Case Study: Food Recovery Group Meetings

Introduction The group I have decided to study is the food recovery network’s monthly group meetings. Food recovery network is a group that consists of college students who fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food from both campus and the community and donate it to those that are in need (Food Recovery Network, 2016). This group is a task group. The type of task group that this group falls under is a social action group. According to Toseland & Rivas (2012), a social action group works to “empower members to engage in collective action and planned change efforts to alter some aspect of their social or physical environment” (p. 38). This is exactly the type of group that the food recovery network consists of. The main goal …show more content…
The group was planned out both before the group took place, the leaders/facilitators came together and decided what topics would be discussed. There was planning also done throughout the meeting, the group decided on and planned out important decisions for future events and planned when the next meeting will take place. The planning is also an ongoing process for the group; the group must continue to plan out the topic points for future meetings and the plans for future events.
Direct/Indirect Interventions I saw both direct and indirect interventions being used to facilitate the group’s goal. The goal of the group is to encourage and empower members to help serve the local community as a team by fighting food waste and giving recovered food to those in need. By the group coming together and discussing matters and events related to food recovery this indirectly helped encourage and empower the group to accomplish its goal. Some of the topics discussed throughout the meeting directly helped to empower members to work towards the goal of the group. I felt that Kayla’s leadership style as facilitator helped move the group towards their goal. Toseland & Rivas (2012) describe the role of the leader is to “empower members so that they are willing participants in the planned changed process” (p. 101). Kayla was able to empower members to work towards the group goal by helping members stay focused …show more content…
I felt that the leadership of the group helped it efficiently progress towards its goals. The leadership helped keep the group on task and moving in the right direction. The membership of the group was quite slim, but I felt that the members that did attend engaged and contributed to the meeting in a meaningful way. The structure of the group was very well laid out. The facilitator ensured that the group stayed on task and touched on each topic point in the agenda. The strengths of the group and the leader are the deep passion and motivation they share to make a difference in bettering their community. This greatly helps the group in accomplishing their goals. Some areas of weakness that I noticed was the group not having enough personal time to commit to the organization completely. The group is extremely passionate of the cause, but as college students they cannot commit the time that the organization deserves. This does not at all diminish the work that they have done thus far; it merely is one of their weaknesses. One recommendation that I offer to the group is to better delegate the various roles of the group. This can potentially help the group accomplish more towards its goal. This is one change I would do differently if I was the main facilitator of the group. I would give more responsibility to the