations for all the bakery locations. We picked our donation up from the False Creek bakery, but another location could likely be arranged. - Terra donations are generally weekly, and they didn’t make an exception for us, so we picked up bread from Terra bakery every Thursday at 6:15pm. On the weeks that we didn’t have a Community Eats lunch, we simply had the bread out in Sprouts for customers to take for free. 21 Panne Rizo: 1939 Cornwall Ave, telephone 604 736 0885, fax 604 736 0825 - This is a gluten-free bakery that gave us the ends of their loaves left over from the sandwiches served in their café, as well as older loaves. We picked up gluten-free (rice) bread from them every other Wednesday, around 1:00 (they requested that we choose a time and stick to that). - Be sure to store the bread in the freezer until it is served, as it goes stale very quickly. It is also much better served toasted. - The bakers we interacted with were Lee, Melissa, and Nicole. All were casual employees, however, so it is possible that they aren’t working there when Community Eats starts again. In this case, the manager might need to be contacted. - Having this special product available is a wonderful way to make Community Eats lunches even more accessible, as people on gluten or wheat-free diets would not otherwise have any bread to go with their meal. 2.3 Logistics of collection It is the foremost responsibility of the Food Collection Coordinator to ensure that the food is collected and delivered to campus by the time agreed upon with the Kitchen Coordinator. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she must personally take part in each pickup, it does entail diligence in communicating the details of the pickup schedule with both volunteers and suppliers. What follows is the pickup schedule that was followed in Community Eats’ first year. In future years, as the serving schedule, people, and businesses involved with the project change, it will likely look quite different. This outline, however, may give a sense of the logistics of food collection, including the time involved, number of people required, and different transportation options. Tuesday: - 2:00pm Volunteer Coordinator phones to confirm the time for the Wednesday pickup at North American Produce. Wednesday: - 12:00pm: Four or five volunteers meet on campus; everyone leaves together on the bus to North American Produce. - 1:00pm: Arrival at North American; food is picked up. - 2:30pm: Arrival back on campus; food put away in appropriate fridge. - 12:00pm: One volunteer leaves campus on the bus to Panne Rizo. - 12:45pm: Arrival at Panne Rizo, gluten free bread is picked up. - 1:45pm: Arrival back on campus; bread is stored in the freezer until Friday’s lunch. - 3:00pm: Volunteer Coordinator phones to confirm the time for the Thursday pickup at Discovery Organics. 22 Thursday: - 9:45am: Four or five volunteers meet at Broadway/Commercial; everyone leaves together on the bus to Discovery Organics. - 10:00am: Arrival at Discovery; food is picked up. - 11:00am: Arrival on campus; food put away in appropriate fridge. - 7:15pm Two or three volunteers meet at Terra Bakery; bread is picked up - 8:15pm Volunteers arrive on campus; bread is stored in the refrigerator until Friday’s lunch. 3. COOKING AND KITCHEN USE 3.1 Accessible and Appropriate Food Mandate The authors of this handbook, being gluten intolerant and vegan/vegetarian themselves, were especially aware of how significantly these dietary requirements restrict meal options from conventional food outlets on campus. Thus, in Community Eats’ first year, all of the food served (with the exception of bread), was vegan and gluten free. All of Community Eats’ lunches have thus been both accessible to and appropriate for people with a variety of diets, and almost no one has been unable to eat a Community Eats lunch due to dietary restrictions. In the interests of attracting a wide variety of people to the lunches, the label “vegan” was never overtly used in our promotional material. The lunch menus have, additionally, always been carefully planned to provide a nutritionally balanced meal. A variety of vegetables, greens if possible, legumes or beans for protein and a starch such as potatoes, quinoa, or rice is always served. By investing in a variety of herbs and spices and taking time to create the meal, we show how allergy and animal-product free food can be both nourishing and appetizing. 3.2 Food Purchasing Mandate Since not all of the food can be donated, it has been necessary to purchase staple items such as dry goods, spices and oil. Where possible, we encourage purchasing from Sprouts for a number of reasons: we have similar values and ethics and it is within our values to support Sprouts financially; it is easier to account for financially; and it is easier to procure, since transport is not necessary. Sprouts does not carry oil or spices, however, and therefore these items must be purchased elsewhere. When purchasing these items the Head Chef must take our values into consideration and purchase from small businesses and in bulk where possible to support local economies and reduce waste. The Head Chef should also work with Sprouts’ Product Coordinator to determine whether or not in is should possible to acquire the necessary staple items by placing orders with regular suppliers through the Natural Food Co-op’s bulk buying club. 23 3.3 The AMS kitchens Kitchen Contact Information Catering Kitchen – 604 827 3565 Prep Kitchen – 604 822 8424 Sprouts – 604 822 9124 Sprouts Kitchen Coordinator – ubcsprouts.kitchen@gmail.com AMS Kitchen Manager – 604 822 8637 (for questions about the kitchens or cooking) Nancy Toogood, AMS Food and Beverage Manager – 604 822 3965 (for questions about the AMS or the kitchens) John, Workshop - 604 822 4622 (for maintenance issues) There are two AMS kitchens that Community Eats used in its first year: the Catering Kitchen and the Prep Kitchen. Both are in the basement of the SUB. At the time of writing, Sprouts had a copy of the key to the Catering Kitchen, and therefore Community Eats had access to this kitchen anytime during the day. The Prep Kitchen was shared between AMS Catering and multiple AMS food outlets, and thus Community Eats was only able to use it after 3:30pm. The door was usually open, but in the event of it being locked, any of the staff at the Burger Bar, Pie R Squared, or Blue Chip would let us in. In the Catering Kitchen we used: - Large walk-in fridge with shelving for storage of our donated produce and prepped vegetables before cooking begins. - Sinks for washing produce. - Counter, knives, and cutting boards for preparing vegetables. - Hotel pans and lids (co-owned by Community Eats and Sprouts) for steaming, baking, re-heating, and serving food. - Steamer for making rice, steaming vegetables, and reheating food on the day of the lunch. - Sinks and sanitizer for washing kitchen equipment and dishes. - Shelving for storing our oil, spices, and hotplates. - Food processor for grating, chopping, pureeing, etc. - Baking sheets with parchment paper for roasting vegetables. In the Prep Kitchen we used: - Two ovens for roasting vegetables and warming food – NOTE: during the day, theses are often used by AMS businesses or catering. Before planning to use the ovens to heat up food, it is very important to confirm with the AMS kitchen manager that they will be available. If you do not do this, the ovens may be full, and you will end up serving cold food (we learned this the hard way!). - Two tilting pots (one large and one small) for making stew-ish dishes (such as curry, chili, or dahl), and cooking beans. - Two stovetop elements with pots or frying pans for frying onions and spices, etc. 24 3.4 How to Use the Kitchen Equipment Even for someone who cooks confidently in their own home, it can be intimidating to use a commercial kitchen. Quantity cooking is not necessarily more difficult than cooking for just a few, but undeniably the process and equipment involved does take some getting used to. The following guidelines should help new cooks familiarize themselves with the cooking equipment in the AMS kitchens. Convection Oven: There are two ovens, both in the Prep Kitchen. In general, ovens are used to roast vegetables and reheat food for serving. General Procedure: There is a metal switch that turns the oven on, and a dial that allows you to set it to the desired temperature. The red light will illuminate when the oven is first switched on and it will turn off when the oven is done preheating. Food-safety standards require that, when reheating food, we ensure that its internal temperature has reached 74° C. Plan on this taking about 45 minutes to an hour for a full hotel pan of food. Tips: Remember that this is a convection oven, and thus will give slightly different results than a