4/26/12

Today we were supposed to have a guest speaker named Karen. She is the executive director for the Ohio Board of Dietetics. She has previously worked for WIC. She didn't show up for an unknown reason. So Dr. Holben instead went over what she is all about. The board consists of 5 members. 3 registered dietitians, on licensed dietitian, and 1 PhD educator. The board always has to have at least on educator. and in most cases they're an R.D. The meetings are open to the public and held several times throughout the year. It has many roles. They set standards of practice, and they make sure these standards are being met. They also issue license and permits. They keep track of continuing education hours, and investigate complaints mad and if they find evidence they determine how they should discipline. Some states are not as strict with licensing and aren't as strict with the titles of dietitians versus nutritionist.

4/24/12

Today we had a guest speaker. Francie Astrom from WellWorks came in to talk to us. Francie is an R.D. who works a lot in the community and at the community center. Francie has worked here at O.U. for about 15 years now and she feels that also being a certified diabetes educator has given her an edge in her career. Employees of O.U. or any of their dependents, retired O.U. employees, Athens community members, corporate members in Athens or students who work at WellWorks are all the individuals allowed to use the WellWorks facilities. WellWorks is supported by the membership fees that the members pay. So Francie is paid through those fees. She will see anyone who wants to speak with her, it is structured to help prevent any major complications, not necessarily to treat diseases that are already present.

4/19/12

Today we discussed all of our agency assignments we did. It was pretty relaxed. I feel like I got a pretty good sense and overview about all of the different agencies that were assigned. I really like the Let's Move Campaign, and Fruit and vegetables programs, because I think its important to get fresh fruits and vegetables back into households as well as physical activity.

4/17/12

Today we had our first guest speaker. His name was Nick Claussen and he works for Athens county job and family services. He talked a lot about SNAP services. The program is designed to raise nutritional levels to expand buying power and to safeguard the health of individuals in low income households. I thought it was interesting how he spoke about how they control what people buy and how much people try to cheat the system and sell their snap cards online and stuff like that

4/12/12

Today in class we watched a video about a farmer's market. The video showed the people in action. It was interesting peoples lives were impacted by the produce being available. It made me want to have a garden of my own to have my own produce available. It would also be nice to start a farmers market in my community because we don't have anything like that. 


Olivia 

4/10/12

On Tuesday we talked about food security again. It was pretty uneventful. I found SNAP interesting we talked about how this program was directed toward the rules and regulation of the food stamps in comparison to WIC. I agree they need to have regulations on what you can and cannot buy with SNAP. I  think it really unfortunate when some people are really in need of the money for food, and others are buying alcohol and cigarettes with the money.

4/5/12

Thursday we continued to talk about food insecurity. It was interesting to see the survey questions they use to determine food insecurity. I felt like many of they were very specific about children, and I would be interested to see surveys based on food insecurity not related to children. It was very sad to see the videos about the lines at the food bank. It was sad to hear them talk about why they were there and what they had to do to keep them and their children fed. I was really shocked to hear about the family that would buy whole milk and water it down to have enough milk, I never thought about that. I was also surprised to see the amount of people like nurses who have jobs but are still having trouble making ends meet. Food insecurity seems to be growing into more of a problem than it seems to appear.

4/3/12

Today we went to the garden plot. I had seen the plot from a far before but never really looked at it up close or knew much about it. I was surprised about how cheap the plots were. I also thought we would have a larger plot. I was very impressed with some of the garden plot set ups. I really liked the one that was like a large cage and had bamboo. I hope that our garden can look as good as some of the ones we saw, maybe not as crazy as the cage one but as far as our actual plants go I hope they will grow well. I am excited to get our plants started and see how they do!