Saturday, March 31, 2012

March 29, 2012 "Community Needs Assessment and Food Insecurity"

Dear Blog,

Today we went through powerpoint slides about how to conduct a community needs assessment and food insecurity.

The community needs assessment reminded me of the steps for any other assessment I've learned about so it was familiar and a little more interesting. The second part of class we talked about food insecurity. Dr. Holben referenced Erin Brockovich and we watched a clip from the movie where it showed her cupboards were bare and how she dealt with feeding her kids while on a very tight budget. Then we watched another video about a food line in Marietta where people were in line waiting to pick up free food for their families. I felt the urge to want to help these people so this makes me think I could end up working in a community nutrition setting someday.

Alex Z.

What I hope to learn and what I think Community Nutrition is all about...

Dear Blog,

Hello my name is Alexis (Alex). This quarter I'm taking a class called Community Nutrition. I do not know much about community nutrition, what it involves, who it affects, or how it works. Here are some of my initial thoughts about what community nutrition is: I think that community nutrition is the combination of a community, or a group of people with similar values, beliefs, interests, and most times, similar income levels and geographic places of residence, and health in a way that serves the people in the community to better their lives, strengthen their values and promote good health through food education and nutrition.

What I hope to learn in this class is how to garden (since we're doing that) and also see how community nutrition impacts my life on a daily basis even when I don't realize it's there. Also, I'm looking forward to exploring this part of my major and maybe consider community nutrition as a career path.

Alex Z.