Community Rotation – Week 1 Journal
Dates of rotation: (Monday) November 27, 2017 – (Friday) December 1, 2017
Location: AeroFarms
Activities & Assignments:
Day 1 – 11/27 10 am – 5 pm (7 hours)
- Reviewed AeroFarms and Dream Greens website
- Familiarized myself with the company history, mission, vision, and products.
- Read marketing and product demo guidelines.
- Went through schedule with preceptor
- Typed up meeting notes to send to preceptor
- Sampled Dream Greens products
- Entered e-mails collected from events/demos for mailing list.
- Started blog post regarding “Healthy Holiday Greens Swaps”
Day 2 – 11/28 9 am – 5 pm (8 hours)
- Social Media tasks:
- Liking and commenting posts on Instagram
- Liking tweets on Twitter
- Looking for blog entries that can be shared to our followers on our Facebook page
- Continued working on blog
- Met with preceptor to go over progress
- Started nutrition education presentation regarding benefits of eating leafy green vegetables.
Day 3 -11/29 8 am- 4:30 pm (8 ½ hours)
- Social Media tasks:
- Liking and commenting posts on Instagram
- Liking tweets on Twitter
- Looking for blog entries that can be shared to our Facebook followers
- Continued working on Healthy Holiday Greens Swaps blog post.
- Farm stand work + demo training
- Learned about how to engage customers.
- Regarding demos: Asked about potential questions customers might ask, what percentage of customers who sample the product actually end up buying, are there any differences between the customers from ShopRite and Whole Foods.
- Regarding farm stand: asked questions regarding price (different for employees and community members), how often do they do farm stand.
- Learned how to set up as well as place products in separate containers for easy access once customers come in. Learned about record keeping for products (taking down lot codes so that in case there is a problem with the batch, we can track down the people who purchased
- Assisted with Farmstand
- Meeting regular customers
- Manning the table
- Made a 1-page info sheet regarding heart-healthy benefits of consuming leafy green vegetables for an event at Rutgers Newark the following week.
Day 4 – 11/30 (8:30 – 4 pm) 7 ½ hours
- Attended the Food as Medicine Summit
- Listened to 2 panels and took notes.
- AeroFarms was an exhibitor – I helped with setting up demo table, handing out demos, and answering questions about the farm.
- People were excited about the technology and really enjoyed the products.
Day 5 12/1 (9 am – 5 pm) 8 hours
- Social media tasks:
- Like and comment on Instagram posts
- Like Twitter posts
- Hoilday party prep
- Wrapped 300 t-shirts to be given away to employees.
- Tasted spinach that AeroFarms that is currently under development.
Comments / Thoughts / Challenges:
- During the Food as Medicine Summit, some people had very specific questions regarding the products, the technology behind it, and the business model. I was unable to answer some of the harder questions which was challenging but I referred them to the marketing manager.
- Learning about the technology behind this vertical farm was extremely interesting and my preceptor has been extremely helpful with answering my questions.
- The farm stand was not as busy as I thought it was going to be. My preceptor pointed out that farm stand attendance has declined and one of my projects is to develop a plan on how to increase farm stand attendance.
Learning Objectives Met:
CRDN 2.11: Show cultural competence/sensitivity in interactions with clients, colleagues and staff.
CRDN 3.3: Demonstrate effective communications skills for clinical and customer services in a variety of formats and settings.
CRDN 3.5: Develop nutrition education materials that are culturally and age appropriate and designed for the educational level of the audience.
CRDN 3.7: Develop and deliver products, programs or services that promote consumer health, wellness and lifestyle management.
CRDN 3.8: Deliver respectful, science-based answers to client questions concerning emerging trends.
Total Clock Hours: 39 hours
