Hey! I am Eric Eidian, a fourth-year student at York University majoring in Business and Society. I volunteered at BCCF for my placement in my social economy stream. BCCF is interesting to me as I have a background in food. My family owns a franchise pizzeria which I have now managed for the last few years. I believe learning how food is cultivated will also enhance my learning at my workplace. I chose to do my placement at BCCF because I am eager to learn what a nonprofit community farm can offer the community and how it does so sustainably.
- What were your areas of focus of your placement or internship?
My areas of focus were seeing the sustainability aspect of a non-profit organization and how it functions.
2. What were your main responsibilities and tasks during your placement?
My main responsibilities were to help set up the market during the first few weeks and shifted to helping clean and harvest. After that I helped with the value added program.
3. What were your key learning goals or objectives for this placement?
My key learning goals were to learn how a non-profit is sustainable.
4. Did you achieve these goals by the end of your placement?
I believe I did learn how to achieve these goals because I saw how the market and CSA system helped support the organization financially. Furthermore, I saw how continuous harvesting was needed to meet the goals of the market, CSA and orders. I also worked with the value added program which really showed me the challenges of setting up a social enterprise business within a non-profit. I had sent numerous emails to companies with no response.
5. Can you identify any notable achievements or successes during your placement?
In my eyes I think helping with the value added program was definitely my most notable achievement just because of the difficulties BCCF faces and that I faced emailing companies to see if they would help us set up our value added program.
6. Did you contribute to any projects or initiatives that had a significant impact?
I would say the Value added program is something I added to. I also believe I helped with harvesting and the market stand.
7. How did your placement experience contribute to your personal growth and self-awareness?
I believe it taught me a lot about myself, I always thought making the most money was the most important thing. The farm, the people there and the community taught me that as long as you love what you do that’s all that matters.
8. Did you discover any new interests or passions as a result of your placement?
I think I discovered that I find harvesting and gardening somewhat therapeutic to me, while I had stress with school and work I looked forward to harvesting to get my mind off stressful things.
Thanks for your contributions, Eric! Visit our placement students page to learn more about becoming a placement student at BCCF.
Eric supported the Value-Added Program which developed many new products made from farm-grown produce, available for sale on our online store!