regular oven. First of all, it cooks very quickly and evenly (no need to turn your pan half way through baking). But secondly, it will dry food out if it’s left in the oven for too long - keep this in mind when using it to heat anything up, and cover things when possible to prevent it. Tilting Pots: Sometimes referred to as “soup cauldrons” or “steam kettles”, we will use “tilting pot” for simplicity, since they are pots that tilt. There are two tilting pots in the Prep Kitchen, one larger and one smaller. Since the pots are so deep, a special wooden paddle is needed to stir them. This paddle can be found hanging up behind the large cauldron and should always be returned to its hanger. Cauldrons are used to cook beans, as well as main dishes such as curries, chili’s, or stews. General cooking procedure: both pots are turned on by flipping the metal switch up. The light will illuminate initially, but turn off when it has reached the temperature it is set to (same principle as an oven light). Because of their size, both of the tilting pots take a long time to heat up. Once they are hot, however, they retain their heat for a long time. To speed up the cooking process, we recommend the following procedure: half an hour before you want to start cooking in the tilting pot, turn it on and pour some hot water into it (about 4 litres for the small pot, minimum 8 litres for the large pot). Allow this water to come to a boil while you prepare items that will be cooked in it. From this point, the procedure for each pot is somewhat different. Small pot: Once the water is hot or boiling, it can be poured out of the pot, and the ingredients to be cooked can be put in. The dial can then be used to adjust the temperature as needed for your recipe. Once the food is cooked, the tilting mechanism of 25 the pots can be used to pour the food out of the pot. The small pot is tilted simply by pulling down on the large handle. Large pot: Once the water is hot or boiling, it can be poured out. The large pot has a drain/spout out of its bottom, so before any food is added to the pot, ensure that the plug is in place. The plug hangs up on the wall behind the pot, and should always be returned to this place. If the pot is used without the plug in place, the drain/spout will become clogged with food and be very difficult to clean out. Note: You must make sure that there is always liquid in these pots, since they use steam to cook. If at any time there is not enough liquid in a tilting pot, it will make a loud noise and steam will be released from the bottom of it. If this happens, do not panic! Simply turn the temperature dial all the way to its minimum, add liquid to the pot, and allow it to cool down for a few minutes. At this point, it may be turned back up to the desired temperature. See section 3.4 “Keeping the Kitchens Clean” for how to clean the tilting pots. Steamers: There are two steamers in the Prep Kitchen and one steamer in the Catering Kitchen. We use the steamers to re-heat food on the day of serving, to make rice, and to par-cook or steam vegetables. General Procedure: Turn the steamer on by flipping the switch up. In about 10 minutes, it will have warmed up and the green “ready” light will come on, at which point it is ready to be used. When you are done with the steamer, be sure to leave both the dial turned to OFF (not at “0”) and the switch set to OFF (so the switch is not illuminated). To re-heat food: Procedure: A full hotel pan of food can be placed in the steamer and will take about 45 minutes to reheat fully (food-safety standards require that we ensure that the internal temperature of the food has reached 74° C). Tips: be aware that the steamer uses steam to heat the food (surprise!) and therefore it is best to use it only to reheat food that has initially been steamed or cooked in the cauldron. Other foods, i.e. roasted vegetables, pilafs, and casseroles, will become horribly soggy if reheated in the steamer. It is also a good idea to cover the food that you are reheating, so that it doesn’t collect additional water and become soupy. If the hotel pan of food has been stored covered in saran wrap, be sure to follow food safe guidelines and replace it with new saran wrap. (Hint: try lifting the pan into the steamer instead of sliding it, this will ensure that the plastic wrap does not come off and cook into the food. If the plastic wrap is new and tightly on the hotel pan it will not sink into the pan and collect water). Alternatively, a metal lid that fits your hotel pan can also be used. To make rice: Procedure: Use a shallow (2”) hotel pan to make rice, we generally made10 pounds of rice using 2 hotel pans. Use a ratio of 1:1 for rice to water, as the steamer uses 26 steam to cook and you do not need as much water as at home. Add a bit of salt, cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in steamer for 45 minutes. Tips: for two reasons, we recommend making rice just before the lunch is served, rather than the night before. First of all, it is easy to cook the rice in the morning and the quality will be much better if done this way. Secondly, rice poses a particularly acute food-safety hazard if not cooled properly, and this problem is avoided if rice is simply served immediately after it has been cooked. Other grains can also be cooked successfully in the steamer, such as quinoa. Red split lentils can also be cooked successfully, as long as it isn’t detrimental to the dish they will be put into that they completely fall apart! Red lentils may need to be stirred part way through cooking, as they tend to cook unevenly. We do not recommend cooking other types of lentils or beans in the steamer. To steam vegetables: Procedure: Place the vegetables in a hotel pan (deep or shallow depending on the amount of vegetables) and add a little bit of water to the pan (about 1/3 the amount of vegetables). Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a metal lid and put it in the steamer. Use your judgment for cooking the vegetables, depending on how cooked you want them to be. As an example, 20 minutes is enough to par-cook potatoes, and after 30 minutes potatoes will probably be fully cooked. More delicate vegetables such as green beans or broccoli will probably cook in less than five minutes. Tips: par-cooking more robust vegetables, such as potatoes, is a very good way to speed up the cooking process. Even if our potatoes were eventually going to end up in cauldrons or the oven, we would generally get them started in the steamer so that the cooking would not take so long. Do keep an eye on potatoes though, as they can go from underdone to overdone quite quickly. Avoid pre-cooking more delicate vegetables, such as broccoli or green beans. If, for example, green beans or broccoli are going to be used in a chili or curry, the dish should be completely cooked without them. Just before serving, the beans/broccoli can be steamed separately and then stirred into the main dish once it has already been re-heated. This allows you to control how long the delicate vegetables are cooked for, and helps avoid unappetizing, mushy food. Food Processor: Sprouts owns a food processor which Community Eats is welcome to use. It has a number of safety features that make it difficult to use if you are unfamiliar with them. To put the bowl of onto the base, it must be first placed a bit to the left of the middle and then moved right and locked into place. Place the appropriate attachment onto the hole in the middle of the bowl. Place the lid and its inserts to the left of the middle and turn it to the right to lock it in place. If all of the pieces are not in place, the machine will not turn on. To shred or chop there are 2 different circular blades in the drawer that fit onto the plastic peg, which fits into the middle of the bowl of the food processor. Place the blade into the bowl and put the lid on the machine without the top insert. When you turn the machine on you can feed items through using the top insert to be chopped or shredded. 