This week I participated in a high school wellness committee meeting, continued working at the food pantry, and attended a seminar on Motivational Interviewing and MNT reimbursement coding! I also ended my SNAP Challenge on Tuesday. To catch up with my previous work at the food pantry, check out:
DI: Week 4 – Research, Bariatrics, and Food Pantry Fun
My week looked like this:
Monday:
I was able to sit in on a Wellness Committee meeting at the high school I’m doing my school-based rotation in. I was responsible for taking notes at the meeting. We started by going over the suggestion box results for September. Students can leave suggestions for menu items they’d like to see offered, improvements to existing menu items, and other comments like lines that are particularly long and any food shortages that happen. We also discussed events the physical education department is putting on to help get the kids more active. Most importantly, the Wellness Committee came up with ideas for their goals throughout the semester. Some of their goals included: creating a marketing addition to their wellness policy, expanding vegetable options at lunch, and helping other high schools in the area to set up their own Wellness Committee. It was really cool to see the school faculty getting involved in improving the health of their students.
Tuesday:
Last day of my SNAP Challenge! If you’ve never tried the SNAP Challenge before, I strongly suggest it. It gives you more insight and empathy towards the struggle to consume a nutritious diet on a very restrictive budget. I’ll write a more in-depth post about my experience over my winter break when I have more time, so stay tuned! Today, I was back at the food pantry. This morning, we had a grocery store tour with a couple of clients from the food pantry. We gave them tips on shopping for healthy foods on a budget and explained some key things to look for on Nutrition Facts panels.
That afternoon, I went on a food recovery with one of the other interns at the pantry. The food pantry has partnerships with many local restaurants and grocery stores to get food that they would end up throwing away, but that is still acceptable to eat (think “ugly” food). For one of our food recoveries, we got a lot of bagels which smelled so good!! I also made some revisions to the food demonstration analysis that I worked on Friday. Essentially, this document just summarizes how engaged participants were with the food demos, how many samples were distributed, etc. I continued to simplify the language the pantry uses for their food demo surveys as well. The survey asks three questions: if the participant will try the recipe or food item demoed at home, if they learned something new about healthy eating, and if they plan on picking up an ingredient from the pantry that was used in the demo.
Wednesday:
Back at the food pantry, I spent my morning working on creating a handout for our clients that explain the American Academy of Pediatrics updated juice recommendations for kids. This is important because children are being given too much juice which ends up taking the place of more nutritious foods.
After lunch, we had a lot of work to do to prepare for food distribution. We set up the nutrition education table with lots of relevant handouts and recipes, made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and orange-flavored water for clients to enjoy in the waiting area, and organized the food items we hand out at the nutrition table. Whenever the pantry has a lot of any particular item, they have us pass it out at the nutrition education table to help move those foods out of the pantry before they go bad and end up getting thrown away. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to make it to my night class, so I only got to see the first 30 minutes of distribution. It was really cool to see the pantry in action, even just for a little while. Luckily, I’ll be able to see the full distribution next Saturday!
This week, we learned more about food security in my night class, and watched part of the documentary “Food Stamped”.
Thursday:
Today, at the food pantry, I continued to edit my juice recommendation handout. It still isn’t quite how I want it (being the perfectionist that I am), but we’re getting there! The other interns and I went on a larger food rescue as well. Between the three of us, it took some finagling to get everything into the car, but we made it! Then, we helped unload a big delivery from the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) in the pantry. For every $1 donated to the pantry, they’re able to buy $9 worth of groceries from GCFD, which helps ensure that they have plenty of healthy options for clients on distribution days. We unloaded box after box of fish, chicken, turkey, juice, eggs, beans, cereal, pasta, etc. Hauling all of those heavy boxes was definitely a good workout! One of the other interns and I then tested a vegetable frittata recipe that she will be demoing this Saturday at the pantry’s distribution session. Unfortunately, since I’m only at the pantry for 10 days I won’t be able to do my own food demo, but I’ve been helping the other interns plan theirs.
Friday:
Today was our first seminar of the year, and was about Motivational Interviewing and MNT reimbursement coding. All of the Dietetic Internship programs, in the greater Chicago area, partner together to offer seminars on a variety of topics throughout the year. Our speaker was very engaging and used a lot of props throughout the seminar which made it very fun! It was cool to see all of the other interns in the Chicago area as well; there were about 150 of us at the seminar. All of us leaving at the same time made getting out of the parking garage a hassle though. :P
Weekend:
Spencer came to visit! On Saturday, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. I absolutely love animals of all kinds, so I was very excited to be able to see a bunch of fish, penguins, beluga whales, dolphins, otters, and amphibians. We even got to touch stingrays which was my favorite part of the day! Word of advice if you plan on attending the Shedd Aquarium: buy your tickets online before going. (We saved so much time not having to wait in line!) On Sunday, we went to see a movie and I finished up some work to prepare for the week.
Next week, I’ll be at the high school for a couple of days and back at the food pantry. Until then!
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