wfc - lfs 350 seniors food access mapping final report jan 2014

8/13/2019 WFC - LFS 350 Seniors Food Access Mapping Final Report Jan 2014

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Westside Seniors Food AccessMapping: A Community-Based

Experiential Learning Project

An Analysis of Food Security among the Seniors of the South

Granville Community

Written by:Anita Balakumar, Jessica Luong, Tahira Naroth, Samantha Saddler, Natasha

Suntewari, Leon Voorwalt, and Stephanie Yoon

Group 27 of the Land and Food Systems 350 Class

The University of British Columbia


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Table of Contents:

A.Executive Summary.3B.Introduction..4C.Research Methods....4D.Findings

Results..........6Discussion............6

Limitation.7

E.Recommendations....7F.Conclusion...8G.References9H.Appendix....10


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A.Executive SummaryThis report summarizes the work of the Westside Seniors Food Access Mapping

project. It is a community-based experiential learning (CBEL) project assigned to students of

LFS 350, a course taught at the University of British Columbia. This project focuses on the

South Granville community of Vancouver, B.C., which stretches from Hemlock to Fir and 2nd to16th; this area has been recognized for its lack of affordable grocery stores. This report will

describe the project based on the research question: What proportion of seniors that visit the

South Granville Seniors Centre can be classified as food secure?

The applied method of research was surveys in the form of interviews. Nineteen seniors

from the South Granville Seniors Centre were surveyed, and the data was collected and analyzed

using a Google spreadsheet. The results of the data reveal that a majority of the seniors (89%)find it convenient to get nutritious and healthy food and over half of the seniors (53%) find

healthy and nutritious food reasonably priced. Finally, it takes most of the seniors (84%) more

than five minutes to travel to the store they visit most often and many (66%) say that they can

find all the food items they would like to purchase where they shop for groceries.

After evaluating these values, this report concludes that 89% of the seniors who visit the

South Granville Seniors Center are experiencing food security when it comes to foodaccessibility regarding the convenience of getting to the store and 16% when it comes to distance

from the store. In addition, only 53% experience food security when it comes to affordability and

only 66% for food availability. Therefore, initiatives should be taken to improve the groceryshopping experience for these seniors when it comes to the availability and affordability of

nutritious and healthy food.

We recommend that in the future, research groups spend more time conducting individual

surveys. Additionally, groups following our work should consider an alternate method ofgathering data; as this may help motivate greater participation by seniors. Both these

improvements may help ensure a larger sample size, resulting in more significant findings.

The report recognizes that limitations exist in this study. These limitations include: the

self-report data from the seniors and the interpretation of survey questions by the seniors may be

subjective.


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B. IntroductionGroup 27 of this term consists of Land and Food Systems (LFS) 350 students from the

University of British Columbia (UBC): Anita, Jessica, Natasha, Leon, Samantha, Stephanie and

Tahira. Our CBEL project, Westside Seniors Food Access Mapping, involves mapping food

accessibility for seniors who live on the Westside. Our group worked closely with our assignedcommunity partner, Zsuzsi Fodor. She is the community organizer and Westside Food

Collaborative coordinator of the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House (KNH). She sent our team to

the South Granville Seniors Center to gather our data.

Ms. Fodor explained to us that over the last few years, the South Granville area has

become more focused on pleasing tourists rather than local residents (Z. Fodor, personal

communication, October 15, 2013). As a result, small businesses are being replaced by largerbusinesses such as Pottery Barn and TNA (Z. Fodor, personal communication, October 15,

2013). Consequently, small store owners are suffering from increasing rents, which made it

exceedingly difficult for grocery stores in particular, to make a profit (personal communication,

November 27, 2013). Ms. Fodor further explained that the few grocery stores left in the area areforced to increase their prices to accommodate the increased rent prices. This forces residents of

the South Granville area to either spend more time travelling to a more affordable grocery store,

or spend more money on groceries (Z. Fodor, personal communication, November 27, 2013).