27 3.5 Keeping the Kitchens Clean We are very fortunate to be able to use these kitchens and it is our responsibility to maintain cleanliness. Kitchen Checklist: before you leave, ensure that… - The sanitizer and steamers are set to OFF (not DELIME). - All of the dishes and utensils have been sanitized and put away where they were found. - The tilting pots are clean (instructions found below). - ALL of the sinks are clean and clear of food. Wipe them down completely to ensure that they stay clean. - The counters have been cleared and cleaned with a sanitizing solution - The floors are clean, if not sweep and mop! - The compost, garbage, and recycling have been dealt with. - The lights in the walk in fridge have been turned off. - The door of the Catering Kitchen is locked and the key is returned to the bulletin board in Sprouts. How to use the Sanitizer: The sanitizer is used for all dishes and utensils except for large sheet pans, which do not fit in the machine and thus must be sanitized by hand. Before loading something into the sanitizer, it must be thoroughly rinsed to ensure that no food residue remains. If there is food on the dishes it will be caked on when they come out of the machine. Dishes and utensils should be placed neatly in the plastic trays stored underneath the sanitizer. The utensil can be used for smaller cutlery, and placed on the plastic tray that does not have any pegs for dishes. Hotel pans and dish bins can be placed directly inside the sanitizer and rest against the little metal lip. It is possible to do 2 hotel pans at once, if one of them is perpendicularly placed on top of the other. White plastic buckets are best placed sanitized two at a time on the flat plastic trays without pegs. Once the item(s) are in place, pull the door of the sanitizer down and it will turn on. About 1 minute later, when the water has stopped, pull the door up and allow the steam to escape. Pull the tray/item(s) out of the sanitizer and allow them to air dry on the counter. Important: Please make sure that dirty dishes are always on the right side of the sanitizer and clean are always on the left, this way if you leave dishes to be cleaned or you leave them to dry another person in the kitchen will know whether or not they are sanitized. How to clean the tilting pots: To the right of the big tilting pot there are some hoses that release water and soap if you push the blue button on the soap dispenser. Please wash and rinse the tilting pots and 28 dump the water down the drain by tilting the small pot or by opening the valve on the bottom of the big pot. When cleaning the small tilting pot, if you try to pour the water from the pot directly down the drain you will most likely get water everywhere (we learned this the hard way). There is usually a bucket on the floor near the big tilting pot or the tilting skillet that has a hole in it. Put the bucket on top of the drain. If you pour the water into the bucket it will go through the hole into the drain. When cleaning the big pot, it is a good idea to open the spigot and shoot some water through the hole in the bottom of the pot to make sure that it is all rinsed and clean. There is also a brush that fits into the hole for cleaning the pot. Garbage, Compost and Recycling: Garbage: There is yellow garbage bin in the Catering Kitchen. When the bag is full please remove it and replace it with another bag that is generally found in the bottom of the bin. If we are running low on bags, please ask the AMS cleaning staff (found in the hallway on the way to Sprouts) for some more. The garbage can be put in the dumpster at the loading dock, open the door, throw it in and close the door. The garbage in the prep kitchen is dealt with by AMS janitorial staff. Compost: Compost can be emptied in the big green organics bin in the compost room at the loading dock. The compost in the prep kitchen is dealt with by AMS janitorial staff. Recycling: Cans and bottles can be placed in the bins that are in the hall near the Delly or the bathroom. When you are disposing of cans you must complete the following procedure: remove the label, rinse out the inside, remove both top and bottom, step on the can to flatten it and then place it and the lids in the bin. For cardboard recycling, boxes must be placed in the bailer (the giant blue machine in the loading dock that squishes cardboard together for better transport). When the bailer is full the cardboard must be bailed. If you have been shown this procedure and you are comfortable with it go ahead with it, following the instructions on the door of the machine. If, however, you are uncomfortable with the process or you have not been shown how, just place the cardboard in the bailer and leave it there. Waxed cardboard boxes (that are often used for produce) cannot be recycled and thus must be put in the dumpster. 3.6 Record Keeping We recommend documenting the recipes prepared and the ingredients used, whether in the form of a full recipe or simply just a description of the food and the amounts of food made. This will create a memory for the project and allow Guiding Members in future years to see what was made for previous lunches. Recipes should also be shared with the Promotions Coordinator, so that they can be shared with students via the Community Eats blog (see Section 6 for more info). See Appendix G for documentation of some of the lunches served in 2008. 29 3.7 Food Safety Plan for Cooking The following procedures and standards will be followed to ensure that Community Eats food is cooked in a food-safe manner: - All food will be prepared and cooked in the AMS kitchens, which are Certified Food Safe, and all sanitizing will be done using a commercial machine sanitizer in these kitchens. - The Head Chef will be Food Safe Certified (which can be paid for out of funding if needed). - The Head Chef will instruct all volunteers in basic food safe procedures, and supervise all food preparation to ensure that these procedures are adhered to. - All kitchen volunteers will have their hair tied back and wear clean clothing and/or aprons, as well as closed toed shoes. - The following proper hand washing techniques must be observed before touching food and utensils and after any possible contamination: 1. Avoid touching the sink and faucet controls as much as possible. 2. Turn water on; wet your hands and wrists. 3. Work soap into a lather. 4. Vigorously rub together all surfaces of the lathered hands for 20 seconds (i.e the length of “Happy Birthday”). Friction helps remove dirt and micro-organisms. Wash around and under rings, around cuticles, and under fingernails with the nailbrush provided. 6. Rinse hands thoroughly under a stream of water. Running water carries away dirt and debris. Point fingers down so water and contamination won't drip toward elbows. 7. Dry hands completely with a clean dry paper towel. 8. Use a dry paper towel to turn faucet off. 9. To keep soap from becoming a breeding place for microorganisms, thoroughly clean soap dispensers before refilling with fresh soap. See the appendix for a detailed Community Eats recipe with a food safety plan and critical steps identified. This procedure should be followed for every meal cooked. 30 4. SERVING 4.1 Serving Mandate According to our values, vision and mission we require that those who wish to eat our food must bring their own container or plate and cutlery in order to be served. Logistically, this is convenient because it means we do not have to store dishes, and also cuts down on the amount of work that volunteers have to do (i.e. not doing dishes). More importantly, however, it encourages people to use reusable instead of disposable containers, which is a very simple way to start making more sustainable food choices. When we cook Community Eats lunches, we leave the SUB after most students have come and gone. We are always shocked by the number of disposable containers littering the building, and glad that our project isn’t contributing to that waste. Our hope is that people who come to Community Eats lunches will make a habit of bringing a reusable food container with them even when they eat elsewhere, so that they’ll never need to use a disposable one again. The Serving Coordinator must make sure that the serving volunteers are adhering to this mandate and are not allowing the use Sprouts’ bowls or cutlery. A problem that we ran into in the first year was that the serving volunteers would recommend that people who forgot their container go to the Pendulum to buy a biodegradable container to eat out of. While this does allow those people to participate in the lunch, it is still using a container that is not reusable and will be thrown away (or composted). Another problem was that people were asking to borrow plates from the Pendulum, either resulting in the plates not being returned, or being returned dirty. This does not foster a good relationship with the Pendulum, or the AMS dishwasher as it makes more work for them. To address both of these issues, we decided that having a stack of clean yogurt-like containers at the lunch would be useful for people who forget their container or who happen upon the lunch by chance. Those who regularly attend the lunch should be encouraged not to rely on these containers; however, they are a good backup for new-comers who do not have their own. 4.2 Set-up checklist - Hang the Community Eats banner over the Sprouts counter. - Put out a donations jar, email sign up list and piece of paper to tally the number of servings. Put up other signage (such as an information board) outside the Sprouts door, or write on the chalkboard to inform people who are in the hall. - Plug hot plates in using extension cords and set them up on the Sprouts counter. - Slice bread and place in baskets, ensure that there are a set of tongs for each basket. 