May 31, 2012

Today in class we went to a picnic shelter and each of our groups had to bring 2 dishes that was made with locally grown foods. We had all different types of foods. We had pasta salad, salad, chips and salsa, a bean salad, etc. There was so much food to eat but it all tasted wonderful! Besides stuffing our faces with delicious food we all talked about our different experiences that we had throughout the quarter. It was interesting to see how everyone saw things differently at each field trip we had. It was nice to just have a whole class on discussing all the different things we have done all quarter because it was such a busy quarter especially with all the different field trips. We didnt really get to talk about all of them until now. I really liked having the brunch because it showed me new recipes and it was a great way to familiarize people with different types of foods that they might have never thought about making before. I thought that was definitely a great way to end the last class of the quarter!

May 29, 2012

Today in class we went and visited a dairy barn. This farm has about 180 dairy cows on it. I did not realize how many different types of dairy cows there are but they mainly have the black and white cows on their farm as well as a few brown. We were able to see the new part where they do all the milking, the old part which they now just use for shaving around the cows utters, and anything that the cows don't really like. We also got to see where all the calf's stay and how they separate them based on age. Over all the farm seemed really clean, there were flies like you would expect but they weren't that bad. They showed us where all the milk goes after they have milked the cows. The milk goes into this huge refrigerator type thing that can stir the milk and cool it down at the same time. It can hold about 4,000 gallons at one time. The cows are milked 2 times a day and the trucks come to get the milk from the refrigerator every 4 turns so about every 2 days the truck comes. I thought it was cool how everything worked off a machine pretty much so the machines did most of the work. They even had chips in the cows collars that would help the feeder recognize which cow it was and dispense the right amount of feed based on how much fat and protein was in the cows milk that day and based on how much milk they were producing. So they were doing everything they could to help keep the cows as healthy as possible and get them to produce as much as they could. The facility stays really clean and they have to sanitize everything and wash everything down after every milking. It was kind of cool to see how high tech the dairy farm actually was. This farm is a family run business and you could see how every family member did their part to help out.

May 24, 2012

Today in class we had a speaker from The Dairy Council. She talked with us about the Dairy Council and also about how a registered dietitian can be most helpful when working with the media. The Dairy Council for this area covers the whole state of Ohio and West Virginia. The council is funded through the dairy farmers. I thought it was amazing how many dairy farmers there are in the state of Ohio compared to how many cows each farmer has on there land. Did you know that there are about 3,000 dairy farmers in Ohio? Or that these dairy farmers all have a different number of dairy cows on there land that ranges from having just 5 cows to an upwards of 250 cows?! I thought this was so interesting. To be part of this council you do not have to have a specific number of cows on your land you just have to milk them and then sell the milk. The number of cows on each farmers land all depends on the space the farmer has and the type of land that they have. Ohio has a large number of farmers but more small farms because of the lack of land available for farming. West Virginia has even less dairy farmers but that is because they have way less available space to use for farming. I have never been on a dairy farm before so it will be neat to see when we take our field trip to one on Tuesday. Our speaker today was very entertaining to watch and she involved us a lot in the class discussion. I really liked the games she played with us. She did a different form of Simmon Say's where she would ask if we had a glass of milk yesterday, or had breakfast or had a dark green leafy vegetable. I thought this was a really cool game to make people aware of there eating habits.

May 22, 2012

So today in class we did not have a speaker or a field trip to do. Instead we worked in our groups to get more down on our needs assessment project. We actually got a lot accomplished in just those 2 hours. We have our brochure down for our vegetable, we have our handout down for our nutritional needs for our population and we have most of the workbook finished. I was surprised at how much we actually accomplished in just those 2 hours. We also plan to do our garden plan/layout. We plan to take a picture of our garden and then upload it onto the computer and then put put markers on the picture showing where everything is planted. We also talked about what type of dish we are going to make for our brunch. We are all meeting again on monday so hopefully we can all be just as productive again!

May 15, 2012

Today in class we had Melissa come talk with us. She is a dietitian at WIC in Perry county. She went to OU for her undergrad then became an RD and then came back to OU for her masters degree and now she works at WIC. WIC in Ohio is fully funded by the federal government. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program for women, infant and children who are 185% of the poverty line and who are nutritionally at risk. WIC helps to give nutrition education as well as has breast feeding education. It was neat to hear Melissa talk today because I had her for NUTR 128 and thats the class that made me want to switch my major to Dietetics. I think WIC would be a really fun place to work. She also said she has two DTR's that work in her WIC office so that helps in case I take the exam to become a DTR. She also showed us these jelly belly things. They show you how big your infants stomach is at 1 day, 3 days and 10 days. It is amazing how small their stomachs are on the first day of their live and then to see how fast their stomachs grow in just 9 days. The grow from the size of a large marble to the size of a plastic easter egg. I think working for WIC would be a great opportunity for people who do not get an internship. I think it would be a very rewarding job especially if you do not really like clinical work, which I do not. However, the Ohio WIC program is not well evaluated for how many people they help each year. The are evaluated and monitored by the federal government but they are mostly worried about making sure that the proper paper work is being filled out.