Our community partner would like our research to accurately reflect the standing of food

security in the area (Z. Fodor, personal communication, October 31, 2013). The goal is to obtaingrants to host pocket markets at the South Granville Seniors Center as they have done in the past

(Z. Fodor, personal communication, October 31, 2013). The ultimate goal is to affect food policy

in the area, in order to bring in more affordable food options (Z. Fodor, personal communication,

October 31, 2013).

Given that our project is strongly based on the information given to us by the South

Granville Seniors Centre population, we identified our target neighborhood as an area betweenHemlock and Fir and between 2nd and 16th in Vancouver (see figure 5). Moreover, the data we

collected came exclusively from the seniors visiting the Seniors Centre, focusing our research

further. Our next task was to consider how we would define food security, within the context of

this project. Cohen states that food security occurs for a community when all of its membershave access to a certain supply of affordable food (as cited in Vasquez et al., 2007). Lastly, it

seemed to us that the most straightforward way to map food security in the area would be to find

the proportion of seniors that could be considered food secure, given our researched definition of

food security. From this we arrived at our final research question: What proportion of seniors

that visit the South Granville Seniors Center can be classified as food secure?

C. Research MethodsOur research question translates the theoretical framework of our community-based

experiential learning (CBEL) project into one that can be researched through a specificmethodological approach. CBEL is defined as by UBC as practices and principles that provide

students with opportunities to apply our academic knowledge to real world issues (About Us,


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n.d.); conducting community-based research through this survey project definitely allowed us to

apply classroom-learned concepts in the real world. Since the nature of our project requires a

focus on quantitative information, we primarily wanted to gather tangible data.

We established that our primary method of research would be surveys in the form of

questionnaires. We planned to hand out surveys to community members and request theirparticipation. Additionally, we entertained the idea of setting up a large map of the SouthGranville area as a visual aid, so the participants could show us where they live and how far they

travel for groceries; we originally planned on using string and stickers in the process.

Once our primary method of research was established, we spent weeks creating, editing,

and perfecting our survey (refer to figure 6 for final draft). We worked with Ms. Fodor during

the primary stages of survey question development and then with our teaching assistant, Molly

Campbell, during the editing process. Molly was an excellent resource during this stage, becauseshe had experience in producing surveys; she was able to ensure our work complied with ethical

standards. Once our survey was complete, the executive director of the South Granville Seniors

Centre (Clemencia) was contacted to arrange an appointment to conduct the project. Our groupattended four events over two weeks to carry out the surveys and gather data. As a result, the

information sources used during this process were mostly physical contacts: Zsuzsi Fodor and

Molly Campbell.

During our visits to the centre, we slightly adjusted our method of research. Instead of

asking the seniors to complete surveys themselves, we interviewed them and recorded their

responses. For the sake of simplicity, we also decided to remove the mapping activity from thein-person interactions.

The data collection procedure was relatively straightforward. Our survey included a script

to help initiate interaction with the potential participant. Most participants were very responsiveand the only information some seniors did not feel comfortable revealing was their age. Our data

was inputted into a Google spreadsheet that was accessible to all team members. This organized

the results of the questions, so that interpretation and analysis were easier to conduct.Finally, weput the information on a map to represent the results visually.

The communication process as a whole was entirely affirmative and the KitsilanoNeighborhood House partner, Zsuzsi, was extremely helpful. She had a clear goal, and made it

very easy for us to pursue our project. Our primary form of communication was through email,

but we also met with her a few times.

Some ethical responsibilities our team discussed before and after executing our surveys

included: accurately representing the information provided to us by the participants, respecting

the refusal of those not interested in partaking in our survey and visual maps, and acting in a

highly respectful manner as representatives of the LFS faculty of the University of BritishColumbia.


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D.FindingsResults

We had a total of 19 participants for our survey, with ages ranging from 57 to 92 years.

