Thought for Food: Thought for Food: Essential Skills and Essential Skills and

Food System Food System PerformancePerformance

University of SaskatchewanUniversity of ReginaUniversity of Victoria

Saskatoon Co-operative Association CHEP Good Food Inc.

Introduction/OverviewIntroduction/Overview

Michael Gertler, PhD, Centre for the Study of Co-operatives/Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan

Research Team SchemaResearch Team Schema

EDUCATION

SOCIOLOGY

NUTRITION

ES

•Nutrition Coordinator Study •Soy Food Study•Baking Study•Breast Feeding Study•Food Quality Study•Multi-Generational Food Knowledge & Skills Study

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Saskatoon Co-opCHEP

Research TeamResearch Team

Faculty A.Blunt, M.Gertler, C. Henry, J.Jaffe, S.Whiting Carol Vandale – Assistant Researcher

Community partners: Karen Archibald – CHEP Good Food Inc Collin Merritt – Saskatoon Co-op

Graduate Students: Lori Evert Elisabeth Lo Paula Negraes Flo Woods Timothy Zagozewski

Food Sector ActorsFood Sector Actors Frontline workers (& managers) in a Co-op

supermarket

Bakers in industrial, in-store, small commercial, and artisan bakeries

Consumers/shoppers purchasing soy products/functional foods

Volunteer and part-time workers in school breakfast/lunch programs

Women involved with home cooking (three generations study)

Breastfeeding mothers

Some Relevant Food SkillsSome Relevant Food Skills

Reading/decoding/interpreting labels/recipes

Assessing multiple dimensions of quality/value

Analyzing food system impacts of purchase/ consumption decisions

Developing/deploying nutritional literacy

Breastfeeding (with confidence/competence)

Cooking and baking

Understanding cultural & social uses of food

Food System PerformanceFood System Performance

Population nutritional and health status

Viability of food sector (commercial and alternative) enterprises

Capacities/knowledge of domestic, commercial, social economy food purveyors

Food security, especially of vulnerable populations

Ecological and economic costs of provisioning activities

Changing Food System Changing Food System ContextsContexts

Industrialization of primary production, processing, manufacturing

Focus on food retailing, restaurant/fast food sector, food services/brokers

Increased role of institutional food providers: hospitals, prisons, military, schools, food banks…

Chemical, biotechnological revolutions combined with health/medical complexities increase knowledge needs for “informed” consumption

Shifting Landscapes Shifting Landscapes for Nutrition for Nutrition CoordinatorsCoordinators

Carol Vandale, MEd, University of Saskatchewan

Breakfast for Learning Canadian Living

Foundation

Research PartnersResearch Partners

Community-University Institute for

Social Research

Breakfast/Snack Programs in Saskatchewan Elementary Schools:

Benefits, Barriers, & Essential Skills

CHEP Good Food Inc.Thought for FoodEssential Skills Research Team

ES Component of StudyES Component of Study

ES research questions: What ES are needed by nutrition coordinators to

deliver the breakfast/snack programs?

What are the roles of community-based partnerships associated with these programs?

Research sample: Interviewed 17 Nutrition Coordinators – 5

Educational Assistants (EA) and 12 Volunteer Nutrition Coordinators (VNC)

Volunteer Nutrition Volunteer Nutrition CoordinatorsCoordinators

Predominantly limited to Saskatoon

Paid an honorarum No standard job

descriptions, roles, or responsibilities

Educational levels vary greatly

VNCs expressed interest in having their work incorporate more educational programming

Nutritional Educational Nutritional Educational AssistantsAssistants

Saskatchewan training options: Early Childhood Education Certificate/Diploma Educational Assistant Certificate/Diploma

No formal nutrition or food preparation training – some health promotion training

EAs interviewed want a specific job description for a Nutritional Educational Assistant with appropriate training and remuneration.

CHEP Good Food Inc.CHEP Good Food Inc.

Role - support the Volunteer Nutrition Coordinators

Role is shifting to an emphasis on training and advocacy for VNCs

Current partnerships changing

Challenges

CHEP Good Food Inc. CHEP Good Food Inc. and Essential Skillsand Essential Skills

Karen Archibald, MA, Director CHEP Good Food Inc.

CHEP Good Food CHEP Good Food Inc.Inc.

((formerly Child Hunger formerly Child Hunger

and Education Programand Education Program)) CHEP - Working with

children, families and communities to achieve solutions to hunger and improve access to good food for all.

CHEP & food securityCHEP & food security

A food security analysis provides the foundation for the policy and program work of the organization.

Saskatoon Food Charter guides development of healthy food system for region

Community based programming includes children’s nutrition (meal) programs, food education programs, collective kitchens, community gardening, senior’s stores, farm links, good food box and others

Participatory and peer leader model – CHEP offers several training programs for community members and seeks to connect participants with opportunities to generate income for family

Activities completedActivities completed

CHEP was a partner in Benefits of Breakfast and Essential Skills study

Exploring the role of Voluntary Sector participants within Essential Skills framework

Study helps identify skills needed for nutrition coordinators

Study informs CHEP in development of strategic directions for children’s programming

Activities underway 2006Activities underway 2006

We are about to conduct an Essential Skills profiling of nutrition coordinator’s role/occupation

We will be using national ES methodology to develop the profile

Profile will serve as basis for training program for CHEP coordinators and potentially all nutrition coordinators in province

Future activitiesFuture activities

Use profiling to do a comparison between ES of coordinators in Voluntary Sector with occupations in market sector.

