Community & Wellness
How food brings us together
Food is fuel, and it is something everyone needs to survive. Dietitians are in a position where they can reach out to communities that don’t have access to fresh, healthy foods or health information. During my community and wellness rotations, I learned just how much of an impact dietitians can make in a variety of different ways; whether it be through a blog post, making a youtube video, writing a letter to the government to promote change in policies, or simply providing educational handouts.
Blog Entries
Recent Projects
Community Project
This is a presentation compiled by a couple classmates and I, which outlines a project that could be implemented in an area of the United States that is a food desert whose population consists of a different ethnicity than our own. Our project focused on Little Haiti in Miami, FL, and our idea was to implement a food subscription box, much like Hello Fresh, but cater it to the Haitian population, using culturally appropriate recipes which are written in Creole and English. Our boxes could also be purchased with SNAP benefits, making it available for low income households in the community. This project taught me to be knowledgeable of foods eaten in different cultures, in order to better serve a wider variety of people in my career moving forward.
Public Policy Letter
This project was inspired by my time working at Walt Disney World, and how they’ve developed processes to handle guests who dine at their restaurants with food allergies or intolerances. My policy suggests that more restaurants adopt similar policies and procedures to make restaurant guests with food allergies feel more safe about eating at that restaurant, and the staff feels confident that the food they serving.
Cooking Videos
Culturally Diverse Cooking Demonstration
This cooking video features my friend, who is of Mexican heritage. The purpose of the video is to showcase “healthified” versions of traditional Mexican dishes. The dishes we demonstrate are guacamole with seasoned house-baked tortilla chips and calabaza con pollo. This video taught me how to make a new recipe, while sharpening my camera skills.
How to Cook Tofu and Tempeh
The video was made for Kelly Jones Nutrition, a sports RD who typically works with high school and college athletes; but this video is appropriate for anyone who is unfamiliar with tofu and wants to add this excellent source of plant-based protein to their diet! I talk about extra firm/firm tofu, silken tofu, and tempeh and all the different ways they can be prepared. This project helped me become more comfortable speaking in front of the camera, as well as working on my video editing skills.
Educational Handouts
This first series of handouts was designed for a low income population with average 8th grade level education living in Lake County, Florida. This population gets most of their food from local food pantries and their most prevalent health problems are diabetes and hypertension. Creating these handouts helped me learn how to simplify nutrition knowledge so it can be easily understood by adults of all education levels.
Basic Diabetes
This handout talks about why people with diabetes should care about carbohydrate intake, along with tips to counting carbs, and which foods contain carbohydrates
Carbohydrate Containing Foods
This handout breaks down carbohydrate containing foods by food group, and also shows what 1 serving (15g) looks like
Nutrition Facts Label Reading
This handout covers the basics of reading the Nutrition Facts label emphasizing serving size, types of fat, total carbohydrates, fiber, and sodium
General Healthy Eating
This handout is inspired by MyPlate and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020. It gives general healthy eating tips such as filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables and limiting added sugars, sodium, and saturated fat intake
National Nutrition Month
This series of handouts was created for National Nutrition Month, and were handed out at a booth outside the cafeteria at AdventHealth Waterman in Tavares, FL. I decided to feature plant-based eating and linked it with heart health, because this population’s favorite cafeteria lunch options are fried foods, as observed during my food service rotation. During this activity I learned that not everyone will be responsive to what you have to teach them, and to not let the negativity spoil your excitement for what you’re doing. There was some people that were off put by my tofu chocolate mousse and were not open to hearing what I had to say; however, the number of people that were pleasantly surprised by the way the tofu tasted outnumbered the ones with negative connotations, thankfully!
About Plant-Based
This handout talks about what a plant-based diet entails, and how it is not equivalent to vegetarian/vegan. It talks about the health benefits of a diet which emphasizes plant foods and touches on the environmental benefits as well.
Heart Health
This handout breaks down the basics of a heart healthy diet. It talks about the different types of fat, sodium, phytochemicals, cholesterol, plant-based proteins, and fiber.
Tofu Chocolate Mousse
Small sample cups of this mousse was handed out to the hospital workers of Advent Health Waterman for National Nutrition Month. Several people were surprised that tofu could taste this good!
WIC Handouts
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions I was unable to see clients face-to-face, or be a part of any educational classes for pregnant moms or children. I was able to shadow how WIC operations work, learn about what types of benefits they receive, a nutritionists role in WIC, and study nutrition for the women, infant, and children populations. I had the opportunity to make these educational handouts that focus on nutrition for pregnant moms, and nutrients for consideration if they choose to follow a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle during their pregnancy.
Vegan/Vegetarian Food Groups
This handout gives guidelines for pregnant women who are vegan or vegetarian on how many servings from each food group is recommended. It also gives examples of what a serving size from each food group looks like.
Plant-Based Pregnancy
This handout highlights different nutrients that are of interest among vegetarian or vegan pregnant women, such as iron, B12, and vitamin D. It explains ways to increase intake of these nutrients, to help ensure their baby gets all the nutrition it requires.