4.3 Clean-up checklist - Clean and sanitize all hotel pans, utensils and cutlery used in the Catering kitchen, according to the guidelines found in Section C 3.5 - Count donations money, record in the log and deposit into the revenues account 31 before 4:30pm (see section 5.4 for a “How to” guide for depositing). - Count up the tally of number of servings and record in the log. - Put away hot plates, banner, sign up sheet and donations jar. - If the bread is not all gone, keep it out and make sure that the Sprouts volunteers are actively giving it away over the course of the afternoon. - Make sure that Sprouts is clean and tidy. 4.4 Food safety plan for serving The following procedures and standards will be followed to ensure that Community Eats food is served in a food-safe manner: - The Serving Coordinator will be food safe certified (this can be paid for by Community Eats). - The Serving Coordinator will instruct all volunteers in basic food safe procedures, and supervise the serving to ensure these measures are adhered to. - All volunteers will wear clean clothing, have their hair tied back and wear closed toe shoes. - The following proper hand washing technique must be observed before touching food and utensils and after any possible contamination: 1. Avoid touching the sink and faucet controls as much as possible. 2. Turn water on; wet your hands and wrists. 3. Work soap into a lather. 4. Vigorously rub together all surfaces of the lathered hands for 20 seconds (i.e the length of “Happy Birthday”). Wash around and under rings, around cuticles, and under fingernails with the nailbrush provided. 6. Rinse hands thoroughly under a stream of water. Point fingers down so water and contamination won't drip toward elbows. 7. Dry hands completely with a clean dry paper towel. 8. Use a dry paper towel to turn faucet off. 9. To keep soap from becoming a breeding place for microorganisms, thoroughly clean soap dispensers before refilling with fresh soap. - All food will be served using utensils that have been properly sanitized. - Volunteers will use the following procedure to ensure that the hot plates are at a proper temperature to keep the food out of the “Danger Zone” (between 4 and 60 degrees Celsius). 1. When the food is placed on the hot plates, use the thermometer to check the temperature and ensure that it is about 60 degrees Celsius. 2. If food is not served within 30 minutes of being removed from the steamer, temperature should be observed frequently to ensure it does not drop below 60 degrees Celsius. 3. If temperature enters the danger zone, it will not be served. - Community Eats patrons will never be allowed to serve themselves. A detailed example of this procedure can be found in Appendix A. 32 5. ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE 5.1 Financial accountability It is the responsibility of the Administration and Finance Coordinator to ensure that Community Eats remain accountable to both the NFC, the AMS, and other donors or funding bodies. Because Community Eats accounts are under Sprouts accounts, the Treasurer and the President of the Natural Food Co-op are the only signing officers of the accounts. Therefore, the Administration and Finance Coordinator does not have authority over nor can they access the money in the accounts. All donations, purchases, funding and AMS Journal Voucher transfers are managed and recorded by the Administration and Finance Coordinator but are administrated and carried out by the NFC Treasurer. To ensure that nothing is forgotten, we recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of the expenses and donations involved with each lunch. See Appendix H for an example. 5.2 Funding In the first year, Community Eats received $499 of funding from the Student Environment Centre (SEC) Eco-Initiatives Fund. There are many funding options for projects on campus including the AMS Innovative Projects Fund and the Grad Class Council gift funding. The funding that we received from the SEC was used for some start up costs that included the purchase of hotel pans, lids, hot plates and some oil and spices. The Eco-Initiatives Fund works on a reimbursement system; one must purchase the items with their own money and bring the receipts to the SEC for reimbursement. We did not use all of the funding for 2007/2008, however the money does not get carried over into the next academic year and therefore funding should be applied for next year to cover the costs of new knives, cutting boards and other equipment as well as Food Safe Certification for new Guiding Members who are not already certified. Applications for the Student Environment Centre funding can be found at: http://www.ams.ubc.ca/student_life/resource_groups/sec/contact.html#funding 5.3 Donations Donations should be collected at every lunch. Ensure that a sign is placed on/next to the donations jar which explains that the donations go towards the purchase of staples (such as rice, beans, oil and spices) for the lunches. Donations are collected, counted and deposited into the Community Eats revenue account, which is a Sprouts account with the AMS. 33 5.4 Our accounts with Sprouts and the AMS Community Eats has two accounts within Sprouts’ accounts, which are overseen by the Community Eats Administration and Finance Coordinator, Sprouts Treasurer and President and the AMS staff. The accounts are named “Revenues” (764-5070-01) and “Expenses” (764-7107-01). The “Revenues” account is used for depositing donations and funding that Community Eats receives. All purchases (either from Sprouts or elsewhere) are to come out of the “Expenses” account. All purchases must go though the NFC Treasurer. Below is a quick “How to Guide” for the CE accounts. See Appendix I for examples of how to fill out the various AMS forms. How to deposit donations or funding Go to the AMS Administration Office (SUB second floor) and get a white Deposit Form from the station in the middle. Fill out the form with the date, your name and the name of the club (Sprouts). Fill in the description (i.e. “Community Eats donations”), the account code (764-5070-01) and the amount of deposit. Below fill in the break down of what you are depositing and the totals. Place the deposit form and the money (make sure to put the coins in the individual little envelopes that are available from the AMS Cashier) in an envelope and place the envelope through the slot in the Cashier’s desk. How to be reimbursed for a purchase For amounts under $100, the receipt(s) must be submitted to the NFC Treasurer and a pink Cash Disbursement form will be filled out (more than one receipt may be attached to a form, this is recommended). Once processed, this money will be available after a few days at the AMS cashier’s desk to be picked up by the person to whom it is payable. If the reimbursement is over $100 a blue Cheque Requisition form must be used and signed by the NFC Treasurer. The AMS will write a cheque to the person being reimbursed and the cheque will be available about a week later from the AMS Administration Office. How to authorize food purchases from Sprouts Food purchases from Sprouts must be done using the green Journal Voucher form. The Debit Account number is the Community Eats Expenses account (764-7107-01) and the Credit Account number will be one of Sprouts’ Sales accounts (i.e. Bulk Sales – 764- 5010-00, Produce Sales – 764-5030-00 or Grocery Sales – 764-5045-00). Generally food purchased from Sprouts will be purchased at cost and it will just be a transfer of funds from one account to another. Fill in the amount(s) to be transferred in both the debit and credit columns, if the transfer is to be made to more than one account simply use a new row. Total the columns at the bottom, fill out a description of the transaction (i.e. “Purchase of beans for Community Eats lunch”), fill out the bottom left square (the debited club is “Sprouts”). 34 6. PUBLICITY In the first year of running Community Eats, word-of-mouth alone accounted for most of the promotion of the project. Promotional materials, however, became necessary to inform people about our vision, mission, and goals. The following resources, which we have found most useful as publicity and promotional tools, will be helpful for future Publicity Coordinators. 