January 2nd Post

Wow! It's finally second semester! I think I have accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish last semester. I've organized a Joseph's House trip, which includes hosting an on campus food drive, going Downtown Troy asking owners for donations, hosting a fundraiser, gathering volunteers, and cooking the meal at Joseph's House. I've also created several recipes for my cookbook.

During christmas break, my sister and I actually tried cooking some of my recipes. We baked healthy lemon raspberry bar, banana chocolate oatmeal cookies, mini blueberry muffins, and a few others. They all turned out really successful and delicious! (pictures below) It's very important to try out the recipes or at least ask someone to look over them to make sure the instruction makes sense and is easy to follow.

Part of my signature project is to try include more emma girls to be involved in service. Last semester, I had emma girls help make the dessert for JH as well as helping me in my smoothie fundraiser. Interestingly, my Bridges proctor Lizzie '17 asked me recently if there is a way the Bridges can help out with Joseph House as a service opportunity and bonding activity. I proposed that Bridges can help make the dessert a day or two before the next JH trip. Nghi '18 also asked me if her club, Emma Compassion, can collaborate with me. She wants to help out with fundraising and food drive. It's always nice to see how eager and passionate emma girls are in engaging in service. I am so grateful that they came and asked me about service opportunities.

I met with my mentor Ms Mossop to talk about the next Joseph's House trip which will be on February 11th. We are going to make the Black Bean soup with rice and toppings again as they really enjoyed it last time and it was quite easy to make. Bridges will be making the dessert. Hopefully, Nghi and her club can do a food drive and or a mini sale before feb 11. I am working on my cookbook and continuing to create more healthy recipes!

January 1st Post - Interview

For my interview, I asked Ms Mossop because she is my signature mentor and knows a lot about healthy eating and community service. Ms Mossop has been the Director of Practicum and Independent Study at Emma Willard for over 17 years. Below is my interview with her:

The Interview: 

Q) I understand that your work is about helping students to find and explore things that they like to do outside of Emma. What inspire you to do this?

A) I really enjoy it because my work is always different. It's never the same. I have the opportunity to meet passionate mentors and share with students different exciting opportunities.

Q) You have many connections with community service opportunities. How do you find out about them?

A) Mostly word of mouth, but I will also reach out to people, talk to people, take flyers, and follow up

Q) Why do you think community service is important?

A)  I believe community service allows people, not just Emma girls, to engage with people in need, be involved and learn about the community around them. Getting out of the Emma bubble and knowing other people that have similar problems are very important. 

Q) How do you know about Joseph’s House?

A) The director of Joseph House has a connection with Emma and came to talk with the Emma girls some years ago. There used to be a Joseph House lunch practicum during weekdays. But I know about the JH monthly dinner program through Nadia '19 's mother. She has been doing it with other clubs and organizations so I went with her last year to see how it works. I decided to share this service opportunity with emma girls because I know many of them want to do service during the weekend and this is a great opportunity.

Q) What makes you agree to cook once a month at Joseph’s House?

A) The girls really like it. It's a good and valuable experience.

Q) What impact do you think you are creating on Joseph’s House?

A) I would say it's a mutual impact. We cook them delicious food and we receive their appreciation. Student also have the opportunity to learn about homelessness and interact with the homeless.

Q) Why do you think it’s important to cook a healthy meal for Joseph's House?

A) I personally like to eat healthy, and I wouldn't serve food that I wouldn't like. They are just like us, they deserve to eat the food that we get to eat. Plus, Joseph's House serves meals that are not quite nutritious due to a limited budget. So it's great that we can cook them a very nutritious meal.

Q) In your personal life, how do you eat healthy?

A) First, I don't eat meat. Second, I tend to buy local, good quality, and fresh foods and vegetables from farmer markets.

That's it!

Thanks to Ms Mossop for doing this interview with me! 

December Post

So much had happened since I got back from thanksgiving break. I volunteered at CEO food pantry and held a smoothie fundraiser to raise money for buying ingredients for Joseph's House. I thought of selling smoothies to the Emma community because it's something that hadn't been done before and smoothies are healthy and nutritious which relate to the theme of my project. I asked Meredith the house parent to help me in this fundraiser because I know she knows a lot about smoothies. We met up and talked about what kinds of smoothies to make and the budget. We decided to make two different kinds of smoothies - a green smoothie (spinach, orange, banana, coconut water) and a fruit smoothie (strawberry, banana, vanilla yogurt). I then went shopping for the ingredients with Ms Mossop at Hannaford and it was a success as I got everything I needed for a pretty low cost. I then proceeded to ask permission for holding a fundraiser and even though I've got it in the end, I've learnt to plan and communicate with the Signature team earlier so that there won't be any miscommunication. I sent out a pre order link to students and teachers a day before the sale and the spots were filled in less than 3 hours! I was very surprised at the overwhelming support from the Emma community. I sold all the smoothies on Wednesday and made about $120. :)

I also went volunteering at the CEO food bank in downtown Troy. Ms Buinicky's brother manages the food bank and invited me to help pack foods. I packed foods from the food pantry according to the clients' orders and delivered it to them and honestly it was so much fun.  I marked down what kinds of foods the food pantry provides and will try to design menus that uses those foods.  I wish there were more orders and I could stay there for longer.

I will continue on working on my cookbook and can't wait for the next trip to Joseph's House!

 smoothies from the sale

November 1st Post

I made my first ever morning report announcement and who would have thought it was for my signature project!

