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.