On Saturday January 17 we held the first People’s Grocery Grub Party of 2009. The event was a huge success, with many residents turning out and enjoying a great program, conversation and, of course, great food. But January’s Grub Party was not just a success in terms of turnout and program. It was also a success for People’s Grocery in making progress toward a long-held vision of an integrated approach toward community building and change in which the West Oakland residents that we work with, as customers and clients, are participating in more than just one of our offers and/or programs.

This means that cooking class students are also customers of the Grub Box. It means that the parents of the teens in our programs are themselves customers or students. And it ultimately means that people who attend our events, or are engaged by our staff or youth, are inspired take further action and stay involved. The reason for wanting sustained participation of individuals and families is simple: The more we can engage with someone, and the more someone is exposed to new ideas, the more likely they are to sustain a changed behavior and/or lifestyle.

At People’s Grocery we take inspiration from several behavioral change models to reach toward an integrated experience. One such model is AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. These models are built on an understanding of how human beings learn and change behavior. So, by utilizing the concept that human beings move along a spectrum of behavioral change, People’s Grocery works to 1) create catalytic experiences that stimulate attention/interest and 2) provide ongoing supports that enable an individual to develop desire for a healthier life and, ultimately, take action to fulfill it.  

The January 17 Grub Party was really a sign that residents are integrating themselves through People’s Grocery’s offers. Here are some examples:

• Blanca
• St. Mary’s Grub Box customer, wants to sign up for more
• Brought 2 other families
• Interested in cooking class
• Angelina
• New Grub Box member
• Enrolled in next cooking class
• Wants us to outreach to her church for Grub Boxes
• Tevah
• Summer youth intern
• Mother subscribes to Grub Box
• Referred friend to work with us
• His senior project is on food justice
• Lorri
• cooking class graduate
• continuing Grub Box member
• past Grub Party participant

While this integrated approach has happened with a few individuals in the past, by and large it hasn’t happened with most people we’ve interacted with. So seeing that some of the individuals who attended the January Grub Party are beginning to be involved in a number of People’s Grocery’s offers was a very significant indication that our theory of behavior change is, in fact, achievable. Of course, sustaining the ongoing involvement of residents is very challenging and takes constant work at nurturing the relationships and reaching out. What happened at the January Grub party not only supports our theory of change, but proves that our relationships and cooperation in the community are reaching new levels. If we can maintain and grow this trend, and embed it within the culture and practice of everything we do as a community organization, we’ll only see more residents staying involved, changing their behavior and, ultimately, growing our community.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under People's Grocery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.