6.1 Community Eats blog A blog has been created to document the activities of Community Eats and serve as a information source for volunteers and the public. We have regularly posted volunteer- call-outs, lunch announcements, and recipes, and the blog additionally contains permanent information about our vision, mission, and goals. The blog has been a very useful promotion and communication tool because it is so easy to change and update. To edit and make posts to the blog, sign into Google Blogger at https://www.blogger.com/start with the gmail account username (communityeats@gmail.com) and password (at the time this document was written, the password was set to: freeisfun). The software is quite self-explanatory, and there are many on-line resources and tutorials available about blogging that may also prove helpful for beginners and experts alike. Some suggested websites we learned from include: http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/, http://www.slideshare.net/Marcus9000/how-to-use-blogger/, and http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/. 6.2 Community Eats page on Sprouts’ website The Sprouts website (http://www.ams.ubc.ca/clubs/nfc/) has a page dedicated to Community Eats. The Publicity Coordinator should work closely with Sprouts’ Communications and Marketing Coordinator, who is responsible for maintaining this webpage, to ensure that the Community Eats page is relevant and up-to-date. 6.3 Ads and announcements The Ubyssey prints announcements free for students in their classifieds section. Visit the Ubyssey office (SUB 23) or call them at 604 822 1654 to set it up. Announcements should be short – for example: “FREE LUNCH! Community Eats free/by-donation lunch happens every second Friday. Next one is Friday, March 14th, 11:30am – 1:30pm in Sprouts (SUB basement room 66). Come with your own container and fork! Contact: communityeats@gmail.com.” Community Eats lunches have also been registered on the UBC Events Calendar. When a serving schedule has been finalized, lunches can be registered on the calendar through the website http://www.liveat.ubc.ca/. Login with username communityeats and password freeisfun. 35 6.4 Community Eats logo and banner The current Community Eats logo (above, right) was inspired by a design created by one of the first Community Eats volunteers (above, left). The logo has been used on all of the template letters to businesses, promotional posters, and handouts. A gorgeous banner bearing this logo has also been created. It has usually been hung up above the serving- counter in Sprouts during Community Eats lunches, and serves as an attractive, eye catching promotional tool. Especially important is that the banner makes it clear to anyone attending the lunches that there is a name and a mandate behind the food they are about to eat. The banner is cotton, and painted with durable acrylic paints so that it can be reused and also machine-washed when necessary. 36 APPENDIX A: COMMUNITY EATS FOOD SAFETY PLAN GENERAL NOTES - All food will be prepared and cooked in the AMS kitchens, which are Certified Food Safe, and all sanitizing will be done using a commercial machine sanitizer in these kitchens. - All food will be served in Sprouts, or another certified serving area. - The Head Chef will be Food Safe Certified (which can be paid for out of funding if needed). - The Head Chef will instruct all volunteers in basic food safe procedures, and supervise all food preparation to ensure that these procedures are adhered to. - All kitchen and serving volunteers will have their hair tied back and wear clean clothing and/or aprons, as well as closed toed shoes. - All temperatures will be measured with a clean and sanitized thermometer. - All equipment and utensils for serving and cooking will be cleaned and sterilized before and after use. - The following proper hand washing techniques must be observed before touching food and utensils and after any possible contamination: 1. Avoid touching the sink and faucet controls as much as possible. 2. Turn water on; wet your hands and wrists. 3. Work soap into a lather. 4. Vigorously rub together all surfaces of the lathered hands for 20 seconds (i.e the length of “Happy Birthday”). Friction helps remove dirt and micro-organisms. Wash around and under rings, around cuticles, and under fingernails with the nailbrush provided. 6. Rinse hands thoroughly under a stream of water. Running water carries away dirt and debris. Point fingers down so water and contamination won't drip toward elbows. 7. Dry hands completely with a clean dry paper towel. 8. Use a dry paper towel to turn faucet off. 9. To keep soap from becoming a breeding place for microorganisms, thoroughly clean soap dispensers before refilling with fresh soap. CHILI RECIPE WITH FOOD SAFETY PLAN Critical Steps are identified, and detailed information is included about how to control the hazard. Ingredients and Measures Onions – 9 cups chopped Garlic – 2 heads, chopped. Carrots – 6 carrots chopped Dried coriander – 6 Tbsp. Tomatoes – 10 cups chopped Dried oregano – 6 tsp. Red Peppers – 5 cups chopped Cumin seeds – 6 Tbsp. Oil – 8 tbsp. Mexican Chili Powder – 8 Tbsp. 37 Page 1 of 3 Pinto Beans – 8 lbs Salt – 3 Tbsp Corn – 10 cups Chipotle Puree – 6 Tbsp Preparing 1) Ensure all cooks have washed their hands according to food safe guidelines, are wearing closed-toe shoes, and have hair tied back. 2) Wash all produce in washing sink. Peel carrots to ensure blemishes/dirt removed. 3) Chop vegetables according to recipe, using sanitized cutting boards and knives. Store prepared vegetables in sanitized stainless steel containers in the fridge until ready to cook. 4) Rinse pinto beans in the washing sink. Place rinsed beans in sanitized buckets, cover with cold water. Soak, refrigerated, overnight. Cooking 1) Ensure all cooks have washed their hands according to food safe guidelines, are wearing closed-toe shoes, and have hair tied back. 2) Turn on both tilting pots, assuring that you understand how to control their temperatures. 3) Drain pinto beans in the washing sink and rinse with cold water. 4) Add pinto beans to small tilting pot, cover with water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer. 5) Add oil and some water to large tilting pot; add onions, garlic, and spices. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent. 6) Add carrots, tomatoes, and red peppers to onions and spices in the large tilting pot. Continue cooking over medium heat, until tomatoes are cooked and carrots are tender. 7) When pinto beans are fully cooked, pour them into hotel pans, using the tilting mechanism. Use sterilized stainless steel colanders to drain the beans in the washing sink. 8) Add drained beans, as well as corn, chipotle puree, and salt, to the large tilting pot. Reduce heat, cover and simmer about 30 more minutes or until cooked through. *Critical step – Allow contents of large tilting pot to reach 74° C for at least 15 seconds. 9) Turn off tilting pot. 10) Pour contents of tilting pot into stainless steel hotel pans. Food in pans should be no more than 2" deep. Stainless steel allows for better heat transfer and the food will cool faster if it covers more surface area and is shallower. A full hotel pan would also be more difficult to transport. 38 Page 2 of 3 Cooling 1) Pace hotel pans on counter or on wire shelf if available. Make sure that there are no objects above the cooling area that could contaminate the soup. *Critical Step - assure that the soup is cooled from 60° C to 20° C (room temperature) within 2 hours. 2) Cover the hotel pans of cooled soup with saran wrap and place in small fridge in catering kitchen. *Critical Step - assure that it cools from 20° C to 4° C (refrigeration temperature) within a further 4 hours in the refrigerator. Potentially Hazardous Foods (including cooked vegetables and cooked starches, like rice) are able to be kept in cold storage for three days. Keep time that food spends in the “Danger Zone” (between 4° C and 60° C) to a minimum to ensure that bacteria do not have a change to multiply. 3) Store covered in the refrigerator. *Critical Step – ensure the refrigerator is set to 4° C or colder. Reheating 1) Turn on steamer and wait for the green light to signify that it is ready. 2) Take hotel pan out of the fridge; remove saran wrap from hotel pan and replace with new saran wrap (alternatively, cover with a fitted stainless steel lid). 3) Transfer pan to steamer and turn steamer on for 45 minutes. *Critical Step - Check internal temperature of chili, assure it has reached 74° C. 4) Transfer to hot holding at 60° C. *Critical Step – food that has been reheated must all be served and may not be reheated to serve again if it cools. Hot-Holding and Serving 1) Ensure that hot plates are cleaned and have been turned on. 2) Transfer heated food to Sprouts (or wherever the Community Eats lunch is being served) using cart, and place on preheated hotplates. Keep covered until ready to serve. *Critical Step – Ensure that holding temperature remains at 60° C or hotter to disallow pathogen growth. 