5/24/12

We had a guest speaker today named Karen Bakies, RD, LD. She is the Student Affairs Director with the American Dairy Association Mideast. She talked to us about how to communicate the nutrition messages we are trying to get across. We learned that the American Dairy Association has been around since 1915. They provide scientific-based nutrition info to the media physicians, dietitians, nurses, educators, and consumers. American Dairy Association is funded through dairy farmers. She covers the states of Ohio and West Virginia. There are 3,099 dairy farmers in Ohio. She taught us a lot about how to give presentations and keep people interested so we can effectively translate our message.

5/22/12

Today we worked within our groups. It was nice to get time to get together and work on our projects.

5/18/12

Today was absolutely beautiful! We got to get off campus again and go to the Good Earth Farm. The owners name who spoke to us was Paul Clever. His wife and him are founders of the farm. I was amazed at this farm and how it was non-profit. I give them props for being able to pull that off. The purpose of the farm is to provide food for pantries with healthful good quality produce. Many pantries lack this. This farm also serves as a place to give education to visitors who are often lacking the experience of seeing where our food comes from. Good Earth Farm serves 60 people a week on the produce and dairy they make. So there is a big plot dedicated to produce and to the cattle they have. The farm is funded by donations and grants. However it got a jump start by the generosity of the neighbors who gave him the plot of land out of the kindness of their hearts. I believe the monitoring and evaluating of the farm is done by  Paul and his wife. I overall  thought this project was an excellent idea and wish that their were more places like it to help consumers be able to attain fruits and vegetables more easily,

5/15/12

We had another guest speaker today Melissa Alfano. She is the director of Athens and Perry county WIC. WIC stands for Woman Infants and children and is a supplemental food program for pregnant breastfeeding women. There are other criteria that WIC includes for one to recieve they benefits. Some of the purpose of WIC is to improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce infant mortalitly and provide infants and children with a healthy start to life. Funding for WIC is 100% federal funding. SOme programs that WIC does are as follows: nutrition education and classes, breastfeeding classes, supplemental foods, farmers market coupons and younger and older solid classes. The food packages are specific meaning they cant just spend the money as they chose I think this is a good idea so it forces them to buy more nutritionally optimal foods.


The Second part of class we watched a webinar, it talked about cancer and its importance in the US today. The webinar was done by Cheryl Rock from the American Institute of Cancer Research. There are many clinical trials being done in order to examine diet modification can have an affect on breast cancer occurrence.  She also talked about diet's influence on epigentetic events. Which seems interesting and may come into play more in the future.

5/10/12

Today we went to the compost facility. It was nice to be outside on a beautiful day. Annie lau8rie Cadmus is the director of sustainability who is in charge of facilitating projects and programs that foster sound campus stewardship and commitment to sustainability goals. The expansion of the compost facility is one of her current projects. She told us all about how the facility works and what additions are being made. She said this as of no is not a cost efective program. But it is sustainable and ecologically friendly. It is funded by a grant as of now when its done OU will cover the funds.

The Ecohouse is designated to three students a year who keep the house sustainable as well as work on a project. There is also a community garden free of cost to anyone.

5/8/12

Today we went to the extension office. I didnt even realize we had one in the area. Brittany Pangburn and Joyce Shriner were the two women who spoke to us today. They both work for the etension office. Brittany is the 4H- program assistant which is under the extension educator who is Joyce. Brittany oversees 4-H programs. 4-H program stands for Head, Hands, Health and Heart. It is for youth of many different bacground to essentially socialize. There are three branches agriculture/natural resources, 4-H, and family and consumer sciences. Basically the kids get involved in projects and events in order for them to learn about new areas. The funding comes from multiple sources. It comes from the County Commissioner, some percentage from OSU, some from membership fees, and some from fundraisers. Joycee is the extension educator which is coverad at the federal local and state level. They're hired through Ohio Extension System and aupervised and evaluated by the OSU Extension. The purpose of the Extension is to aid in diffusing among the people of the US, useful and practical information in subjects relating to Agriculture and Home Economics and to encourage application of the same. Joyce also mentioned that FNP program or he Food Nutrition Program where adults who recieve assistance teach FNP and expanded food and nutrition education at the country level.

5/3/12

Today our speaker was Heidi Anderson. She works at WellWorks.  Her job is mainly to do marketing and event planning for WellWorks. Funding, just like with Franice, comes from membership fees. The College of Health Sciences and Professions also donates some. The main purpose of WellWorks is to promote wellness and educate the community. Heidi did not have any marketing or event planning background so this has been a learning experience for her. I thought this was interesting because that means you don’t always have to have experience in the position to get hired. She has to do a lot of collaborating with other people and agencies around the community. Paper forms and surveys are used for formal evaluations of events. Her nutrition background as well has her master’s degree helps her with her job and in planning effective nutrition events.

5/1/12

Today in class a speaker came and her name was Janine Faber, RD, Med, LD. This was by far my favorite speaker so far. I just would really enjoy her job. She was from the Healthy Living team from Meijer. Her job encompassed many aspects of community nutrition. This team seeks to increase sales and promote customer loyalty by communicating health solutions and product knowledge to shoppers. The team is composed of registered dietitians with various backgrounds that bring different aspects to the table. Janine had her masters in health education. Another one of the RD’s was a personal chef; another had an exercise component to her credentials. The team is funded by sponsors that they have a small say in who they want to represent so they can still support healthy diets. The program overall is each team member is responsible for a district of their community where they hold events like expos, fairs, cooking demos, they also hold in store events, and post things on Facebook and twitter for social media. This job sounds like everything I would want in a position and I hope someday I can make it there.