18 of the participants live outside of a group or senior home.

14 participants do groceries once or twice per week (see figure 1). As the primary mode

of transportation, 12 participants walk to the grocery store, 6 take public transportation, and onereported driving (see figure 2). It takes more than five minutes for 16 (84%) of the participants to

get to their primary grocery store (see figure 3). A visual of how far the seniors are traveling and

which mode of transportation they are using can be seen in figure 4. 17 (89%) participants say

that it is convenient for them to buy healthy and nutritious foods. In addition, 10 (53%) say thatthese healthy and nutritious foods are reasonably priced. 12 of the participants (66%) say that

they can find all the food items they would like to purchase where they shop for groceries.

When attending the South Granville Senior Centre to survey possible participants, theattendance of seniors was lower than anticipated. The attendance ranged from 7-12 people with

those willing to participate ranging from 5-10.

Discussion

When it comes to grocery store choice, some factors that seniors consider are: access to

the store, location close to home, quality of fresh foods, and low prices (Angell et al., 2012). The

South Granville area is a food desert that lacks affordable food options (Z. Fodor, personal

communication, October 31, 2013). This can be the of cause mental stress for those who haveproblems budgeting for healthy and nutritious foods (Vasquez et al., 2007).

Regarding transportation methods, most of the survey participants (68%) reportedwalking to get to the grocery store. Some seniors claimed that it kept them active and took care

of their physical activity for the day. Most of the participants (89%) found it convenient to travel

to a store that sells healthy and nutritious food. However, a majority of the seniors (84%) takemore than five minutes to reach a grocery store from their homes, indicating that there is room

for improvement in food accessibility, as the goal for Vancouver is to have everyone live five

minutes away from a grocery store (Z. Fodor, personal communication, November 27, 2013).

Additionally, just over half of the participants (53%) reported that healthy and nutritious

food options were reasonably priced. The 47% of participants who did not find them reasonably

priced suggests that problems may exist for seniors who want affordable healthy and nutritiousfoods. 34% of the participants reported that they did not find everything they wanted at theirprimary grocery store, indicating a lack of available and accessible product options. A third of

the participants is significant and suggests that many seniors could benefit from more available

food options in the area.

The South Granville area is a food desert that lacks affordable food options (Z. Fodor,

personal communication, October 31, 2013). Our findings indicate that many of the participants


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Food Collaborative food security efforts.

Finally, Some projects future Land and Food Systems student groups could look into isintegrating potential farmers market into the community, where the data was acquired. Our data

will directly influence implementation of the Westside Mobile Food Market run at the South

Granville Seniors Centre.

F. ConclusionIn conclusion, we were able to identify specific statistics for certain aspects of food

security, as we defined it, thus enabling us to answer our research question. 89% of seniors that

visited South Granville Senior Center are satisfied with accessibility as it relates to convenience,

16% are satisfied with food accessibility regarding distance from the store, 53% are satisfiedwith food affordability in their area, and 66% are satisfied with food availability. We believe

initiatives should be taken to make the grocery shopping experience easier for seniors visiting the

South Granville Seniors Center, when it comes to the availability and affordability of nutritious

and healthy food.


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References

About Us. Centre for Community Engaged Learning. Retrieved fromhttp://www.students.ubc.ca/communitylearning/about/

Angell, R., Megicks, P., Memery, J., Heffernan, T., & Howell, K. (2012). Understandingthe older shopper: A behavioural typology.Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19(2),259-269.

University of British Columbia. (2013). LFS 350 Community-based Food System ProjectProposal Form: Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.

Weiten, W., & McCann, D. (2013). The research enterprise in psychology.Psychology:

themes and variations(Custom ed., pp. 42-83). Toronto, Canada: Nelson Education Ltd.

