May 31, 2012

Today we had a nice picnic with a variety of foods. This was probably my favorite day because we just hung out, enjoyed the weather, and ate great healthy food! I made kale chips for the first time, it was very simple and quick and tasted good.

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

May 29, 2012

Today we went to the Holter's Holstein Farms and took a tour of their dairy farm. I've never been on a dairy farm before so it was very entertaining for me. It was interesting to learn how their dairy farm works and it was crazy how much milk they produce in a day. The good thing about it was machines did a lot of the work for them, but I still couldn't imagine all the work and time they spend running the farm. I was very surprised how clean it was especially having 180 cows. I loved the souvenirs they gave us at the end too, I haven't had chocolate milk in forever and it was delicious.

May 24, 2012

Our speaker today was Karen Bakies who is the Student Affairs Director with the American Dairy Association Mideast. This type of program is a leader in nutrition research, nutrition education, childhood nutrition and communication. They provide scientific-based nutrition info to the media, physicians, dietitians, nurses, educators, consumers and others. The funding source for American Dairy Association is through dairy farmers.

May 22, 2012

We met with our groups today in class to work on our project instead of having a guest speaker or go on a tour. I'm excited to see how everyone's garden came along at the end of the quarter and see which vegetables they choose to plant for their target group.

May 17, 2012

Today we took a tour of the Good Earth Farm. This farm donates the food they produce to food pantries and will cook meals for the public. Funding first started with his wife's salary from teaching at Hocking College, but now they are funded through donations, grants and the episcopal church. It was very fun taking a tour of this farm and seeing all the animals, especially the friendly cows and baby sheep. It was also interesting to learn about a program like this and their drive to keep it running.

May 15, 2012

Today Melissa Alfano came to speak to us about WIC. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program that is federally funded. The mission of WIC is to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care. Melissa stated that this program was evaluated every 2 years. My cousin is a supervisor at a WIC office in Columbus, I have shadowed her before and really enjoyed the experience so I would be interested in doing this type of work.

May 10, 2012

Today we met at Ohio University's compost site and the EcoHouse. I've been past the compost site before while running on the trail but have never seen it like we got to do for class. Annie Laurie Cadmus took us around the compost site and the EcoHouse and told us very interesting information that I never knew before. Her job is funded by a grant for the compost facility and through Ohio University. The compost site was a great experience and really cool to learn about. Then we went to the EcoHouse where three students live to learn about sustainability, which would be fun to be able to experience.

May 8, 2012

Today our class met at the Ohio State University extension building to listen to Brittany and Joyce talk about 4-H and the OSU extension program. 4-H is a program for the OSU extension program along with agriculture and national resources, community development and family and consumer sciences. 4-H is a youth development program that stands for head, heart, health and hands. OSU extension is a non-formal educational system. These programs are supported through federal and state dollars, county commissioner funds majority, OSU provides a small percentage, membership fees and taxes.

The mission of this program is engaging people to strengthen their lives and communities through research-based educational programming. The purpose of Extension is to aid in diffusing among the people of the United States, useful and practical information in subjects relating to Agriculture and Home economics and to encourage the application of the same. The role of the nutrition professional in the 4-H program is to educate youth about nutrition and to engage in hands on learning activities. The role of the nutrition professional in the OSU extension program is to educate individuals, families, communities, business and industries and organizations to strengthen their lives.

May 3, 2012

Heidi Anderson was our guest speaker today who is a RD at WellWorks. WellWorks is an Ohio University wellness program in which Heidi coordinates events and educates. The funding for this program primarily comes from memberships and services that WellWorks offers. WellWorks mission is "to be the highest quality wellness program for our customers and to combine academic and experiential learning for our students". Heidi mentioned that she collaborates with other people and agencies during events and uses surveys for monitoring progress.

May 1, 2012

Janine Faber, a Meijer Healthy Living Advisor, was our guest speaker in class today. Janine is a registered dietitian at Meijer for the Central and Southern Ohio location. There is a team of dieticians who coordinate the Meijer Healthy Living Program that is funded through sponsorships from companies. The goal of the Meijer Healthy Living program is to increase sales and promote customer loyalty by creating and communicating health solutions and product knowledge to shoppers. This program plans and organizes community events, in-store events, publications, a website, and media occurrences. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs are monitored daily to post tips and answer questions. The role of the nutrition professional in this program is to communicate with the public about the benefits of healthy living and to share their knowledge, ideas, and tips to reach healthy living goals.

This program will positively affect my dietetics practice and future career from how many people they reach out to daily about nutrition. I never knew what the role of a nutrition professional for a grocery store was and I assumed it was a horrible job from being stuck in a grocery store every day. After Janine talked to us about her role at Meijer my views have completely changed. She seems like she really loves and enjoys her job from all the events that are put on, magazine publications, being in the media, etc.. Now, I would be interested in working for a program like the Meijer Healthy Living program.