3) Serve chili using sanitized stainless steel utensils. Ensure that all servers have washed their hands according to food safe guidelines, are wearing clean clothing or aprons, and have hair tied back. Patrons of Community Eats lunches are not allowed to serve themselves. Sanitation Instructions Dishwashing and Sanitization will be carried out in the AMS prep or catering kitchen as per mechanical dishwashing standards. page 3 of 3 39 APPENDIX B: COMMUNITY EATS HISTORY – SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2007 Week of Sept. 17 – 21 • Brendon Goodmurphy invited representatives from the UBC Farm, Sprouts, Student Environment Centre, Common Energy UBC, Sustainability Ambassadors and the AMS to a meeting to discuss both the Green Fee/Climate Action Fee and starting up a free lunch program at UBC that is similar to the one run at Concordia University, the "People's Potato". • Looked into similar initiatives in Montreal (People’s Potato - http://peoplespotato.resist.ca/) and in Ottawa (The People’s Republic of Delicious - http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~opirg/english_pages/delicious.html). • Caitlin Dorward and Heather Russell express interest in starting the initiative as a SEEDS project. Email sent to Brenda Sawada to discuss this possibility. Week of Oct. 1-5 • Organizational meeting about the free lunch project arranged, invitation circulated to interested parties (SEC, LFS, Sprouts volunteers, Friends of the Farm etc.). • Oct. 30th meeting held: details about the first lunch fleshed out. Volunteer recruitment, name for the initiative, update on SEEDS possibility, access to AMS prep kitchens, and a to-do list for the first lunch were all discussed. • The People’s Potato was contacted for advice. • Google Group entitiled “We’re Making Free Lunch” was created. We used this google group to coordinator our efforts for the first and second lunches. Week of Oct. 8-12 • We discussed having the first lunch on Oct. 25th at Knoll Ade - the open air concert at Trek Park/The Knoll. It was decided that this would not work for a number of reasons: a) difficult to adhere to Food Safe regulations while outside (i.e. hand washing), b) this would have lead to the association of our initiative (which was nameless at the time) with Trek Park, which is not accurate, c) it is not the most accessible place to hold the lunch, in that people who aren't really involved in Trek Park activities might not be inclined to come eat, too. • Sprouts, which was closed at the time for renovations, seemed like a good alternative. It is equipped with a hand washing station, and is close to the prep kitchen. We were also happy to attract more people to Sprouts, so it was settled on as the location. • Date of October 26th chosen for the first lunch. Kitchen access on the evening of the 25th confirmed. Page 1 of 4 40 Week of Oct. 15-19 • Promotion began somewhat hesitantly for the first lunch: “People's Potato free lunch, Friday Oct. 26th, 12noon-2pm at Sprouts. Lunch is free, but will only be served in a reusable container/dish brought by those attending! No dish = no food!” • Soon after this promotion began, we heard back from The People’s Potato at Concordia, with the request that we not use their name. As we hadn’t come up with a name of our own yet, we began simply calling it the “UBC Free Lunch.” • Brainstorming began for a new name, as well as a logo and promotional material. • Funding proposal submitted to the SEC. We were approved $450 for promotional material, food staples, hotplates, utensils, and other necessary utensils. Issues that were brought up at SEC meeting: where will we store food and equipment; do we have a contingency plan, i.e. if we purchase equipment with SEC funding, what will happen if we stop doing the lunches; do we have a letter/document for volunteers to bring to grocery stores when asking for food. Week of Oct. 22-26 – First lunch • Meeting Oct. 23 to discuss final logistical issues about first lunch (i.e. food collection, cooking and serving). Discussion about Food Safe, who is certified? • Produce was collected from Capers, SPUD, and East-West Market. Bread was collected from Terra Breads. Oil and spices were bought from grocers on main street. • Staples (i.e. rice and lentils) were purchased from Sprouts at cost – making transportation easier, supporting the UBC community and purchasing organic staples. • Cooking was done by five volunteers, who starting Thursday night at 7:30pm. On the menu was an Indian-style lentil and mixed vegetable dish with rice, steamed greens and bread on the side. All food except the rice was cooked Thursday night and stored in hotel pans in the fridge overnight. • Serving was done by five volunteers. The rice was cooked in the steamer on Friday morning. The hotel pans of vegetables and curry were heated in the steamer and all food was transported to Sprouts for serving. • Food was kept warm using 2 one burner hot plates that were borrowed from AgUS and one large hot plate which was purchased from a thrift store. Tin foil was put over hotel pans to ensure that the heat did not escape. • A tally of number of people served was kept, a jar for donations and an email sign up sheet were on the counter. We served about 130 people and received $106 in donations. We also collected a list of 10 (??) emails. This was a huge success (we expected only to serve 50 people!). We anticipated that donations would be less as the lunch became a regular event. Page 2 of 4 41 Week of Oct. 29 – Nov. 2 • Began discussion of when to hold next lunch. Sprouts worked very well the first time, so it was settled on as the location again. • Meeting Oct. 30 to discuss 2nd lunch and other administrative details, including a name, vision and mission statements, a logo and promotional materials, thank you letters and committees with delegated tasks - each group would have 2 core committee 'leaders' and volunteers to be given tasks. The committees we came up with were: collecting, cooking, serving and promotion. • We came up with the name "Campus Community Eats - free, if you can afford the time." Another option that we came up with was “Our Community Eats,” which we eliminated as it seemed to similar to “Our Community Bikes”. • We discussed the future of the lunches, and how to keep them going. Possible ideas included becoming an AMS Club (which would bring more accountability, structure etc., but the process is complicated), securing IPF funding (for honoraria for a few "staff" next semester), or pursuing making it a SEEDS project (2 or 3 people take on the project for academic credit, database online would document our project and progress). Possibility of becoming a part of the UBC Natural Food Co-Op also considered. • Sprouts added an account under their name at the AMS for our project to keep track of our money. • We decided to have a meeting on Nov. 15th and invite the people who gave us their emails at the first lunch to establish committees and delegate tasks. Week of Nov. 5-9 • We decided that the name “Campus Community Eats” was to cumbersome, and finally settled on “Community Eats.” • Discussion as to what date to hold the 2nd lunch: - Friday Nov. 23 would be appropriate, since it was also “Buy Nothing Day”. Terry Speaker series lecture on the 100 Mile Diet also happening from 12 – 2 on that day, big conflict with our lunch. - Friday Nov. 30, good to keep consistency of lunch happening on a Friday, but worried that people might have left campus already (last day of classes). - Tuesday Nov. 27 settled on because Monday 26th was the only evening we could have access to the AMS kitchen. • One of our organizing members, Karen, volunteered with Food Not Bombs to see how they manage themselves. • We came up with our first vision and mission statements as well as a list of our values and some of our goals. We also assigned committee leadership for the lunch on Nov. 27th. - Vision Statement: Community Eats is a student-lead initiative interested in fostering food security and community at UBC. We promote awareness of our shared social, economic and environmental responsibilities. Page 3 of 4 42 • We created a new email address (communityeats@gmail.com). We also created a new “Community Eats” Google group and a list-serve through UBC major domo to send emails to our volunteers (we no longer use the list-serve). Week of Nov. 12-16 • Heather and Caitlin met with Brenda Sawada on Nov. 14 and were given permission to create a SEEDS project. • Dr. Brent Skura agreed to oversee Caitlin and Heather’s SEEDS project, which was done as GRS 497 Directed Study. Brendon Goodmurphy agreed to be the staff representative for the SEEDS partnership. • SEC asked if we would be willing to put on a lunch during their annual conference (January 19th). Community Eats agreed, on the condition that SEC would help recruit volunteers for collecting and cooking. • Created an email describing volunteer positions available to be sent out to our list serve and to other