COURSES & RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE SEASONED SPOON

The Seasoned Spoon offers innovative research opportunities for students in partnership with the Trent Community Research Centre. Engaging in academic research allows the Spoon to answer relevant questions which improve our organization and programming, while students gain academic credit as well as first-hand research and career related experience through working with a local, community-based organization.

The Spoon proposes areas for research and the TCRC works to connect us with students, researchers or professors in order to answer these questions and objectives using credible research methods. Here's a list of past and ongoing research projects.
 
Past Projects
  • Administrative Studies: Preliminary Business Plan (2002)
  • Environment and Resource Studies: Principles of Ecologically Sustainable Consumption within the Local Food Shed (2004)
  • International Development Studies/Environment and Resource Studies: A Sourcing Policy Framework for the Seasoned Spoon (2004)

Project Reports

Eaters Ethnography by Hanah McFarlane
Engaging the Community by Ashley Marshal
Food Cost Analysis by Michelle Allard, Colleen Lavender, Bessie Legault and Graham Raby
Food Storage Needs Assessment By Ryan DeCaire and Faye Ginies
Popular Education Methods with the Seasoned Spoon - By Jessica Zintel & Andrew Harman
Terminator Technology by Tamara Molloy 

Current Courses

Please contact us if you are interested or would like to discuss your own research idea.
Note: all students must read and agree to the Guidelines for Research.


A Taste of Things to Come...

Additional research possibilities, depending on student and professor interest, include:

  • research on rooftop gardens
  • research on local, organic initiatives
  • designing a greenhouse
  • development of an ongoing business plan
  • cooperative organisations
  • applied accounting
  • environmental business practices


Types of Courses

Students can do independent reading courses by finding a professor to sponsor the project and developing a course curriculum in association with the professor and the Spoon. This is an excellent opportunity for students with a lot of initiative and focussed interest in a certain area of food and agricultural research.

The Trent Community Research Centre links students with community organisations for specific research projects and helps students develop the project curriculum in conjunction with their professors. Find out more...

Interested in doing a small project on the Spoon? Students can replace a research project for some of the work in an existing course, with their professor’s permission. Agrarian Change 221; Organic Agriculture 335; Agriculture and Agricultural Alternatives 336; and the Canadian Food System: A Community Development Approach 334H, are a couple of the relevant courses.

Projects can be done by one student or as group work depending on the scope and nature of the research and the agreement made with the faculty supervisor.


Guidelines for Research Projects with the Seasoned Spoon

  • Students must have their ideas approved by the Seasoned Spoon for independent research projects before developing a full course curriculum
  • All students must have a faculty supervisor for a project
  • Students must find their own faculty supervisor, unless otherwise posted by the Spoon
  • All projects should have direct applicability to the Spoon’s operations and initiatives
  • Field research must be approved by the relevant departmental ethics committee prior to the start of the project
  • Students, faculty supervisors and the Spoon must sign a contract outlining the nature of the research
  • The Spoon provides resources and supplies (within reason)
  • Access to Spoon information that is not public (finances, budget, board minutes) must be approved by the board for research use