Thursday 5/31

Today we had our Locavore Brunch. All of the food was really good and it was nice to be able to relax a little bit for class. Our group brought kale chips, pasta salad, and fruit salsa. We tried to use as many local ingredients as possible. Here are the recipes:

Kale chips:

1/2 bunch Kale (washed/dried/torn from stem)**

1t sea salt

1t pepper

2T Parmesan cheese

2T Canola oil

Oven- 350F, put kale on baking sheet, drizzle canola oil on kale and stir around to cover, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cheese, bake chips 6 minutes then stir them around on the pan, then put chips back in for another 3-5 minutes or so until they're crisp, dry, and slightly browned on edges.

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

16 oz gluten free rotini pasta

Olive oil

4 oz feta cheese

2 large red bell peppers (diced)

1 medium tomato (diced and seeded)**

1 cup chopped fresh basil**

Directions:

1.       Cook pasta according to package directions.

2.       Strain pasta and add olive oil according to preference.

3.       Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix.

4.       Chill before serving.

Fruit Salsa

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups fresh strawberries (diced) **

1 cup fresh kiwi (diced)

1 cup mango (diced)

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp honey

Directions:

1.       Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

2.       Chill before serving

**Local—purchased at farmer’s market

Tuesday 5/31

Tuesday we visited the Holter Holstein Farm. It is a local diary farm that is family owned and operated.  The farm receives funding from the American Dairy Association (15 cents for every $100 lbs of milk). They also receive bonuses for favorable characteristics in their milk. Monitoring and evaluation is done by the family that runs the farm. They have to maintain certain things and go along with the regulations put forth by the government. A nutrition professional may be helpful in evaluating the milk and keeping food safety standards.

It was interesting to see how the farm was operated. They had so many cows, and a dog...I wonder who let it out (whooo whoo whoo)?

Thursday 5/24

Today Karen Bakies came to talk to us about nutrition communications. Karen represents the American Dairy Association Mideast (including the National Dairy Council). The National Dairy Council is a leader in nutrition, nutrition education, childhood nutrition and communication. Their goal is to provide reliable information, administor grants, and to network. They are funded by diary farmers. A nutrition professional would be needed to provide adequate and reliable information. They may also be useful in research.

Karen spoke a lot about communication methods, facts and figures, and ways to engage others. This information can be helpful when trying to provide nutrition education to a large audience.

Tuesday 5/22

Today we met with our groups to discuss our final project. We were able to work together well to gather all information. We also discussed our garden and the progress we have made on it. We are excited to see how everything comes together in the end for our final report.

Thursday 5/17

Today we visited the Good Earth Farm. The farm grows fresh produce to donate to food banks. The also regularly cook meals that are open to the public. Funding comes from a lot of different places--some donations, episcopal church, and collaboration with other farms. A nutrition professional could aid the farm by planning meals, and helping to figure out what foods to grow. It was interesting to see the farm and to meet one of the men that works on it. What they are doing is a great way to try and affect food insecurity.

Tuesday 5/15

Today Melissa Alfano spoke to us about WIC, which is a supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children. 100% of the funding comes from the federal government. Thier mission is to provide nutrition education and improve pregnancy outcomes. WIC provides nutrition education, breast feeding education, supplemental foods, and farmer's market coupons. Some monitoring and evaluation is completed by the following forms: "Welcome to WIC," health history, assessment, nutrition care process, and referrals. WIC also has peer helpers that contact those who use WIC to answer any questions. The role of the nutrition professional in the program is to provide education and to complete the nutrition care process.

Tuesday 5/8

Today our speakers were Brittany Pangburn and Joyce Shriner. They both represented the OSU extension office. Brittany mainly covered the extension offices correlation with 4-H. 4-H has previously been geared toward rural youth, clubs, and specializations. More recently they have switched gears toward science, national/state, community clubs/school enrichment, and saving America's youth. Problems that are addressed include: teenage pregnancy, drugs/alcohol, nutrition, and illiteracy. 4-H offers youth development groups, projects/curriculum, camping, and agricultural experiences. A percentage of 4-H funding comes from OSU, a percentage comes from the county commissioners, membership fees, and local areas may or may not pay a tax that goes to 4-H. Brittany did not mention a role specific to a nutrition professional--however; an RD may be useful to those doing nutrition or health science projects.

Joyce talked more about the OSU extension office. The mission of the office is to "engage people to strengthen their lives and communities through research-based educational programming." Funding mostly comes from the university. Joyce went over a brief history of the university and listed the program areas (agricultural and natural resources, community development, family and consumer science, and 4-H and youth development). The role of a nutritional professional would largely be needed in the family and consumer sciences area. The focus of this area includes: healthy families, healthy relationships, and healthy finances. OSU is also involved in the Family Nutrition Program (FNP) which is a class that discusses several nutrition-related topics for families receiving food assistance.

Thursday 5/3

Today Heidi Anderson was our speaker--she represents WellWorks. The type of work she does for the program involves education and coordination of special events. Funding comes primarily from membership fees. The College of Health Sciences and Professions also donates some funds. The purpose/mission of the program is to promote wellness and educate. In order to plan, Heidi said that she often collaborates with other people and agencies and comes up with back-up plans. Both verbal and formal evaluations are used for events. Paper forms and surveys are used for formal evaluations of events. Heidi is an RD which comes in useful in both educating and special event planning. She mentioned that she also has a master's degree in public health, which also helps a lot with her job.

An interesting part of her job was that she is involved with Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) which is where you buy a share of a farmer's crop and they deliver the vegetables for 20 weeks. Heidi has purchased a share and is encouraging others to do the same thing.