Vasquez, V. B., Lanza, D., Hennessey-Lavery, S., Facente, S., Halpin, H. A., & Minkler,

M. (2007). Addressing food security through public policy action in a community-basedparticipatory research partnership.Health Promotion Practice, 8(4), 342-349.


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Appendix

Anita Balakumar

I took LFS 250 last year so I had a preconceived idea of what to expect in LFS 350. To

my surprise this experience has been widely different. One reason is that the CBEL project wasfocused on a completely different demographic than Think&EatGreen@School: seniors as

oppose to children. I found this refreshing because I believe that sometimes we can get so caught

up on the idea of educating the younger generation to think in terms of food citizenship, that weoverlook the older generation and their needs. I really enjoy the LFS faculty as a whole because I

feel like the department constantly emphasizes hand-on work; this class was no different in that

regard. It feels good to contribute to your community first hand, knowing that your work will

help make a difference. I think the TED talks, and plenary presentations complemented thecoursework nicely, but at times I found my interest peaked with the e-lectures more than in-class

lectures.

Jessica Luong

While surveying the seniors, I was able to gather information that goes beyond the

quantitative data on our survey. For example, I had one participant who emphasized theimportance of how food tastes. He is from Europe and he explained that Canadians are very

generous when it comes to salt. When him and his wife came to Canada, it took them a while to

adapt to the salt content of Canadian food. He was also well travelled. He explained thatcountries that allow their bananas to ripen on the tree have fantastic tasting bananas, much better

than the green bananas we commonly see in grocery stores. From our project, I was able to

gather information on food security in the community. However, the personal information from

the seniors themselves was also very valuable to me.

Tahira Naroth

This project took a concept that had only been taught to me in class and made it relevant

to my life. Its one thing to hear about world hunger and food security as an issue, but its

completely different when it is happening in your own backyard and you get to see how it affects

people in the community. I think its extremely important to make concepts a reality forstudents/people and it is hard to do that in a classroom setting. I do think that the classroom

material was helpful and added to the CBEL project. We were given the opportunity to be

involved in helping our communitys food security as well as given the necessary tools to do so.

All in all, the project was very enlightening.

Samantha Saddler

My experience with our CBEL project was a positive one; since I am looking to go into

nursing after my undergraduate degree I found our research to be a unique perspective on the

geriatric population. Specifically how seniors view a healthy lifestyle, and how they base theiractivities around accessing food. In regards to city planning and accessibility, it has motivated

me to enter the healthcare field with a new perspective on how seniors view their daily routine.


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My experience with the various e-lectures such as Ted talks was really beneficial. This kind of

alternate study is a fantastic way to further develop a social knowledge of the topics which we

covered in this course. I noticed that I was more able to connect points through our CBEL projectwith ideas we had gone over in the e-lectures, such as the guerrilla gardener with local farms in

urban areas, which would help add a more dynamic food source for neighbourhoods.

Natasha Suntewari

Unlike most other courses at university, this CBEL initiative taught me about the concept

of food security in a way that I could apply and understand in relation to the real world. I couldanalyze what the seniors food security situation was as I was surveying them, even if they were

unaware of it themselves! This project also taught me skills I will continue to use in projects in

the future, including how to design a survey and how to cite correctly. Moreover, I have learned

how important good communication is within group work. Another component I appreciated inthis course was the use of the LFS blogs, which not only kept other groups in the loop, but

helped our group keep on track with each other. Lastly, throughout this course the e-lectures we

were made to watch taught me a lot and really opened my eyes to a lot of things I was notpreviously aware of. It is because of LFS 350, I know watch TED talks on a regular basis and

plan on continuing to do so.

