Monday, February 21, 2011

YamDaisy and Children

I am still working on my presentation folder, and it is a great discipline in thinking what I need to say and show. It is also a lovely creativity, which I am cheating at as much as I can, to get it done quickly! I find illustrations to help me explain the points I want to make, and I am enjoying these pictures from the 1944 book 'Ameliaranne gives a concert' very useful!

As you may have guessed I am doing a page about children at the moment.

There will be children's meals at YamDaisy Cafes, half the price of adult ones. But no chicken nuggets and chips here! They will be child sized portions of the daily meals.

And children will have the same opportunities as adults for feedback and a level of negotiation.

And both children and adults need to know that bad behaviour in a YamDaisy Cafe is not acceptable!
Maybe we need something like this to keep people in line! (wink).


Okay, okay, I will keep that one out of my presentation folder!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Joy and the special bags

My lovely neighbours gave me this wonderful present!
They are net bags to take shopping at the greengrocers. I can put fruit or veggies in them and then they can go straight in the crisper drawers of the fridge. I am so looking forward to trying them out.
I have popped them in my shopping bag so I will have them on hand when I need them.
How nice to be kind to the environment and pretty too!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Joy and the message quandry

Am I the only one who sits confronted by all the forms of communication and is bewildered?

A friend asked me if I, or my daughter, might like an old printer she no longer needs.
I have a ptinter, but I didn't know if my daughter needed one. So all I had to do was ask her.
I could have phoned her, but she might have been at work and her voice mail doesn't work very well.
I could text her, but my mobile probably needs recharging, and I would have to find my glasses....
I could email her ~ she prefers that for long complicated messages that are easier to answer in an email.
But this is a short simple question.
So I sent her a message on facebook. She got that on her phone, and answered promptly.


So now I need to let my friend know. I could ring her, but she will be at work and maybe have her phone off.
I could text her, but my phone does need recharging (yes, I have plugged it in now!).
I could message her on facebook, but she rang me and I think it would be polite to ring her back. Besides, I don't think she checks facebook so often.
Okay, I will ring her home phone and leave a message.

That was easy now, wasn't it?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

YamDaisy Presentation

A couple of years ago I made a book/folio to help me explain my YamDaisy project. I am now revamping it to prepare for the next phase. So I thought I would share my work with you!
These are the first 2 pages:

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

YamDaisy, M, and Obesity

My correspondence with Maree has really helped me to consolidate where I am with this project. Feedback number 4 said:
You'll need to spend +++ on an accountant familiar w franchising;
Issues that spring to mind:
*Storage of ingreds (I paid $+++ on my business insurance policy) for same (and that was human-grade pet food);
*Storage of prep'd food;
* Transport of food (will need refrigerated vans or insurance will not cover you)
* Just realised that, while I can cook from home for human-grade pet food, I (we) need a commercial kitchen(s) for cooking for humans.
Just stuff for you to think about. And it's stuff I've been through.
Am no way trying to discourage you but you need to think about.
Add the (NSW) Central Coast to my area :)
M xo

This makes me so hungry to have things starting! I can't organise on my own but I need to get things moving at the level where resources and support start building.

To respond to Maree's comments, I explain that I am not able to start off the cafes myself. (I bought a tattslotto ticket last week, but unfortunately missed out on the $6 million. Such a pity! Again!).
The cafe will be set up a little like a family kitchen, and a bit like a restaurant. A cold room and other storage is important. Organising how to bring the food in will vary from place to place, and so will getting the food out. Perhaps there might be home delivery as well as eat in and take away!
Certainly health and food safety regulations will be followed conscientiously!

After two years of blogging about my idea I am more confident of how I can communicate it, more solid in the structure I have for it and really grateful of the support shown to me by so many of you out there!

In my last post I mentioned looking at completely revamping my website. Right now, the energy I would need to put into that is being rechanneled. I will update the current website and get my presentations ready. And I will do the big revamp as soon as possible.
My objective now is to get to the movers and shakers (she says confidently! Yes! I can do it!) and convince them that the time for YamDaisy cafes is now.


Look at this news item from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation!