May 1

Today Janine Faber came to talk to us about Meijer. She is one of 5 RDs that work for the company to promote their Healthy Living campaign. Healthy Living aims to increase overall sales and promote customer loyalty by coming up with health solutions and knowledge about products to share with the public. They often host community events, in-store events, media, and publications. The Meijer website provides weekly nutritious menus, information about special diets, an "Ask the Dietitian" option, recipes, featured products, and videos, recipes, and menus for kids. The campaign is funded through marketing promotions/company sponsorships (certain products for companies used for funding).

Janine also described the NuVal nutritional scoring system, which is a system that helps customers easily recognize the nutritional value of a product.The scores go from 1 to 100; the higher the better. The algorithm for the scoring system simply takes the generally favorable nutrients and divides it by the generally less favorable nutrients. The NuVal system is constantly being evaluated and has started to be tested in other stores. Certain products are now changing their composition in order to receive a better NuVal score.

A nutrition professional has a role in all of the activities and services mentioned above. Janine seemed to be really busy with her job proving that grocery stores need dietitians.

Thursday 4/26

Today we discussed the Ohio Board of Dietetics, which is in charge of dietetics licenses. The board is funded through license fees. The mission is to protect the public and to regulate the dietetics practice by enforcing laws and requiring licenses. The Board requires the successful completion of an exam before a license can be issued. Dietitians are also required to complete continuing education to make sure their knowledge is current.

Tuesday 4/24

On Tuesday Francie Astrom visited to talk about WellWorks. WellWorks is a fitness center that is focused on wellness. They often run programs related to health promotion. WellWorks is funded through university wellness funds, member fees, and fees for other services they provide. Their purpose/mission is to provide a wide variety of programming to promote wellness, optimal health, and to improve health status. In order to come up with health programs, WellWorks identifies the needs of the OU community--they also listen to requests.

WellWorks offers many services including: nutrition programming, BP/cholesterol screenings, fitness center, massage, personal trainers, wellness coaching, etc. The role of an RD in WellWorks is for nutritional programming. An RD must also be available to provide up to date information, to be a resource to staff, and to review current literature. An RD needs to be involved in one of the programs that WellWorks offers called the Food for Life program which promotes a plant-based lifestyle.

WellWorks offers memberships to: faculty/staff and dependents, community members (at a higher cost), corporate members (Athens businesses), and graduate/medical students.

Thursday 4/19

Today we discussed all of the different agencies related to food/nutrition. It was nice that there are so many available to the public. The agencies were pretty diverse as far as the kind of work they did. They ranged from actually providing food/assistance to advocating for food security to government policy makers. I liked that some of the agencies were specific to a certain population such as children or the elderly. I hope that the agencies continue to have positive outcomes.

Tuesday 4/17

Our speaker on Tuesday represented SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). SNAP is a government program sponsored by the USDA. The purpose of the program is to assist those who are food insecure by providing enough funding for food 3 weeks out of the month. Program planning, monitoring, and evaluation is monitored by the government in the form of reports. Right now there is no nutrition professional in the program.

It was interesting to hear about the program from someone who works for them. I found it interesting that the program did not have nutrition professionals working for them. I think that it could be very beneficial to have nutrition professionals in the program--they could help people using the assistance make the best choices with what they have.

Day 6

Today we finished the Health and Nutrition Policy lecture--specifically we discussed policy making, laws, regulations, and funds. We watched a video about the implementation of a farmers' market in order to improve the health outcomes and access to fruits and vegetables in a South Carolina town. It was nice to see how the needs assessment of the community started something to try and fix their problem.

After class, my group went to the garden to start weeding and to plan out how we might arrange some of the produce.

Day 5

On Tuesday we finished the Food Security lecture and did an activity where we wrote our perceptions of of food security on the board. It was interesting to see all of the different perspectives. We also started the Health and Nutrition policy lecture. I learned about the Policy Cycle and all of the steps that it includes. Our group also discussed some of the produce we wanted to plant in the garden and when we would start weeding. We still have not completely decided on what exactly to plant because we need to do more research.

Day 4

On Thursday I learned more about food security and how it is measured. All of the questions in the 18-item survey were interesting to read because they help to further point out the complexity of food insecurity.

Our group was given the puberty-age girls population. We discussed possible produce items that we wanted to grow in our garden plot. So far we have just been brainstorming the necessary nutrients needed for our age group. We have also discussed possibly growing some types of herbs that are used as remedies for menses.

Day 3

Today we went to the community garden to see our plot. I learned that we need to weed the garden before we start planting anything. We also met in our groups. My group discussed using puberty-age females as our population to plant for. However, I am curious if our population needs to be more specific to a disease/disorder.

The garden might be a lot of work; but it seems like it will be a fun way to get out of the normal classroom setting while learning.

Day 2

Today was helpful in understanding a community needs assessment--which is basically a set of steps related to evaluating the health of a given population. Today was also helpful in strengthening my knowledge of food insecurity. The video clips we watched proved to be very insightful--especially the one about all the people in Southeastern Ohio standing in line for food.

In the past I have volunteered for a similar outreach for my church. The program I helped with was associated with the Freestore Foodbank and provided nutritious food items for those individuals/families that qualified. I always knew that there were people in my home town that needed assistance; but I didn't realize that there were so many until I volunteered.

Day 1:

What I hope to learn and what community nutrition is all about:

When I think of "community nutrition" I think of the nutritional/health status of members of a certain group. I also think of the promotion of nutrition/overall wellness over a large audience. From this class I hope to learn about the major health problems that affect the U.S. population and how to treat them nutritionally. I would also like to better understand the factors that influence the food choices as well as those programs available to help meet nutritional needs of members of this population.