Leon Voorwalt

Our work at the South Granville Seniors Center gave me the opportunity to frequently

speak with the elderly, something that I have never done in the past. Up until now, I have neverneeded to hold a conversation with someone from the senior age group because I have never had

an elderly family figure in my life. As such, it was easy, at first, to slip into prejudice: everything

I knew about the elderly was based on movie stereotypes. Put simply, I was initially

apprehensive of the seniors being stereotypically grumpy and disengaged. I think that afterhaving been given the opportunity to speak with them regarding every-day topics such as grocery

shopping, I have learned not to apprehensive based on stereotypical knowledge, and I have

become much more comfortable in being able to speak with the elderly, which, all in all, I feelhas helped me grow as a person.

Stephanie Yoon

Being a teacher candidate, I appreciated the CBEL component of this course because my

teaching philosophy is that students retain the most education outside of classroom settings.

Lectures and essays are limited in explanatory capabilitiesby experiencing things visually andkinetically, students are not only more interested, but are more likely to become passionate about

the subject. The integration of social media resources such as Ted Talks and use of blogs also

added a familiar touch catered to our technology dependent generation, which helped to reinforce

topics covered in this course, such as food security, and keep track of the projects progress.However, the frustrating aspect about updating a weekly blog is that we are not given feedback

for every entry, which would have been helpful for improving our blog. With the increasing

prevalence of technology, blogging advice may have benefitted those who have never attemptedblog-style writing.


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Tables and Images:

Figure 1: Table showing how often survey participants shop for groceries per week. Results are

from 19 surveys.

Figure 2: Table showing the different modes of transportation used by participants when grocery

shopping.

Figure 3: Table showing the amount of time it takes for survey participants to travel to their

primary grocery store.


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Figure 4: Visual map indicating main grocery stores coupled with main modes of transportation.


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Figure 5: Map indicating the community which this project focused on.


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Figure 6: Sample of final survey

Hi there my name is ___________ and I am an undergraduate student at UBC. I am working on

a community-based project for one of my courses, and we are gathering information on the

availability and accessibility of healthy food in the South Granville neighbourhood.

Our community partner for this project is the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, and they are

specifically interested in finding out how senior citizens living in this neighbourhood do their

grocery shopping.

We will be asking you a few questions about your grocery shopping habits, and the answers you

provide us will help the Neighbourhood House in their efforts to bring positive change to the

community.The data that we collect from these surveys will be presented to our class at UBC

and to our community partner.

Your identity will remain anonymous when our data is presented, meaning that when we present

our findings your name wont be written or mentioned, nor will it be attached to your responses.

Participating in this survey is entirely voluntary, and you can choose to withdraw from the

survey at any time with no negative consequences.

This survey will take approximately 10 minutes of your time. Do you agree to participate in this

survey?

NoOk, thank you for your time.

Yes- Great, then lets get started.

1) Are you the primary shopper for your household?

2) How many people live in your household?

3) Where do you live? (Closest intersection)

4) How often do you shop for groceries? (e.g. 1X/week; 2X/month)

5) What 3 stores do you visit most often to shop for food?

Answer 1 -

Answer 2 -

Answer 3 -

(If they mention a chain grocery store, ask for the location.)

And how often do you visit (Answer 1)?


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(Answer 2)?

(Answer 3)?

6) When you are traveling to a store to purchase food, what modes of transportation do

you use?

Answer 1

Answer 2

(If multiple answers)

Ok, what percentage of the time would you say you end up walkingto the store?

Ah, ok, so you are____about __% of the time.

7) Which of these types of transportation have you been using most over the past month?(The ONE they use most.)

8) On average, how long does it take you to go from home to the grocery store you visit

most often?

9) Do you feel that it is convenient for you to travel to a store that sells healthy and

nutritious food? (such as fresh fruits and vegetables)

10) Do you feel that these healthy and nutritious food options are reasonably priced?

11) Are there any food items that you would like to purchase, but are not sold where youshop for groceries?

12) Thanks so much for your participation so far. As one final question, would you feel

comfortable telling me your age so that we can better categorize the information we collect

today?

I appreciate the time that you have spent taking our survey today! Thanks!

wfc - lfs 350 seniors food access mapping final report jan 2014

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