Reflecting on the Past Eight Weeks

Well, I have to say I honestly cannot believe how quickly this summer has flown by - and I also must say that I have loved every second of it. Through this experience, I have been challenged to grow in ways that I cannot even explain, to push myself to become innovative, and to take initiative to change things for the better. In retrospect, this was not simply an opportunity to better this community; it was an opportunity to grow up.

My service itself was both challenging and fascinating, but always enjoyable. I feel relieved to say that I achieved everything I set out to do, and I even had time to push myself a little further. Sure, I had some hopes and ideas that fell through over the course of my service, but I can honestly say that they didn't fail for lack of effort, and that's at least a somewhat satisfying fact.

Here's a little overview of the work that Heather and I did this summer, from an article on the Marietta College website:

http://news2.marietta.edu/node/1366

However, I am not walking away from this summer with just my experiences at Ely Chapman. I am also leaving with beautiful experiences in this community. I will never forget the people that I've come to know and work with and live with this summer. They've taught me more than they'll ever know, and helped me to better understand myself, even. I am so grateful that I have another three years ahead of me in this town - I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet.

To all of you - thanks for journeying with me this summer. Thank you for your guidance and advice and support, and for keeping us updated on your work and experiences. I wish you all the best, and hope that your work has opened doors both for your community and for you personally.

-Sydney

Lackadaisical-ity shall always prevail

For my (and Kelley's) blog post this week, read this article: http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/14216/

It has some useful info that you may not have known before. Plus I've done enough paperwork over the past few days to get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So.... enjoy!

Final Reflections

As I am updating my VAD, I am surprised by how much we accomplished in the past 8 weeks! Reading articles over the weeks about the gap between wealth has been both sombering and encouraging. Many changes need to be made to our country's methods of bringing foods from the field to fork, and the state of our nation's health reflects urgency in this matter.
Working with the Green Corps program through the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, however, I am encouraged by the impact a small, innovative program and dedicated team of people can have. The program employs city youth ages 14-18 to assist with all aspects of garden maintenance in an educational program that can actually allow them to gain college credit. As the youth move through the program, their responsibilities increase and they assume more leadership roles. The produce from the farms they maintain is made available to the community through on-site markets, which the students also coordinate.
One of my favorite parts about the VISTA experience was the opportunity to meet other people who care about the local food movement. Previously, the only tangible connection I had with the movement was other Case students who were dedicated to purchasing locally. Meeting the farmers at Cleveland Crops and Green Corps was great; I learned their unique reasons for becoming involved.
A trend I noticed throughout the sites was the incredible importance of continuity and connections. Whether you are planning farm plots or serving as a VISTA, it is helpful to understand the previous worker's accomplishments, vision, challenges, helpful tips, and useful contacts. Much of this information is in some way explained in the VAD, yet the VAD is more technical and less personal. If you have any helpful tips for future VISTAs on your campus, I encourage you to do the same! I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts--thanks for such thoughtful comments! :)

Minding the Gap

The fact sheet brought up some really staggering and fascinating statistics, but again, did not cite its definition of a "food desert." I wish they would have described this a bit more, rather than simply citing how many people live in food deserts. Like that article we read a few weeks ago stated, it's hard to tell whether people genuinely don't have access to healthy food, or if they simply are not choosing it.

The U.S. loses 330 farms a week... that's unbelieveable, and unacceptable. Think about the jobs that go along with those farms. It's so difficult to think about reversing this trend, though. How do we make these giant, powerful industrials farms shrink again to give the small farms room to survive?

This fact sheet scratches the surface of the manure issue in this country, which I have heard quite a bit about recently. Not only are we paying copious amounts of money to manage it, we really are not managing it well at all - pig waste still poisons rivers and water supplies, causing all sorts of environmental and water processing issues, which is quite scary.

I've heard Eric Schlosser speak before, and he was awesome. I'd like to watch Food, Inc. at some point this week and maybe comment on that again - it's in the list of Mind the Gap's recommendations for further reading/watching.

Sydney

Empower

Improving health and wellness through nutrition education is needed in addition to creating greater access to nutritious, affordable foods. Accessibility alone does not empower healthy decisions.

"New Study"

I'm equally as perplexed as Meghan about the source of this new study. Why does it matter that the participants were black, when we don't even know their income level? For all we know, these people are middle-income, which doesn't really show us how food deserts affect those in the low-income bracket (unless they mentioned the income bracket of the participants in the article somewhere and I missed it, which is likely).

I still hold that education is crucially important in shifting this nation (especially those of lower-income levels) to healthier diets. So many of the people I encounter at my site do not understand the health differences between processed and whole foods. They understand that fast food is unhealthy, but they don't understand that homemade desserts can be equally unhealthy, or pasta with bleached-white flour, or fried foods. Just because something is prepared in a kitchen does not mean that it's natural or healthy - and that's a fact that millions of Americans, especially those middle-aged and older, are missing out on. In recent years, health education has certainly improved and become slightly more accurate, with the implementation of visuals such as My Pyramid and My Plate (not that I'm totally in love with either of these nutrition programs, but they're a start). However these curricula (sp?), while they do reach younger people, miss a huge demographic of adults, whose nutritional understanding has not evolved with the evolution of processed foods in this nation. For this reason, I think one of the best places we can start in tackling this issue is getting educational information out there for low-income families on nutrition. I know that some educational programs exist that reach out to poorer demographics, but there's still plenty of room to grow.

Sydney

response to this week's article

I did not find this article, "New Study Says, "Food Deserts" Only Part of the Problem" to be particularly well written or insightful. I was puzzled by the fact that the author, Cathryn Wellner, neglects to state the name of the study or give any bibliographic information about the source she heavily relies on. I did not appreciate the generalizations she used like, “Those of us who have worked in food policy..” There are many people who work in food policy and they have many different perspectives on the issues involved. Similarly, people who choose not to eat processed food or do so for other reasons may take issue with being lumped into the simplistic statement, “However, we eat them anyways because they are convenient and taste good and because they have been so effectively marketed they are part of our social fabric.” Later, she offers making healthy food cheaper as a solution, even though she only sited convenience, taste, and marketing as reasons for food choices.

I would like to read more about this study. It seems like a huge undertaking to track the diets of people for 15 whole years and I am interested in the logistics of how the data was collected. Did any of the participants live in food desserts that showed an increase in fresh whole foods during the span of the study? Who were the controls? Were they eating unhealthy food near their homes or near the places that they worked? What was their income level?