For the feasibility of my project, it would be the most helpful if I find one homeless shelter/soup kitchen to bring my baked goods to each week and volunteer at. I could partner up with The Bowery Mission, or the New York City Rescue Mission (they are partners with The Bowery Mission). Or I could research more places that could accommodate my project and that would help me with my goals. Although, partnering up with the Bowery Mission would probably be more doable because LREI has partnered up with them in the past. I also volunteered there once in 10th grade so I know a little bit about how how it runs.
I would love to go to stores and document what I find for my easy recipes, but if that’s not doable by the third trimester I can order my ingredients online and document the safe and easy to purchase online ingredients for people in poverty to buy. I would compile all my findings, tips, and recipes into a booklet of some kind and make copies so that I can hopefully distribute them to the shelter that I partner up with. I would try to create at least 3 new recipes each week, the process might be a lot of trial and error so a goal of 3 solid recipes is more feasible. If I can’t volunteer in the spring at a shelter, I would still bring my baked goods to one or multiple since I would have more time to distribute them.
This project has one unifying idea — exploring connections between food and happiness — split across two experiences. I know I said there’s no reason not to do both, and I stand by that, but I think each portion of the idea would do better if you also acknowledge the ways the ideas don’t fully fit together. Rather than trying to fully fit the ideas together, I actually think the project is stronger as two ideas with overlap, Venn diagram style. If your essential question is about food and happiness, and you are answering it by cooking and feeding others, baking purely for fun, and working with an agency that deals with food insecurity, without necessarily baking _for_ homeless people, I think the project has a stronger structure. In terms of recipes that are more budget-friendly, you would need to do research — what items are typically distributed at a food pantry? What can be purchased at a bodega or dollar store, given the food deserts in many of the poorest communities in NYC? Is baking even feasible if a family is homeless and living in a shelter that may not have a kitchen? You make some assumptions that undercut your own project (for example, is someone living in poverty going to be able to do groceries online, something that requires a credit card, stable internet, a device to connect to the internet, and someone in a home to receive the packages?). Will shelters accept food made in a home kitchen? Better to take that step back and examine food and happiness in multiple contexts, one of which is baking and developing healthy recipes, another one of which is looking at ways to combat food insecurity. The connection is in the underlying questions, rather than the experience.