DOUBLE ENTRY JOURNAL: WEEKS 1 & 2
Describe your community-engaged experiences.
 What have you accomplished? What interactions have you
had? What decisions have you made? What plans have you
developed?
Some of the main things I have accomplished during my time
with Montclair Community Farms are learning how to interact
with a generation that’s not your own (since we visit senior
homes) and learning what drives the conversation for certain
individuals when speaking about food.
One particular interaction I had was with an elderly woman
who was telling both Bri and I about what her husband and she
eat occasionally from the vegetables they get from the farm
stand. This interaction really connected the people with the
actual act of volunteering and helping the community.
The decisions I made consisted of how to change the recipes to
fit the different dietary needs of the population/community as
well as making decisions to see what the people would be able
to both afford and enjoy the most.
Some plans I’ve developed consisted of tailoring recipes to fit
the needs of the people I was speaking with and overall just
using the conversations I’ve had with people at the site to
adjust what I say to the next person. In other words, I am using
what I learn about people’s daily habits and adjusting my
recommendations so it can fit more of the population’s habits
and desires.
 What events or actions puzzled or confused you? Why were
Name Jennifer Treubig
Relate your experiences to course content and future actions.
 How does your entry on the left relate to course concepts,
class presentations, and readings? What key concepts can be
used to guide your future decisions and plans?
Since we provided farm fresh veggies, fruits, and eggs to the
senior population in low-income areas, we were able to learn
more about SNAP benefits and what kinds of things are
included on it. While most SNAP recipients only shop at
supermarkets, I learned that certain businesses/outreach
programs accept it for all of their products. For example,
Montclair Community Farms provides its food to non-SNAP
recipients as well as SNAP recipients. Not only do they provide
this as an option, but they also provide discounts to most
customers. We typically added up everything that the
customer wanted to purchase, told our supervisor how much it
was, and then lowered the price about 6 dollars or so. I
thought this was an extremely caring and selfless action to
take because our supervisor, Lana, knew and understood how
difficult it can be to survive on the amount of money they are
given every week. Another concept from class that I thought of
was the policymaking concept. I remember in class we spoke
about one legislator or government worker that decided he
would live on the same financial system as that of a SNAP
recipient and how he couldn’t go a very long time without
getting hungry and frustrated. Therefore, the policymaking
process of providing benefits and funds to the SNAP recipients
should be more extensive. These lessons will lead me to
understand more about what my clients/patients are able to
have and what they really should be having in order to live a
healthful lifestyle.
 What can you do to better understand similar events or
DOUBLE ENTRY JOURNAL: WEEKS 1 & 2
Describe your community-engaged experiences.
they confusing?
There really weren’t many interactions that left me confused
or puzzled. The main one that I originally found puzzling,
however, was when one of the junior volunteers were telling
us what to do. She was 14 years old and explained everything
to us, however, it felt a little degrading when she explained to
us how to plant vegetables, in general. At first, it was
enlightening to see that she knew so much but when she took
on the same role that our site supervisor had, it felt a little
strange.
Another puzzling event I had at the site was understanding
what some people were communicating to me. Some of them
had dementia and some did not have English as their first
language so it was a little challenging trying to explain the
recipes to them.
 How do you feel about your community-engaged experience
so far? What are your negative and positive feelings about
the service site, the people, and the experience?
Overall, I like my service site for the most part. There are
definitely benefits and drawbacks to this site. The benefits very
much outweigh the drawbacks because they consist of being
able to communicate with a population I have not had much
experience with and being able to have one on one
interactions rather than a bigger event. The negative feelings
that I have about this site, however, is that it is fairly quick and
there are not many people who come out to it. This may be
partly due to the weather getting colder and older people not
Name Jennifer Treubig
Relate your experiences to course content and future actions.
actions in the future? What additional information do you
need?
I can better understand the first interaction by understanding
that the junior volunteer may have had other intentions in
mind. She may have just wanted us to understand how to do
everything properly and most efficiently rather than trying to
sound smarter.
As for the other interactions, we had to try our best to
understand what the people had said and asking questions
definitely helped a lot. Neither of these required additional
information, however, it may have helped to have information
prior to the date so we could adjust our recipes to fit the
specific cultures and languages.
 What impact might your community-engaged experience
have on your learning process, personal life, career choice,
and future civic involvement?
This community-engaged experience will shape me to be a
better person and help me to become more aware of my
community. In terms of my learning process, having had this
experience will help me to visualize any concepts we’re
learning since I have seen them in the community in action. As
for my career choice, I will be going into the clinical setting but
I would not be opposed to having occasional
presentations/interventions in the community such as with the
Montclair Community Farms. As for my personal life, some of
DOUBLE ENTRY JOURNAL: WEEKS 1 & 2 Name Jennifer Treubig

Describe your community-engaged experiences. Relate your experiences to course content and future actions.
wanting to risk getting sick (and less plants and crops being the tools I learned during the experience will be taught to my
able to grow), but it is also the somewhat lack of future children such as composting and giving back to the
marketing/publicizing for it. However, our site supervisor said community in the traditional form of food banks and pantries
that since they can’t grow anything during the winter months, or something more creative such as a mobile farm stand.
they will usually work on new methods of publicizing the farm
stand and how to reach out to the community more. Overall,
the people are great to work with and they have a fair amount
of knowledge about their community. Finally, I liked this
experience a lot because I love one on one interactions since
they can typically last a long time as well as get very deep and
knowledge/experience based.

Self-assessment (complete last).

 What level of reflection (see James Bradley’s Criteria on Canvas) have you achieved with this journal? How do you know? What
can you do differently next time to achieve the next highest level?
I partly achieved the highest level three but mainly achieved level two. The aspects of level three that I achieved consisted of
viewing things from multiple perspectives, such as the junior volunteer experience as well as the conversations of what the
community members preferred over certain foods. As for level two, I did not specifically differentiate between my personal
opinion and evidence, however, I can recognize within this journal what can be considered fact and opinion. Moreover, I placed
most of the events/interactions in a broader context (level three) but did have a few that were merely stated of what happened
and the immediate reaction/response to it.
I can achieve all of the aspects of level three by detailing what experiences relate more to the broader scope of community
nutrition as well as provide more perspectives on specific interactions I may have had with the community’s members.
DOUBLE ENTRY JOURNAL: WEEKS 1 & 2 Name Jennifer Treubig

Self-assessment (complete last).