A Reflection on the Parkhurst dining presentation

In his talk about Parkhurst dining, Jamie did a very good job of explaining the different factors that play into getting our food us and the various systems that Parkhurst has set up to ensure this is a clean process. The two main points that Jamie made in his presentation were the different programs Parkhurst has established to guarantee clean, sustainable foods. These programs include the Know Your Source program and the farm source and forged partners programs. The Know Your Source program’s goal is self explanatory, it strives to make the food industry more sustainable. They accomplish this via the verified foods label which marks food that are sustainable and ethical. The farm source and forged partners programs are designed to place a large emphasis on locally grown, clean, sustainable farms. They go to each individual farm or food producers to inspect them to verify them. This not only provides clean, locally sourced foods but also helps local farms and artisan producers grow by selling their products at local universities and colleges. Jamie also talked about the biggest struggle of the food industry which is distribution. He touched upon multiple distribution models including the classic “milk man” model, the model containing one large distribution center, and the web model in which there are numerous distributions centers and farms. The milk man model is the standard model in which the farmer brings his good to each business and home. This is a largely inefficient model. The next model is the standard distribution model where a centralized distribution point is established truck divers drive to each farm, picking up the products, bringing to back the the distribution center, and then to the stores and homes. The one draw back of this model is that the trucks need to come back full, which is not often the case. The last model combines the models into a large, interconnected web in which there is never a shortage of supply or demand.

A reflection on project management

My group mate and I used Asana to manage our project. It was very effective at doing that. I like being able to assign multiple sub tasks and really get into detail about what has to be done. Being able to check off a task as you do them is very stratifying. It is useful tool plan and organize a project and I will probably use it again for big projects. The helpful emails it sends are nice to remind you what work you have for the week. It is easy to use and understand. It has similarities to something such as google docs which is why I think it was so easy to pick up and start using. Of course, it is not a perfect program. I wish you could assign multiple people to a task, this would have helped a lot during this project. All in all I enjoyed using the program and will possibly use it again.

A reflection on project proposal draft

In completing this project I found that many aspects were challenging while others came almost naturally. The most challenging aspect of this project for me was getting access to the right information to formulate a solid proposal. Many aspects needed research such as the cost of the toilets and finding other universities that have implemented these toilets. No university seems to record the total savings of their projects which made finding possible savings of our project difficult. It was easy to think about the project and asses the possible increase in sustainability on campus. Another difficult part of this project was the financial aspect. We were unsure which brand of toilet to use and how much installation would cost. Even though we proposed to include the installation of these toilets with already scheduled renovation of the campus, we are unsure what any added cost may be. We also had difficultly putting a number to the savings the university could see due to water savings. We could easily calculate how much water is being saved because of these toilets. This project has taught me a lot about the process sustainability projects need to go through at the university. We were forced to think about our project on a deeper level and expand upon our ideas with intricate details