John Kirk, AOK Life Skill Workshops
Dietetic Technician
Portland, Maine
1/2/23
- In Support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2: End Hunger & 4: Quality Education
- Suggestions for Instructors: Workshop Background & How It Could be Presented
RE: Whole Foods for Busy People: How to Save Time & Money with “One-Dish Meals”, Easy Recipes, and Cooking Ahead
Hello Instructors,
I’m a semi-retired ESOL teacher over 65 and lived in Ecuador for over 10 years before relocating to Portland, Maine in the U.S. last year. I am the director of AOK, a charitable, educational retirement project that was originally connected to my English school in Quito. I hold a Dietetic Technician AAS degree and MS Ed and MATESL degrees.
During the past four years, I have written 20 AOK Life Skill Workshops, and before the Pandemic I presented many of them throughout the Ecuadorian Sierra. These can be seen on my website www.aokefle-learning.com. Most AOK workshops only require an hour or two to present with a follow-up if possible.
The students are provided with an archive of free sites on a topic for self-study. The workshops also connect the students to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2 & 4 through videos and possible badges from ministries, NGO’s and other nonaffiliated UN groups. (The badges are affiliated with the SDG’s.)
An affordable diet plan for growing food insecurity
Because of the Pandemic, the high rate of global inflation and the world food shortage, the number of people facing food insecurity is increasing. Recently I have written a new workshop: Whole Foods for Busy People: How to Save Time & Money with “One-Dish Meals”, Easy Recipes, and Cooking Ahead. It’s based on a project for making “One Dish Meals” that’s written by the Health, Nutrition and Dietetics Program at Buffalo State SUNY and approved by the American Dietetic Association.
For those struggling with a budget in any circumstance, this workshop presents timesaving ways to prepare inexpensive meals that meet basic nutritional requirements. Access to an Internet café would help too, but isn’t necessary with handouts. And for those who have a refrigerador and possibly a freezer, it can help them cook ahead.
The workshop includes a Power Point presentation to help the participants prepare make-ahead meals for the workweek and save money in doing so. Furthermore, the students are shown how to make a budget and shopping list for revolving menus.
The “One-dish meal system” can be used in any country and help to save money
This food system provides the use of six lists of different types of foods – protein foods, vegetables, starches, liquids, toppings, and sauces. The foods are precooked, and the participants basically choose one food from each list to make a one dish meal. It’s unique because each family can make up their own lists.
Furthermore, this cooking system could dramatically decrease the money spent by a family outside the home on food because it not only encourages inexpensive protein sources, but also enables them to have good food on hand and fewer pots to clean.
The five long-term goals of this AOK Workshop
The five long-term goals are to help the adult education students improve their (1) financial literacy – budget; (2) numeracy – recipes & cooking ahead (3) health literacy – diet; (4) digital literacy – computer, internet and independent study skills; and (5) cultural assimilation – becoming stakeholders in their communities through UN Sustainable Development Goals 2 & 4. Workshop goals 1 & 2 are set up for quantitative analysis research under “how to save money”. Supporting curriculum for Workshop goals 3 & 4 can be found in Parts I & 9 of the Whole Foods Archive. Workshop goal 5, cultural assimilation or helping students to become stakeholders in their communities, could be encouraged through the students’ involvement in UN Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger and Goal 4: Quality Education. SDGs 2 & 4 can be introduced with short videos at the beginning of the PowerPoint presentation, and participants could have the chance to earn two SDG badges.
Offering the workshop
There is no charge for the workshop because this is a charitable retirement project designed to help the food insecure. Also, most of the materials used were written for nonprofit purposes. (Please see the workshop biography below.) To learn more, please see the introduction to my website www.aokefle-learning.com.
Workshop materials
Included with the material for this workshop are a PowerPoint presentation, a student archive with free annotated websites, a student evaluation form, an evaluation summary, SDG videos and logo materials, and a possible letter to SDG 2 and UNESCO asking them if they might provide assistance with the long-term goals listed above.
Workshop description and one-page subtopic summaries
The workshop is written in both English and Spanish and provides mostly one-page summaries from different websites for different basic topics of food preparation. The Spanish version can be accessed from my website www.aokefle-learning. The length and depth of the presentation could be determined by the free time and availability of the instructors and the time and needs of the participants. There is a lot of material, but it’s well organized and not that difficult to understand. It can be explained over a period of several classes and/or it can be studied at home.
Workshop follow-up class
At a minimum an overview of the entire workshop could be presented in one class with a follow-up, if possible. The follow-up could be used for questions, review, to determine if the participants earned a SDG badge for an ‘at home assignment’ such as creating a number of “one-dish meals”, using less pesticide and herbicide in their gardens or reusing plastic items. (For more ideas, please see the letter UN – A “Zero Hunger Website” under Whole Food Workshops on the AOK website listed above.)
Evaluation form and letter to SDG 2 & UNICEF
Non profit programs that offer this workshop could ask the participants if they would like to fill out an anonymous, optional evaluation form. The form would indicate if they are in favor of UNICEF offering on-line basic computer education. If there is interest, he has provided a sample e-mail with addresses for the U.N. to download from www.aokefle-learning.com. It’s located under the name of the workshop in the ‘Whole Foods’ section.
If you decide to use all or part of this workshop, I would appreciate a short e-mail acknowledging this.
Thanks, John Kirk
kirkjohnb5@gmail.com
(Please see information related to quantative analysis, the UN SDG connection, and the PowerPoint presentation bibliography below.)
Quantitative Research Design for the Workshop
It’s possible that this workshop can be used with Quantitative Research Design. If the results are positive, it could make the interest in it greater. Two important factors would be how many participants would be willing to answer the questions related to A & B below and if they would be honest about it.
Hypotheses
1. The participants will be spending significantly less money outside the house on prepared food and snacks in one week at the time of the follow-up workshop than right before the workshop.
2. The participants’ total food expenditure for the week will be significantly less at the time of the follow-up workshop than right before the workshop.
United Nations & SDG Connection
The following two sites provide videos and information about the use of SDG badges for nonprofit sites. The badges a NonUN entity logo and the color wheel of the SDG logo but not the UN logo.
https://www.unsdgproject.com/videos-about-the-unsdgs.html short videos explaining the SDG’s.
https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/UN-Guidelines-for-Use-of-SDG-logo-and-17-icons.October-2016.pdf p. 26 nonprofit organizations and using the SDG badges.