interested groups (i.e. SEC list, LFS, Forestry). • Meeting Nov. 20th: black bean chili with rice settled on as the menu for the second lunch (pending what food was collected). • Bill Matthews from AMS proposed a logo for Community Eats. Week of Nov. 26-30 • Collection for the second lunch did not go as well as the first. There are a number of factors that contributed to our lack of food collected which include: it was the last week of school, people were busy and not able to collect, collecting over the weekend was harder since many managers were not in store, Capers was also unwilling to donate again. • With a shortage of food collected, we were forced to buy quite a few items for the second lunch. Rice and black beans were purchased from Sprouts and canned tomatoes, tomato paste, spices and frozen corn were purchased from a grocery store. • Cooking Monday night was efficient and fast. It took us about three hours with five people in the kitchen. • We had a lot of potatoes, some sweet potatoes and sunchokes from UBC farm and some carrots. We made a mashed vegetable dish with these ingredients to go with the chili and rice. This time we did not get any bread. • The lunch went quite well. We did have some logistical difficulties, however. Sprouts was open that day, to sell some of the remaining stock before the end of the year and therefore it was a bit crowded but overall it went well. • We served about 130 people; however we only received $36 (??) in donations. We had said that the lunch would be served from 12 until 2pm, however we ran out of food by 1:15. Page 4 of 4 43 APPENDIX C: TEMPLATE FAX/LETTER TO BUSINESSES Student Union Building, room 066 6138 Student Union Blvd, UBC Campus Vancouver, BC V6T 1A1 communityeats@gmail.com www.communityeats.blogspot.com Fax To: From: Community Eats Fax: Pages: Phone: Date: Re: UBC student-led initiative request … Urgent … For Review … Please Comment … Please Reply … Please Recycle Page 1 of 2 44 Community Eats SUB 066 6138 Student Union Blvd, UBC Vancouver, BC V6T 1A1 communityeats@gmail.com Store/Business Name Address Fax Number Date To Whom It May Concern, My name is (name of Collections Coordinator), and I am writing on behalf of a group called Community Eats. We are a UBC student-volunteer led initiative committed to fostering food security and community on and beyond our campus. As a medium to promote our values, and create a forum for discussion about food system issues, we serve a free, nutritious hot lunch every second Friday during the regular University Semester. Our lunches are open to anyone, and we serve about 200 (or appropriate number) people each time. In accordance with our values, and in an effort to decrease the amount of edible food that goes to waste, Community Eats lunches are cooked with food which would otherwise be thrown out due to its appearance (i.e. blemishes, bruises, etc), quality, expiration date, or damage (i.e. broken or punctured packaging). If your (appropriate business type) has any food of this nature, which they are not able to sell and would otherwise be thrown out, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to use it productively for our lunches. Vancouver food distributors and grocers are integral to the success of this project. It is our goal that the relationships we establish with them in no way inconvenience the regular operation of their businesses. Our volunteers have flexible schedules and are available to pick up available food from ( store/business name) at the time specified by a manager. I can be contacted via email to communityeats@gmail.com, or by telephone at (phone number) to discuss the possibility of your support, or provide any more information about this project. I would also be more than happy to meet in person. Sincerely, (name), Community Eats Food Collection Coordinator Page 2 of 2 45 APPENDIX D: HANDOUT TO BRING TO BUSINESSES WHEN SEEKING DONATIONS Student Union Building, room 066 6138 Student Union Blvd, UBC Vancouver, BC V6T 1A1 communityeats@gmail.com www.communityeats.blogspot.com Community Eats is a UBC student volunteer led initiative committed to fostering food security and community on and beyond our campus. As a medium to promote these values, and create a forum for discussion about food system issues, we serve a free, nutritious hot lunch every second Friday during the regular University semester. The newspaper clipping included in this letter will give you a sense of the incredible success of previous lunches, which have had up to 200 (or enter appropriate number) students, staff, professors, and members of the general public in attendance. In accordance with our values, and in an effort to decrease the amount of edible food that goes to waste, Community Eats lunches are cooked with food which would otherwise be thrown out due to appearance (i.e. blemishes, bruises, etc), quality, expiration date, or damage (i.e. broken or punctured packaging). If your business has any food of this nature, which you are not able to sell and would otherwise be throwing out, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to use it productively for our lunches. Vancouver food distributors and grocers are integral to the success of this project. It is our goal that the relationships we establish with them in no way inconvenience the regular operation of their businesses. Our volunteers have flexible schedules and are available to pick up available food at a time specified by a manager. To discuss the possibility of your support, or provide any more information about this project, Community Eats can be contacted via email to communityeats@gmail.com. Alternatively, our food collections coordinator, (name), can be contacted directly by telephone at (phone number). Sincerely, Community Eats Member Page 1 of 2 46 Page 2 of 2 47 APPENDIX E: THANKS TO BUSINESSES Community Eats SUB 066 6138 Student Union Blvd, UBC Vancouver, BC V6T 1A1 communityeats@gmail.com www.communityeats.blogspot.com Store/Business Name Address Fax Number Date Dear (name of manager/store) Community Eats has had an incredibly successful year. Our project has developed from a promising idea into a regular campus event. At each of our (number) lunches held since (date) we served over 170 happy members of the UBC community; and we anticipate this number to grow in the coming years. Without your support, these meals would never have been possible. On behalf of Community Eats, and everyone who enjoyed the meals we cooked this year, I would like to express my sincere thanks to you and your business for contributing to our project. We look forward to working with you again, (signed) (name) (position title) Page 1 of 1 48 APPENDIX F: VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT LETTER TO SEND ON LIST-SERVES Hi, My name is (name), and I’m the Volunteer Coordinator for a group called Community Eats. We are a student volunteer led initiative at UBC, dedicated to fostering food security and encouraging community engagement on and beyond our campus. If you were around last (year/semester), some of you might remember the tasty meals we were serving in Sprouts. As a medium to promote our values, and create a forum for discussion about food system issues, we serve a free/by-donation, nutritious hot lunch every second Friday during the regular university semester. We’re getting ready to start serving again this (year/semester), and are looking for some volunteers to make it happen. We have positions available for food (i.e. collection, cooking, serving). If you’re interested in volunteering with us, or want some more information about the project, please e-mail me at (email address). You can also check out our blog for updates, information, recipes, and more! www.communityeats.blogspot.com We hope to hear from you! Cheers, (Name) Community Eats Volunteer Coordinator Page 1 of 1 49 APPENDIX G: COMMUNITY EATS MENU AND COOKING LOG January 19, 2008 – Sec Conference - 155 People Served Menu Item: Brown Rice 20lbs (48c) dry short grain brown rice cooked in 4 x 2” hotel pans (12c rice per pan, plus salt, plus 16c water). Method: cover pan with saran wrap, cook in steamer at least 40 minutes. Notes: This was far too much for the amount of people served – 10lbs would have been enough. Menu Item: Root Vegetable-Tamarind Sambar Ingredients: mixed root vegetables (2 large buckets full, diced); fresh tomatoes (25lbs – one large bucket full, diced); onions (2-4lbs, diced); spices. Yield: 2x4” hotel pans = 1x2”hotel pans Method: - Spread diced root vegetables in a single layer on four parchment-lined sheet pans, sprinkled with oil, cumin, and coriander, roast at 350f. until tender - In a pan on the stovetop, cook mustard seeds, fenugreek, fennel seeds in oil until they pop - In the small tilting pot, cook diced onions, cumin, coriander, cayenne, turmeric until onions translucent, add other spices - Add diced tomatoes, cover and let cook until tomatoes soft and it’s all soupy and hot. - Add root vegetables, cook further until desired consistency is reached, everything is cooked and heated through. - Add salt and tamarind to taste. - Pour into hotel pans to hold To Reheat: cover hotel pan with saran wrap, heat in steamer at least 45 minutes Notes: this was too much for the amount served. 