May 10, 2012

Today in class we went to the compost facility on OU's campus. I do not know a whole lot about composting and I had never seen a compost facility before today. It was kind of cool to see how much composting they do and how the reuse the compost that they make. The facility is funded through a grant and then the university. Because they use an in-house (enclosed) composting machine they do not need as many workers because the machine does all the churning. So instead they only need one full-time worker and then they use about 5 student workers. I was expecting the facility to smell extremely bad since they compost everything including dairy and eggs but in general it did not smell that bad. You would get a whiff of something bad smelling every once in a while but in general it wasnt that bad which is good I think. I definitely could not work there with a smell of old food because it just upsets your stomach. They are currently only able to compost for the Central foods facility and one dining hall but they are expanding so that they can compost for everywhere on campus which is really cool. They also use their compost on the intramural fields here on campus which I found to be very interesting! I did not know they used it in areas like that.

Then we went to the Ecohouse. This house uses solar panels and thermal panels, as well as it collects its own water to use for flushing the toilets. They also have a composting pile there and a garden that is free to anyone! Students can live in this ecohouse. Only 3 students can live there a year and you can be of any major you just need to be interested in sustainability and then you can work on a project that interests you. I think that it was good that they allow any major because people are interested in many things besides just their major. 

May 8, 2012

Today in class we went to the extension office over in Health Service building. We had a speaker there that talked about the 4-H youth development and what all it entails. I had never heard of this before but apparently it was originally developed in the 1960s and in the 1960s-1980s it was just for farm children. It was a way for them to help build skills in order to help out their farms. Then in the 1980s it switched to being for everyone not just children who lived on farms. I think this program is neat because it allows children to get to see and learn all different things. The children can have a project and work on it anywhere from 2-12 months. These projects can be on agriculture, sewing, photography, cooking, etc. I think this is a great way for students early on to see what they are interested in or good in in order to find a career/hobby for later in life. I think this would have been very helpful for me and a lot of other students because I was still unsure when I came to college what I wanted to major in. This extension office that we went to is funded by The Ohio State University, the federal government and by the county itself. The extension off who does things like the 4-H, does not always get a whole lot of funding which then means a lot of these projects can not always happen. It is like most things right now, they keep cutting back budgets which then means that other things get cut as well. They also told us that we could look into getting a job working with the nutrition sections that the extension office covers as well. They cover health and consumer sciences, nutrition, the 4-H and finance stuff. We did a little activity in class that showed how they work with some of their participants that are having financial issues. They show exactly how much all those little things you buy adds up in one year, and so you get to see that it may only be a few dollars here and there but then over time all that money turns into hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

May 3, 2012

Today in class we had another speaker. Her name is Heidi and she works at WellWorks. I think that her career path is actually pretty interesting. She went to undergrad for nutrition and then went and got her masters and internship to be a registered dietitian together. After becoming a registered dietitian she then went to work for a WIC program. She worked for 2 different WIC programs and then she came to work for WellWorks. Here at WellWorks she doesnt do what the typical RD does, instead she uses her masters degree for her current job. At WellWorks she works to help educate the community and she plans all the events that WellWorks has. I found it to be very interesting what she does because it shows that the nutrition background that she has also helps her in her current role with educating on nutrition and doing cooking demos and things like that. Also, since she works for WellWorks, her job has the same mission and purpose as Francie Astrom's job does and they are both funded the same way. However, Heidi's job is evaluated based on the comments people make or the turn out that they get at these events. I think it would be very interesting to do event planning but while using the nutrition background. I think it would be a very neat job to be able to plan events and host cooking demos and things like that. I also found it very interesting when she talked about the CHIP diet. There has been a lot of controversy as to which RD's like the program and which do not. Heidi who has actually gone through the program decided that she did in fact like it. She said it helped her (even though she was healthy overall) to decrease her blood pressure, and cholesterol. So I found this to show that you can't just always take someone's advise on things. You will never know if something is good or bad until you try it yourself and then make your own opinion based on your own experiences. This is especially true for dietitians because their clients will come up with these new fad diets and we can't just automatically think something is bad unless we know by past experience that it is.