Today's teens 'the heart attack victims of tomorrow'

By Lucy Carter

A child's hand reaches into a biscuit container
The first comprehensive national study of young Australians since 1985 found a quarter are overweight or obese. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, filephoto)
Health experts are warning the current generation of Australian teenagers could be the first with a decline in life expectancy and an increase in heart disease.
The first comprehensive national study of young Australians since 1985 found a quarter are overweight or obese.
Run by the Cancer Council and Heart Foundation, the study of more than 12,000 teenagers also found 85 per cent of respondents are not doing enough exercise.
The survey questioned teenagers at 237 different Australian schools about their diet and exercise habits.
"The secondary school students' poll showed that one in four were either overweight or obese, and this sets them up for chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease later on," Cancer Council CEO Professor Ian Olver said.
He says the future does not look bright for this generation.
"What we're going to see is an increasing incidence of heart disease and diabetes and cancer," he said.
Heart Foundation CEO Dr Lyn Roberts is even more dire in her predictions.
"Some of these high school students today are going to grow up to be the heart attack victims of tomorrow," she said.
"There are predictions now that this next generation of children may not live as long."

Responsibility

Professor Olver says the results show obesity is more prevalent in areas of low socioeconomic status.
"I think governments have to adopt a very broad approach to this," he said.
"At one end of the scale there is making sure that good food is both available and affordable; at the other end of the scale it's perhaps restricting advertising to children of junk food that will be harmful to them."
Dr Roberts says parents also need to take responsibility.
"This study showed that the majority of students have at least three television sets in their homes and almost half of them have a TV in their bedroom," she said.
"There's really recent research that shows that if you've got a TV in a bedroom it's associated with a risk of [being] overweight, particularly amongst males."
Teaching young people good habits at school is recommended by both organisations.
Patrick O'Reilly is the principal of Southern Cross Vocational College in Sydney, where they have incorporated the preparation of healthy meals for the students into their hospitality course.
"In our canteen we offer a cafe service before school and a canteen service in our two break times," he said.
"It really was about looking at the ingredients that have gone into the food preparation as well as sourcing good nutritional food and drink."
He says it is an option other schools should look at seriously.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Comment Help and The Year to Come!

I know a few people who have been pulling their hair out trying to leave a comment on a blog: including this blog, which I have set up so that anyone can leave a comment and there isn't even a password to fill in
For one friend, the difficulty is doing it from her phone, another is following the site, but still is having trouble writing comments, and yet another is trying to work out how to follow my blog, and a few others.

I seem to stay logged in and I can't remember how I started. Help? Any clues or words of advice I can pass on?

And since I am on a technological theme, I wanted to mention that I am really hoping to have a better health year and make a big push in getting my YamDaisy project on. It seems to keep coming back to updating my website though, and I have just been talking to a website savvy friend who has put me on to Drupal and I think I will be doing an even bigger upgrade that I planned. (Why does everything have to be so much work!)

O well, one step at a time. I'd be grateful of any good wishes you can spare, and any advice or tips too!

Cheers!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

YamDaisy, M, and Gluten Free

This is the third in a series of posts inspired by feedback from Maree as she read about my YamDaisy idea.

Maree wrote:
* I'd add more gluten-free /lactose free options. Such intolerances didn't exist 15-20 years ago but are all the go, these days.

(The picture above is an example of a gluten free and lactose free dish from Portugal: Pork with Pickles and Potatoes, from Tess Kiros' beautiful book 'Piri piri and Starfish')

It is very true that food intolerances and allergies are so much more common now, and the numbers are only likely to go up. The YamDaisy is 'mumfood' and needs to feed all the children.... customers!

This is the basic obligation that the YamDaisy Franchise would ask of every cafe. Everyone should be able to have suitable food for their diet, at least once a week. So anyone registered with their local cafe can explain their needs to the chef and expect that at least once a week there will be a meal they can eat.

Each YamDaisy Cafe will have its own Chef/Manager who will sort out the menu that suits the community (for more about this see here). If there is a large number of customers with particular allergies, it will affect the local menu.

Gluten free and lactose free meals will suit those people who want or need to eat them, and others may not even notice that the meal they choose is wheat free. I think it would be simple to have a wheat and/or dairy free meal on the menu every day!

Because more people are being diagnosed with such food allergies and intolerances, there will be people who would find it so useful to have their local cafe showing examples of wheat free meals, alternatives and substitutions and recipes as well! The YamDaisy chef can be a really useful resource!

Some people with coeliac disease would not be able to eat at a YamDaisy Cafe unless no wheat or other gluten grains were used in the cafe at all. They could not risk a gluten free meal from a kitchen that also uses wheat etc.
In large populations (inner Melbourne or Sydney for example) I think there would be a place for a completely gluten free YamDaisy Cafe. Locals would still find everyday, delicious, seasonal food there, and people with gluten allergies could come from the wider community to get those delicious affordable meals they need.


YamDaisy, M and Hospital Food

YamDaisy, M and Drop the Sick Bit