2x4” sheet pans would have been just enough. Also we probably didn’t use all the root veggies we diced. Menu Item: Curried Chickpea and Potato Roast Ingredients: potatoes (2 large buckets full, diced); chickpeas (10lb dry); onions (2-4lbs, diced); spices, red peppers (4 salsa tubs full, diced), fresh peas (1 salsa tub full) Yield: 4 sheet pans or ~3x4” hotel pans Page 1 of 4 50 Method: - Cook diced potatoes in hotel pans in water in the steamer (does not take long – check frequently or they become mushy), then drain. - Soak chickpeas for 24hours and cook in the large tilting pot (takes about 1 hour or more to cook thoroughly), then drain. - Toss potatoes, chickpeas, diced raw onion, minced raw garlic, oil, and spices (garam masala, cumin, coriander, and salt) together on parchment-lined sheet pans. - Cover with saran wrap to hold To Reheat: heat in the oven, at 350f, about 30 minutes, until chickpeas and potatoes crispy and hot but not dried out. Turn the oven off or down to the lowest setting to maintain heat until serving. Notes: this was too much for the amount served. We had one whole sheet pan left over Menu Item: Bread We also served Terra bread – a large garbage bag full, sliced. We had lots left over. February 1, 2008 – Community Eats Lunch - 170 People Served Menu Item: Steamed Greens Ingredients: 10 bell peppers (cut into eighths), 1 case broccoli (cut into bite sized pieces) Yield: 1x4” hotel pan Method: - Lay bell pepper pieces on parchment lined sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and assorted herbs. Roast in oven at 350f, about 25 minutes or until soft and beginning to caramelize. - Toss bell peppers together with raw broccoli in hotel pan. - Cover with saran wrap to hold. To reheat: heat in the steamer, 15 minutes or until broccoli is bright green and tender Notes: Would have been nice to have a bit more for the amount of people served (we ran out early). Menu Item: Vegan Shepherds Pie Ingredients: potatoes (2 large buckets full, diced), onions (~12c), garlic (~16 heads – chop off very top of head, do not peel), green lentils (4lb), bell peppers (25), carrots (2” hotel pan full, sliced), zucchini (2” hotel pan full – about 10 zucchinis – thinly sliced), assorted herbs and spices. Yield: 4x4” hotel pan Page 2 of 4 51 Method: - Pour some oil into heads of garlic, roast on a parchment-lined sheet pan, covered with a “tent” of tinfoil, at 350f for 30 minutes or until garlic is very soft and caramelized. Once cooled, pop the cloves out of the skin, and mince them. - Spread bell peppers, zucchini, and onion onto 4 parchment lined sheet pans. Sprinkle with salt, herbs (basil, rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, etc), some chilli flakes, and coriander. Drizzle with oil. Roast at 350f for about 30 minutes or until veggies are soft but not mushy. - Follow the above steps for the carrots. Roast at 350f for about 45 minutes, until tender and caramelized. - Cook lentils in water (1:2 ratios) until soft, about 45 minutes. Drain. Thoroughly. - Place potatoes in hotel pans, with 1” of water. Cook, uncovered, in the steamer until evenly tender (about 20 minutes). Mash the potatoes, adding salt and roasted garlic to taste. Add oil to get a more creamy consistency. - Assemble the Shepherds pie as follows: spread a layer of mashed potatoes on the bottom of a 4” hotel pan (about 1” deep). Layer ¼ of each the lentils, roasted mixed veggies, and roasted carrots. Top with another layer of mashed potatoes and smooth the top. Repeat for 3 more hotel pans. - Cover with tin foil to hold. To Reheat:Reheat the oven at 350, covered with foil, for one hour. Remove foil and continue cooking about 15 more minutes, or until the top of the pie is nicely browned. Notes: Perfect amount! The roasted garlic really made the pie good. Corn, if available, would be very good as another layer in the pie. Menu Item: Bread Sliced bread from Terra was served. We had 2 large garbage bags full (lot’s left over). Menu Item: Cut Fresh Veggies Carrots, cucumber, and radishes were also served on the side. February 15, 2008 – Community Eats Lunch – 170 People Served Menu Item: Herb Roasted Potatoes Ingredients: potatoes (enough to fill 4x4” hotel pans), oil, assorted dry herbs (rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme), salt Yield: 4x4” hotel pan Method: - Cut blemishes or especially rough skin off of potatoes. Slice into large cubes. Store in buckets, completely covered in water, until ready to cook. Page 3 of 4 52 - Place potatoes in hotel pans, immersed in water. Steam until just tender (do not overcook! They shouldn’t be completely cooked). Drain. - Spread onto parchment lined hotel pans. Toss with oil, salt, and a generous amount of herbs. - Cover tightly with saran wrap to hold. To reheat: - Heat, uncovered in the oven at 350f, 30 minutes or until cooked through and crispy/browned on the outside. - Transfer back into hotel pans to serve out of. Notes: - Very important not to steam the potatoes too long! Plan to have them in the oven longer if need be, rather than cooking them completely in the steamer. Menu Item: Chipotle Black Bean and Vegetable Stew Ingredients: 6lb black beans, 1 case green peppers (cubed), 1 case broccoli (cut into bite sized pieces), 10 large carrots (sliced thinly), 10 onions (diced), 3 heads of garlic (diced), 2 cases tomatoes (enough to fill a large bucket), spices (cumin, Mexican chilli powder, coriander), chipotle puree, salt, oil Yield: 3x4” hotel pan Method: - Soak beans in plenty of water, overnight. Drain and rinse well. Put some water in the small cauldron and heat until almost boiling. Add the beans. Bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until done (about 45 minutes or longer). Drain. - Heat the large cauldron. Add some oil, the onions and garlic. Add spices when onions are softening. Continue cooking until onions are translucent. - Add all of the tomatoes. Cook until softening. - Add the peppers, carrots, and broccoli. - Cook, uncovered, until veggies are soft but not completely done. Add more spices as necessary. - Mix in the cooked black beans. Add salt and chipotle puree to taste. - Pour into hotel pans. Cover with saran wrap to hold. To reheat: Heat in the steamer, 45 minutes or until veggies done and it is heated through. Notes: Don’t add water during cooking! It becomes very liquidy when heated in the steamer. Menu Item: Bread Sliced bread from Terra was served. We had 2 large garbage bags full. Page 4 of 4 53 APPENDIX H: COMMUNITY EATS EXPENSES LOG Community Eats Expenses _____________________________________________________________________________ EVENT, DATE: SEC Conference - Jan 19. AMOUNT SPENT ITEM DETAILS $4 4lb onions $14.83 spices some leftover $25.40 20lb brown rice purchased through Sprouts $16 10lb chickpeas purchased through Sprouts $6.49 oil $19.06 10lb red lentils unused item total donations $71.28 total spent $85.78 donations - spent lost $14.50 total served 155 SEC is going to pay for the total amount spent, so CE didn't loose anything. EVENT, DATE: Equipment Purchase, January 26. AMOUNT SPENT ITEM DETAILS $6.80 Serated bread knife $24.18 3 1/2 size hotel pan lids ($8.06 each) $27.98 2 full size 2" hotel pans ($13.99 each) $43.48 2 full size 4" hotel pans ($21.74 each) $12.29 tax total spent $114.73 total donations n/a donations - spent n/a total served n/a Caitlin paid for the purchase and has been reimbursed. Hotel pans are to be shared with Sprouts. _____________________________________________________________________________ EVENT, DATE: CE Lunch, February 1st AMOUNT SPENT ITEM DETAILS $3.64 4lb Green Lentils purchased through Sprouts $14.34 spices and herbs some leftover $9 parking $10 gas 54 total donations $79.00 total spent $37 donations - spent $42.02 gained! total served 170 Caitlin paid for the purchases, other than lentils, and has been reimbursed. _____________________________________________________________________________ EVENT, DATE: CE Lunch, February 15th AMOUNT SPENT ITEM DETAILS $10 gas $6.24 6lb black beans purchased through Sprouts $10? chilpotle, spices $5 oil some leftover total donations $60.94 total spent $31.24 donations - spent $29.70 gained! total served 170 Caitlin paid for purchases other than beans, and hasbeen reimbured _____________________________________________________________________________ 55 APPENDIX I: EXAMPLE AMS ACCOUNTS FORMS Page 1 of 4 56 page 2 of 4 57 Page 3 of 4 58 Page 4 of 4