Comparison may enable us to access the employability of the coordinators in voluntary sector

This approach to human resources development within a community may be a new approach to retail training in food sector

Results will enable opportunities for nutrition coordinators to make transition to formal employment such as with the Saskatoon Coop, the Saskatoon School Divisions, and in development of to develop new small businesses,

Consumers’ and Retail Consumers’ and Retail Food Employees’ Food Employees’

Attitudes, Knowledge, and Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills re SoyfoodsSkills re Soyfoods

Paula Negraes, M.Sc.PhD Candidate, University of Saskatchewan

Attitudes, Knowledge, and Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills re SoyfoodsSkills re Soyfoods

Goals:

To understand consumers’ and employees’ perceptions & knowledge

To understand skills needed by consumers and employees to make decisions that influence families’ health

MethodsMethods

Self-administered Questionnaire & Interviews

2 Saskatoon Co-op supermarkets (A & B)

shoppers (females,males), >19 years employees: management & floor staff (purposeful

sampling)

Shoppers: 304 participants Employees: 6 floor staff, 2 management

FindingsFindings

Consumers:Need knowledge about soy and cooking

Employees:Need to understand

functional foods to assist shoppers

ImplicationsImplications

Label reading

Numeracy for portion sizes, food preparation tips

Oral communication skill

Continuous learning

Results confirmed the need for literacy and essential skills for consumers & employees regarding soyfoods, e.g.:

(Re)Making Bread: (Re)Making Bread: Industrial Technologies Industrial Technologies and the Skills of Food and the Skills of Food

Industry WorkersIndustry Workers

Tim Zagozewski, MA Candidate, University of Saskatchewan

ObjectivesObjectives

A Sociology of Work project in a food context: Observe changing skills for food system

workers

Develop a more nuanced definition of skill

Critique the Essential Skills program

Contribute to sociological literature on Fordist and post-Fordist conceptions of the economy

MethodsMethods

A case study approach including multiple research sites:Co-op Food Store - Bakery

ObservationInterviews with food workers/managers

Suppliers:Federated Co-operative

LimitedIndustrial bakery supplier

CompetitorsMcGavin’s Baking Facility

Understanding Understanding Breastfeeding Discourse Breastfeeding Discourse

and Experiencesand Experiences

Lori Evert, MA Candidate, University of Regina

Research AIMResearch AIM

Objectives: to understand the everyday experiences of women around breastfeeding, dominant breastfeeding discourse, as well as the conflicts that may arise between the two.

Essential Skills required to breastfeed and teach breastfeeding are changing.

Changes in Changes in BreastfeedingBreastfeeding

Past – learned through apprenticeship

Present – learn through text / discourse

Learn from: LaLeche League, public health nurses, and maternity ward nurses

Recognition of change & conflicts

Research PlanResearch Plan

Interviews with mothers

Interviews with breastfeeding educators

Aim to better asses the skills each require

Analysis of breastfeeding education literature

This research will point to possible policy alternatives that could help both groups obtain necessary ES.

Co-op & Essential Skills Co-op & Essential Skills StudyStudy

Collin Merritt, Manager, Saskatoon Co-op

Co-op & Essential SkillsCo-op & Essential Skills

Co-op

Staff training

ES

Findings

Study cites needFor support

resources: staff

Study:

•Soy consumption study

•Consumers’ perception on quality

Consumers’ Perception Consumers’ Perception of Qualityof Quality

Goals: To understand consumers’ perception of quality

and willingness to pay

To provide employees with skills to communicate knowledge of quality to consumers

To improve the food quality provided in store

Quality important and multidimensional diverse influences on people during shopping

Approach to the StudyApproach to the Study

Involve staff: purchasing, produce managers

Involve customers: quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews

Focus on produce

Food quality criteria: how do staff and customers understand quality? How does the store offer quality?

Communicate quality to consumers

Multi-Generational Food Multi-Generational Food Knowledge and Skills Knowledge and Skills

ResearchResearch

JoAnn Jaffe, PhD, Department of Sociology and Social Studies,

University of Regina

Theoretical GroundingTheoretical Grounding

This research uses a critical realist approach as a basis for understanding knowledge and skill in a western Canadian regional food system, recognizing that they are embedded in a dialectical, hierarchical and differentiated social reality.

Critical Approaches to Food Critical Approaches to Food Knowledge and SkillsKnowledge and Skills

Structured by logic of competitive relations of production

Structured by logic of social locations and roles, status and identity, resistance and compliance, comfort, sociality, community………

The Social Context of Food The Social Context of Food Knowledge and SkillsKnowledge and Skills

The development of agribusiness and the effect of commoditization and deskilling of production

Relations of consumption

Communities of (food) practice

Sites of practices

Expressions of practical knowledge

Food consumption and preparation practices’ relationship to status, solidarity, and identity

The Research PlanThe Research Plan

Semi-structured interviews of successive generations of family cooks

Case studies capturing narratives and practices

Cluster analysis to identify and describe communities of practice

Data evaluation to see how food thinking skills are related to collective food styles.

Outcomes of the ResearchOutcomes of the Research

The development and elaboration of a framework for discussing and evaluating food knowledge and skills as central elements in food sovereignty.

An assessment of how a critical approach to ES might fit into the development of capacity for the creation of alternatives—individually, within the community, and regionally.

ConclusionsConclusions

JoAnn Jaffe, PhD, Department of Sociology and Social Studies,

University of Regina

Food Knowledge and SkillsFood Knowledge and Skills

Knowledge exists and is valorized in specific contexts and through practices

Food knowledge is reflexive

Food, the “intimate commodity,” is essential to multiple dimensions of well- being

Food knowledge advances through a “double movement:” commercial rationality and social resistance

Essential SkillsEssential Skills

ES approaches may support (or undermine) diverse social projects

Question: How will ES approaches impinge on food system performance, itself a contested and multi-dimensional idea?