April 26, 2012

Dr. Holben talked to us today about the Board of Dietetics since our original speaker got lost on her way to Athens.  The Ohio Board of Dietetics protects and regulates the practice of dietetics in Ohio.  The Board regulates nutrition and dietetics practice to protect the public from harmful, incompetent, or negligent nutritional practices. The funding source of this program is obtained by license fees. The mission of the Ohio Board of dietetics is to effectively protect the public by regulating the practice of dietetics through licensure, and by fairly and consistently enforcing the laws and rules governing nutritional practices. The role of the clinical dietitian is that the executive director has to be an RD. This agency will affect my dietetics practice and future career by protecting the public through dietitians obtaining their license before practice and by enforcing laws. I would not be interested in doing this type of work.

April 24, 2012

Francie Astrom who a registered dietitian at WellWorks was our guest speaker in class today. WellWorks is an Ohio University wellness program that was formed by merging together two similar programs. The funding source of this program is by university wellness funds and is also supported by membership fees and fees for services like massage, nutrition counseling, and personal training. The purpose of this program is to provide a wide variety of programming, be wellness focused for clients to achieve optimal health, improve health status through health risk appraisals like Healthy Ohio, and provide risk reductions to find out health risks and how to reduce them. WellWorks mission is "to be the highest quality wellness program for our customers and to combine academic and experiential learning for our students".

The types of services and programs WellWorks offers are a fitness center, massage, personal training, wellness coaching, worksite wellness, blood pressure screening, cholesterol screening, and HeartWorks. Any OU faculty or staff, OU retirees, corporate members, full time graduate students, and medical students can join WellWorks. Community members can join, but at a higher cost. The RD is integral to success of the wellness program to provide up to date nutrition information, review and interpret current literature, and act as a change agent to clients. Nutrition services provide nutrition education/counseling and counseling for disordered eating.

This program will positively affect RD's in the Athens community; it will not particularly affect my future career since I am not planning on staying in Athens once I graduate. There are many beneficial services and programs provided through WellWorks to improve the health of their clients. If there was a program similar to WellWorks where ever I may be in the future I would be interested in doing this type of work because it is a great program and really positively affects people's lives.

April 19, 2012

Today everyone in class discussed and informed us on their agency. First off, I had no idea that this many agencies even existed and can't imagine how many more there are. I enjoyed listening about what each agency is about and their missions. It is very comforting to know how generous our country can be to help others and decrease hunger in America. In the future I hope these agencies are still available to our society and provide even better assistance than they do now to end hunger.

April 17, 2012

Nick Claussen the Community Relations Coordinator at Jobs and Family Services came to our class to speak about the food assistance program, nationally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in Athens County. SNAP is a government program that is sponsored by the USDA. This program is intended to provide food assistance among low-income households to promote their health and well-being. The program planning, monitoring, and evaluation is conducted by the state government through reports. Nick also stated that there is not a nutrition professional in the program.

I found it disappointing to hear that there was no nutrition professional in this program, especially since RD's can help make such a difference in the nutrition of people receiving these benefits. If this program began hiring nutrition professional, I can't see myself being interested in that type of work since I already have an idea of where I want my career path to go.

April 10, 2012

Today we began a lecture and discussion about health and nutrition policy. In this lecture we learned that national nutrition policies are how nutritional needs will be met and how certain issues will be addressed in American citizens through the use of guidelines. National nutrition policy's are clearly shown in food assistance programs, national nutrition and health objectives, FDA, dietary guidance systems like My Plate, etc.. The policy cycle figure is a good representation of how policy making occurs by making decisions to address a problem through the cycle's 6 stages. These policies are channeled by the outcomes of surveys; then the information is nutritionally assessed, monitored, observed, and screened. Survey information can be obtained from many sources of the NNMRRP, National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Program, but the major survey used is the NHANES, which stands for National Health on Nutrition Examination Survey.

April 5, 2012

Today in class we met with our groups to discuss what we wanted to plant in our garden. We still need to do more research on our group and what we will be able to grow in our garden. Dr. Holben also went over a food security power point and we learned what the definition of food security is and is not and how food security is measured with the 18 item set of indicators.

Community Garden. April 3, 2012

Today our class went to the community garden for the first time. Megan took us on a tour around the garden and ended in showing the plot we will be using. The first thing I thought was this will not be fun because it was just weeds and I had no idea how to garden, but after talking to my group I realized it will be fun and a great experience to be able to grow produce for the population we are interested in.

Community Nutrition Class

I think community nutrition is about food and nutrition choices among communities of people around the world and the study of those choices and how they differ from others. Community nutrition is also about interventions, for example nutrition education. What I hope to learn in this class are the major health problems and concerns among communities in the United States and the impact it creates on themselves, their families and their community. I also hope to learn about factors that influence community nutrition and in turn how dieticians can influence the community based on interventions they develop.