May 1, 2012

Today in class we had a dietitian from Meijer come in to talk with us. Her name was Janine Faber and she is the dietitian in charge of the Central and Southern Ohio regions as well as the Louisville and Lexington regions in Kentucky. Her job gets paid by the funding of companies that want them to promote their products.
Her job entails everything from doing cooking demos, making nutritional information packets, being on the radio and tv segments, to promoting healthy living through media sites like facebook and pinterest. I thought it was actually really interesting how involved the Meijer dietitians were with the community. They all did a lot of media work and really tried to expand to get the greatest number of people involved. Janine's job does entail travel and working weekends but it definitely seemed like she really enjoyed her job.
I knew that there were dietitians that worked at grocery stores but I did not know exactly what they really did until today. I figured most of them were just in the back and did not really entail being in front of the public but obviously I was wrong. Being a dietitian at a grocery store seemed a lot like what a community dietitian does. They are there to promote healthy living and encourage eating healthy but not necessarily dealing with people who already have a nutrition problem. I actually think that being a dietitian at a grocery store would be a lot of fun now especially if they are all kind of set up like Meijer.
Also, I loved learning about their NuVal system! I had never heard of this system since I have not been to a Meijer in years. I think this is a great system that really can make people aware of what are healthier options compared to just thinking something is a healthier option just by what the marketing looks like on the package. I think this is a great step also to help push manufacturers to taking out some of the unneeded products in there foods and put back some of the healthier things. I think this is a great step in trying to make America more healthy!

April 26, 2012

Today in class we were supposed to have a guest speaker named Karen.She is the executive director for the Ohio Board of Dietetics. She has also previously worked for the state WIC program. She did not come to class today for reasons unknown, so instead our professor went over what the Ohio Board of Dietetics. This board consists of 5 board members. There are 3 registered dietitians, one licensed dietitian and 1 PhD educator. The board has to always have at least one PhD educator, and in most cases this person is an RD as well. These board meetings are open to the public and are held several times throughout the year. Something that I found to be interesting was that if two board members who are closely located end up meeting in public they consider that to be a board meeting, so those people are not allowed to meet in public to discuss things.
The Ohio Board of Dietetics has many roles. They set the standards of practice for dietitians and they just to make sure these standards are being met. They also issue licenses and permits, they investigate any complaints that are made and if they find evidence for them then they determine the disciplinary action that must be taken. They also make sure dietitians are completing their continuing education and they administer any examinations. Karen's salary and anyone who works for the Ohio Board of Dietetics come from the license fees that dietitians have to pay. A dietitians license has to be renewed every year and they are about $100. Something that I also found interesting was that the state of Ohio has the most specific license laws in the entire United States. Some states are not as strict as to if a person has to have a license or not to be called a nutritionist, or dietitian or a title of the sort. I found this interesting because I figured all states would have similar laws.

April 24, 2012

We had a guest speaker today in class. We had Francie Astrom from WellWorks come in to talk to us. Francie is a registered dietitian who works as a community dietitian at the community center located at Ohio University. Francie has been working at Ohio University for over 15 years now and she is also a certified diabetes educator. Individuals that are allowed to use WellWorks are those who are employees of Ohio University or any of their dependents, retired Ohio University employees, Athens community members, corporate members in the Athens community or students who work at WellWorks or who are graduate students at the university. WellWorks is funded partly by the university itself, they set away so much money every year for wellness programs and then they are also supported by the membership fees that the members pay. So Francie is paid then through these sources. She sees anyone who pretty much walks in to talk to her. WellWorks is set up to help prevent any major complication, they are not a program that is for people who are trying to fix a disease that is already present. They do a lot of helpful programs like the Health Ohio Initiative, they give talks, set up grocery store tours, and they also do cooking demonstrations to help teach people how to incorporate healthy foods into their diets. The people that can go talk with Francie about nutrition can be people who want information, people who are being told they must go or spouses/partners that are making them go. However, even if they person does not want to be there she said they still usually walking away being more happy about the session than when they came in. I have worked in WellWorks as a workstudy person for my junior year. WellWorks is a great place to work and you really can learn a lot by working there. It is also a great atmosphere to be a part of.