As mentioned before, I am trying to get the Emma community to be involved in the dinner that we will be making for Joseph's House. Hence, I made an announcement with Helena about a food drive on campus. When I checked the box after the first day of the food drive, there was nothing in it. I was quite surprised, but immediately made a Plan B. Since my Dad recently started a non profit organization, and is related to donations, I could use his money to buy all the ingredients that we still needed, in the form of sponsoring. However, after I sent out a follow up email later that night, I received tons of food the next day. What a surprise!

In addition to the food donations we received from Emma community, Ms Mossop and I also went out to downtown Troy to ask local stores for donations. We first went to Uncle Sam's, and we briefly explained who we are, what we are doing, and showed the manager some photos of previous emma girls cooking at Joseph's House. He promised to give us canned beans, tomatoes, and oil without asking us any further questions! We then went to Placid Baker and Little Pecks and did the same thing - I felt like an entrepreneur haha :) I am also planning to make a website/online platform that lists all the Troy companies that have donated foods to recognize their sponsorships.

I am currently working on my cookbook, and starting a recycling program in the dorms. FOCUS will be helping me out with the recycling program.

November 2nd post

My first trip to Joseph's House was very successful! Shoutout to Ms Buinicky, Mae, Natalie, Yoosong, and Sarah for helping out on Saturday.

We had all the ingredients we needed, and we worked together really well. We communicated with one another about what jobs that would like to do. For example, Sarah knows how to cook rice, so she was responsible for cooking the rice. We finished cooking everything just in time, and were able to serve the food to the people. There was a huge line and a lot of them came back for seconds. (that means our food must be not too bad!) We also saw big smiles on their faces :) I think the recipe that we made (black bean soup with rice and a lot of toppings) was something they don't eat often at Joseph's House. I saw their menu from earlier in the week, and it was mostly pasta, which doesn't have all the nutritional value they need, especially for pregnant mothers. I am so glad we made something that they enjoyed!

During our preparation,  Janet, the volunteer coordinator of Joseph's House, gave us some background as well as a tour of the entire center. We saw some family rooms, single rooms, and storage area. Through this tour, she taught me not to be judgemental towards the people that comes to homeless centers. Some of them are here not because they did something wrong, but because of unfortunate events that were beyond their control. I appreciate Janet so much for all her kind works that she has done in Joseph's House, serving the community unconditionally. 

It was such a memorable experience from getting the Emma community involved, asking local markets for donations, many meetings with Ms Mossop, planning the recipes and to actually cooking it. I am looking forward to my second trip to Joseph's House, which will be sometime in January. 

 The finished meal!

The black bean soup

 Sarah and Yoosong cooking

Sausages donated by Honest Weight Co-op

 Mae serving fresh bread donated by Placid Baker

Apple crisp dessert made by Sam E, Beverly G , and I on campus at Melissa's apt

October 2nd Post

As Nov 12, the date of the trip to Joseph's House, is nearby, I had more meetings with Ms Mossop and Gemma. I am responsible for designing a healthy yet affordable recipe, and I came up with apple crisp. The ingredients are relatively simple, like apples, oats, sugar, flour etc. Ms Mossop and I also reached out to local Troy food markets such as Country Hearth Baking, Honest Food Co-op and Field-Goods for food donations such as beans, veggies, bread, and meat. Honest Food Coop is very generous as they offer to give us 15lbs of sausages! We are still waiting to hear from Field Goods. We will be serving a black bean "soup" with toppings (unions, tomatoes, eggs, sausages) and rice, bread, and apple crisp for dessert. Since there are a lot of ingredients needed even with the donations from Honest Food, we will ask the Emma community for donations. I will meet with Ms Mossop on Wednesday to finalize the list of ingredients needed. I will also make a morning report speech on Friday about it (my first ever MR speech) and will collect donations on Monday (nov 7).

In the meeting last week, we also talked about starting a new recycling program at Emma. Gemma knows a program in Hannaford in which you get credits (money) for bringing a bag of cans and bottles. We hope to collect cans and bottles on the dorms by putting a recycling box on each hall, and at the end of the week, I can gather the cans and bottles into big bags. On a weekend, other volunteers and I can bring it to Hannaford and get credits. The credits will then be used for buying ingredients for Joseph House. I think this program is very meaningful as it is a mutually beneficial situation - we are helping the environment as well as getting donations for food!

Another goal that I would like to achieve is to offer volunteering opportunities that are fun and not a big commitment for students. For example, I will need volunteers to help bake the apple crisp, help collect cans and bins, and help bring to Hannaford. I hope to invite more students in helping our community throughout the year.

October 1st Post

It's been a week since I attended the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute conference in Iowa, and I am already missing it.

I learnt so much about food security, met so many amazing friends from different states, and talked with a lot of professionals (including Former President of Malawi and US secretary of agriculture). I also had the chance to present my paper which is about malnutrition in Cambodia in front of several professionals in this field! I will never forget about this memorable experience.

After this trip, I also thought of some of the things that we did in Iowa that could also be done in my Signature on a smaller scale. For example, the meal packaging event. We packed rice and beans as a group for families overseas that are struggling to eat a nutritious meal. When it is closer to Christmas, I can perhaps plan a "cookie decorating and packaging" activity, and send the cookies to Joseph's House.

Last week, I met with Ms Mossop about our first trip to Joseph's House. We will be making dinner for a group of 50 people in Joseph's House from scratch, from creating the menus to finding different sponsors for ingredients to actually cooking it at Joseph's House. I am responsible for designing a healthy dessert menu, as well as asking the Emma community and local Troy markets for food donations.

I am also in the process of designing other healthy recipes for my cookbook, and will be meeting Mr Bayer next week for more ideas.

I can't wait to get started!