Evaluation

I believe that our 'Meatless Mondays' campaign was a huge success. This was evident from the great responses to our informative presentations that included the Meatrix videos as well as the success and positive responses to our taste testing day that was held on the 5th of June. In my opinion, each member of the group contributed equally and took responsibility for their group roles as well as individual roles and completed them to the best of their abilities and it was this that helped our success.

The time frame given to us for this campaign was utilized well, especially in the areas of 'time-management' and 'planning'. The group planned what was to be done each week and set separate time frames for each job that needed to be done and this is what helped our campaign to run smoothly. If we did not manage our time well, we would have been rushed, possibly ran out of time and maybe even not finished the campaign at all. Another great help was the large amount of resources we were exposed to. We were able to use the internet, books and class handouts to gather information for the campaign as well as being able to use the school's cooking equipment and utensils for our cooking trials and preparation.

I believe I completed this task using the skills I had to the best of my ability. I have cooked pasta a couple of times before so there were no major problems or set-backs with this recipe or its preparation. However, I did cook with an ingredient I had never used before, which was butter beans, and in the first trial I overcooked them, causing them to be soggy but I eventually learned to cook them right by the second trial and third trial. In my opinion, the pasta ended up being of a high standard and quality and I believe this was due to the multiple cooking trials undergone to ensure the success of our recipes. It was fresh, tasted great, was full of flavour, was nutritious and the staff and students' feedback was very positive.

The aim of the food trials was to find a recipe that was suitable for the task at hand, met the constraints and considerations and other criteria, was nutritional, and was meat free. My desired result from this was to find a recipe that I knew the students would enjoy and as previously mentioned, to show them that meat-free foods did not have to be boring, to help promote the campaign. By choosing this pasta dish, I believe I achieved it well.

The limitations I faced throughout this time were: time management and as previously stated, cooking with ingredients I had never used before. During the first cooking trial, I took my time with the recipe, making sure I knew what I was doing and making sure I modifications to the recipe that would be beneficial and improve the taste of it (removing the fennel, adding other herbs and tomato paste etc). This seemed to slow me down which lead to me running out of time and ending up cleaning the utensils and equipment during my lunchtime. This was not the case for following cooking trials because I knew what I was doing by then and was able to finish and clean up with time to spare.

Overall, I believe that the campaign was a success and we achieved our main goal of educating the school community about the benefits of eating at least one meat-free meal per week and implementing this in the school tuckshop. I believe that everything that we set out to do was achieved and that we worked well as a group to do so.