April 28, 2012

Today in class we all sat in a circle and talked about the different handouts we had made based on the nutrition program we had to research. It was interesting to hear about all the different programs that are out there for either impoverished women, children or even the elderly. I liked learning which programs were funded by the federal government and which ones were funded privately. I also found it interesting how a lot of the programs kind of piggy back off one another or they have the rules set up so that if there program can not encompass someone another program might. Like some women might qualify for WIC up until the child is 5 years old but then the Commodity Foods program went up to age 6 for children, which would then help the mother for an extra year. 
I think just learning what all these different programs are could be very beneficial for anyone. There were lots of programs that I had never heard of before. I think if someone is struggling there are so many different programs out there that they will be covered by one to help them out in at least a little way.
I also liked learning about what percent of the poverty line you had to be at to qualify for the programs. Some of the programs you could not qualify for unless you were 130% of the poverty line and others were set at 185% of the poverty line. So some of these programs are set so that you dont have to be struggling big time to qualify. Which now that I think about it this does make sense because I know a few people that are on WIC and I wonder how they qualify for the program but it is because she has a young son and she is not married. The woman is not covered under WIC but her son is. I just wonder even with all of these programs and how they are meant to help those who really need it, are people taking advantage of these things which then could lead to others who actually need it not getting it? It just makes me wonder because there is only so much funding set away for some of these programs that if people who dont actually need it are using it then that leaves less for those who actually need the extra help.

April 17, 2012

Today in class we had a guest speak Nick Claussen who works for SNAP. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, it used to be referred to as Food Stamps until they changed the name. SNAP is part of the Athens Community of Health and Human Services which also takes care of Food Assistance and Cash Assistance, they help with childcare, job training, they help with building resumes, and they do welfare as well. SNAP is funded by the federal government under the USDA. In Athens Country, they do not have a nutritional professional at their place of business. The USDA and the government does and that is who they get all of their nutrition information from. The program is planned, monitored, and evaluated by the USDA and the government. 
Like I said they changed the name of Food Stamps to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. They made this name change because the new name reflects the focus of nutrition and putting healthy foods within reach for low income households. This new name became effective in 2008. 

SNAP maximum allotments, deductions, and income eligibility standards are adjusted at the beginning of each Federal fiscal year. The changes are based on changes in the cost of living. Maximum allotments are calculated from the cost of a market basket based on the Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four, priced in June that year. The maximum allotments for households larger and smaller than four persons are determined using formulas that account for economies of scale. Smaller households get slightly more per person than the four-person household. Larger households get slightly less.Income eligibility standards are set by law. Gross monthly income limits are set at 130 percent of the poverty level for the household size. Net monthly income limits are set at 100 percent of poverty. So not just anyone can apply for Food Assistance, there are certain laws in place that say the requirements you must have before you are able to get them. Also, I noted earlier that people can get Cash Assistance as well, you can only receive Cash Assistance if you have children.   

People are now allowed to use their SNAP dollars at Farmers Market (most of them anyways). Athens county currently has the highest use of people using their SNAP dollars at the Athens Farmers Market. I think that is great because people are able to get fresh fruits and vegetables and that money goes straight back to the Athens community.  

I also found it interesting that you have to have a job in order to get SNAP. I like this idea because then it shows that people are trying to work and make a living, but they just need some extra help. Also, the SNAP dollars only last you about 3 weeks, if you span it out correctly so that is another reason why it is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, because it is just supposed to help supplement until you get your next paycheck.

April 12, 2012

Today in class we watched a video on a Farmers Market that was started up in county in South Carolina. In this county people have some major health concerns like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. People in this area also live in a food desert. If you had never heard of that saying like I had then you probably do not know what it means. A food desert is an area where there is not a major grocery store within a certain distance. A lot of us probably live in a food desert and don't even know it. For people that live in an area that is not close to a major grocery store and they don't have any transportation to get them to a grocery store then this becomes a major problem. Because this area in South Carolina was like this they came up with an idea to have a Farmers Market that would help both the individuals living in the food desert and the farmers in that area. So now this area has a huge Farmers Market every Friday that is right outside a free clinic so that people are able to go to their doctors apt and then get their fresh produce as well. This Farmers Market is then allowing people to get the fresh produce to help their health and it is helping their economy by keeping the money close to home. I think this was a great way to help people get their produce and I love the fact that people are using Farmers Markets more again, I think they are fun and it is a great way to learn about new foods!

