Texas is #4 in the top 10 hungriest states in America. The North Texas Food Bank feeds and educates the hungry in 13 north Texas counties. It serves 45 million meals per year and about 25,000 people each day. There are many programs that include nutrition education, budgeting, and cooking classes and then the participants are sent home with a bag of groceries. This week was a true eye-opener. It made me realize how lucky I am to have food when I want it. I spent my week driving all around North Texas to some of the worst poor areas. The south side of Dallas has high rates of poverty and crime. For the first time in my life I saw a person sleeping under a highway bridge, covered in a blanket with their belongings in a garbage bag beside them. The mission of the employees at the food bank is to eventually work themselves out of a job.
On Monday my first task was to tag along grocery shopping with the nutrition education coordinators. We went to Fiesta Foods and bought a cart full of ingredients to make banana quesadillas and tuna boats. We had to buy enough food for the cooking demo and enough food to be sent home with the participants in their grocery bags. (60 cucumbers, 30 bunches of green onions, 30 cans of tuna, 30 bananas...etc) My job was to observe and help out during the Cooking Matters classes. These classes are 2 hours long once a week for 6 weeks and each class has a different target audience. The first one of the day was at a Diabetes Health and Wellness Center for under privileged diabetic adults. This brand new center with a fitness center and dietitian services is free to use by diabetics in the area. It was a very sad looking community. No grocery store within a 5 mile radius of where we were. Where do these people get their food? Convenience stores or gas stations. What types of foods are at those kind of stores? Usually not healthy ones, maybe bananas, but otherwise chips, candy, pop, and hot dogs. This answers the question of how people can be hungry and obese at the same time. The afternoon class was held at an elementary school that had trailer homes for overflow class rooms. This after school program was for kids over age 6 and their parents. They learn about healthy eating, safe food handling, and how to make food. The kids loved helping prepare the food!
On Tuesday I helped with two more classes. The morning class was at the Lewisville Senior Activity Center for senior adults. It was their graduation class so I got to eat a lot of yummy food that they brought in for the pot luck. The afternoon class was at another Elementary school. It was a class for 8-11 year olds. Kind of mass chaos, but they are all very excited to learn and cook. From 6:30-8 us interns had to give presentations at a Diabetes Support Group held at the hospital. Each group of 2 gave 10 minute presentations on various herbal supplements. Mine was vanadium...in case you are wondering...I wouldn't recommend taking it because more research needs to be done.
Wednesday was a busy day. First of all I showed up and SURPRISE-you will be doing a 15-30 minute workshop for about 40 seniors on fiber-here's a handout and there's the fiber kit, we leave in a half hour. I was nervous. While doing the workshop most of them didn't really care what I had to say about fiber because line dancing and Bingo were on the agenda next. I could have just smiled and waved up on stage and nobody would have noticed. I spent the afternoon sitting in on the Nutrition Education Department meeting.
Thursday I drove all the way to the food bank for a 10 minute tour then drove back to where I came from for a Comer Bien Cooking Matters class. This class is taught completely in Spanish so I didn't have any idea what was being said. It was another graduation class so there was a pot luck of lots of Mexican food. All of those dishes should have had CAUTION signs on them because this Wisconsin girl is not used to foods of such spiciness. My lips and mouth were on fire and I had tears. I also tried the ceviche. Ceviche is typically made from raw fish marinated in citrus juices such as lemon or lime and spiced with chili peppers, onions, salt and pepper. Except this ceviche was made with ground beef....I was very unsure about it, but I tried it. I guess it could be compared to wild cat.
Friday I finished up my homework for the rotation. I made a recipe packet using squash, potatoes, and onions as main ingredients, made a lesson plan on nutrition and immunity, and summarized my experiences for the week. In the afternoon I had my evaluation with my preceptor.
Saturday I went for a long run with one of the interns, Amberlee. Dan's sister, Katy, Amberlee, and I all signed up for the Dallas Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon on March 27th so we have to get practicing.
***Congrats to my Auntie Donna, Uncle Nathan, and big brother Caden!!! Tyler Dean was born on 10/28/10!! I cant wait to meet him =)
**I had my share of Dallas traffic for a while. I spent over 15 hours in my car this week, most often stopped on the highway because of accidents.
*Go RANGERS! (World Series)
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