April 10, 2012

Tuesday in class we talked more about food security and all the different things that came to mind when we thought about what food security means...like the ability to acquire food and to do so in socially acceptable ways, to be able to feed your whole family without having to sacrifice other things like your electric bill, and so on. We also started to talk about Laws and bills and how it affects nutrition and all the programs that we have available today that help people so that they are able to feed their children and themselves. We have programs like Head Start and WIC and the SNAP program available today because someone realized that people still needed help and so they decided to find a way to help these people. All of these programs started out as just a thought/idea that someone had and then they had the initiative to help make sure that that idea became a law. Without motivated people we would not have a lot of things today.

April 3, 2012

Today we had class at our Community Garden and were able to see the plot that our group would be working on for the quarter. The plot is not that big but it still need a lot of time for the up keep. Our plot currently is all covered in weeds..so it will definitely be interesting to see how my group and the others in my class do with gardening. I personally have gardened before. Both of my parents love to garden and when I was younger I would help them out all the time. So I think that will help me in this class since I already know about plants and how to know what they need and do not need. I think planting this garden will be a different experience. I think it is neat that people from the Athens community can pay $25 for a plot and then tend to their own gardens and grow their own crops. I mean if you do not have the land of your own and you just pay, you can still save yourself a lot of money by planting your own vegetables. I mean I can easily spend $25 in one trip to the grocery store if I got all the fruits and vegetables that I actually wanted. I had never heard or seen the garden before so I think it will be fun to meet all the different people from the community that come to this garden and to see all the different types of plants that people are growing. I do want to grow my own plants so I think this will be a great start to learning how I can do this on my own once I am out of college.

March 29, 2012

Today in class we started talking about food security. We talked about what food security was and how it affects those in our world today, especially those that we would have never thought about....

Who do you think of when you think of people who are food insecure? Would you think about your next door neighbor or a co-worker?

Your answer would be probably not... Most people when they picture people who are food insecure think about unemployed individuals and those that are not trying to help themselves. But in fact many people around us are food insecure. I would have never thought that people who have full-time jobs would be food insecure. It is scary to think about all those individuals that have to go to food banks and soup kitchens to get a meal because they can not afford food for every meal. In the news they are saying how unemployment is decreasing but in fact it has not really decreased. The rate of unemployment is affecting millions of Americans. It is hard for me to believe how so many Americans are food insecure and can not afford to eat at every meal when you look on the television or read a magazine you see all of the celebrities that are making millions of dollars for just a show or movie. How can some people in the country be making so much money they don't even know what to do with it while others are struggling to even eat. Our societies perceptions of things are greatly skewed. I know that some celebrities do help out and donate to organizations around the world but what about our country? Some people are more worried about feeding children and individuals in other countries when there are so many people going hungry right here at home. If Americans just spent some of that money that they spend to have all the newest technologies or upgrading to get a larger home and gave some of that money to help others in need. Those people in need just need a little bit of money to feed themselves...that is all. It is shocking how peoples perspectives are now a days. People are worried more about having "things" instead of worrying about the more important things in life. Everyone always wants to have more than the person next to them. Or "things" really more important than saving lives or people being able to eat?

Food insecurity should not be as widespread in this nation like it is....

Educating individuals may be the best way to help decrease food insecurities. By educating people we can make them more aware and we can teach people ways to help decrease their food costs. Some of these ways are things that we used to all do long ago....Gardening :)

March 27, 2012

What is Community Nutrition? 

Community Nutrition is about teaching individuals in your community about the different aspects of nutrition. Nutrition involves all the food and beverages that people consume and the vitamins and minerals (nutrients) within those foods and how they affect our bodies and health. Nutrition even involves how substances are digested and metabolized within our bodies, which allows us to figure out which nutrients are bodies need and which nutrients are harmful to our bodies. Community Nutrition helps us to educate those around us so that people are able to better their lives by consuming healthier options and learning which foods/beverages are good for us and which are not. 

Learning outcomes for this class? 

By taking this Community Nutrition course I hope to learn more about the different ways in which community nutrition is used. There are all aspects of community nutrition besides just the education that is received through community centers. I am also excited about actually planting and tending to my own garden. Being in college and living in an apartment makes it hard to grow your own produce which I have always wanted to do ever since I was a little girl. When I was younger my parents had a vegetable garden and I would help my mom with it and I loved picking the vegetables once they were ready. Since I have not tended to a garden since I was little I am excited to get to do it again. I also hope to learn more about which produce items need to be planted during every season. I think this is very helpful information for anyone who wants to have their own garden like myself. 

Having your own garden and growing your own produce is a great way to get outside and enjoy the weather and it also helps to cut down on some grocery bills, especially if you are like me and you love all fresh produce and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables!!! 

I'm looking forward to learning more about community nutrition and how it affects us and the people around us :)