#campbelluniversity

[katietraverspost]

Off to the Races!

Meeting number two is in the books for Team MATCH! 

MATCH stands for, Mobilizing for Action to Improve Community Health. Our team will be working to develop a training program for the Community Health Ambassador Program (CHAP) that can be shared by Cooperative Extension Agents with communities across all of North Carolina.  

We have a lot of leg work ahead of us but are excited to dive in and collaborate hand-in-hand with one another.

[sharoncobbler]

Data Analysis MacroPost

Our group while working with the third, fourth and fifth grade students at Dixon Road Elementary to teach them about gardening and healthy eating habits, we also wanted to ensure that they were retaining the information. To test this, we created a survey with questions that were directly tied to the lessons that we taught and general questions about their habits. The survey included questions pertaining to activity levels at home, participation within sports or afterschool activities, choosing the healthier option between two foods, foods that they would rather eat, we also included questions about Microgreens and information from our lesson of “Go, Glow, Grow” about healthy food options and portion sizes. I’m forever grateful that the children we worked with were highly receptive and stayed engaged with us throughout the lessons, their levels of engagement were highly evident due to the responses that we analyzed and thoroughly examined as a whole.

We gave this survey to the classes of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes we taught, and another set of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes that we did not teach (which acted as our control group for this assessment). We received 56 responses from those we taught and 55 from those that we did not teach. We do not know the conditions that the kids were in during the Google Form survey, we were not present. The students we taught had a better understanding of healthier food than those of the classes that we did not teach. However, the students we taught seemed to choose the unhealthy foods as the foods that they would rather eat, as opposed to those we did not teach that chose healthier options. The more focused questions from the survey were answered correctly by the majority of the students that we taught, while the majority that we did not teach answered inaccurately. Due to the choices selected by the students of the unhealthy foods, we decided to return for another lesson, but angled it towards food choice, (Go, Slow, Whoa), which was highly tied to the Go, Glow, Grow lesson by some of the students. I would say that the children were the most receptive during that final lesson, as they opened a dialogue with us and we’re not afraid of asking any type of food-related question and we were more than happy to answer or find an answer if we were unsure.

We also collected data from parents at Dixon Road during their Trunk-or-Treat event. We prepared and passed out 100 surveys, we received 81 back completed (72.5% felt their child would use the salad bar). Parents were asked as they neared the gym if they wanted to participate in a scavenger hunt to where their children could win a prize when the survey was returned to us completed. The questions on the survey were about what the child currently eats, interests in having a salad bar, if the students pack their lunch or eat what’s served (58% eat what’s available within the cafeteria), and even an optional question about if their child gets free/reduced meals at the school (25% do receive the benefits of this program). We also asked parents if they were aware of the food options available during meals at the school. We placed a total of five pumpkins with our survey questions around the gym. I was easily able to monitor parts of the process and helped some parents find a couple of the pumpkins that they did not venture towards. To make the process smoother, the fifth and final pumpkin was located at our table with the prizes.

Another portion of our data collection came from the faculty and staff of Dixon Road Elementary. Of the roughly 72 persons working at the school, we received 26 responses to our questions on Google Forms. 25 of those respondents voiced support for the implementation of the salad bar and 24 voiced that they would partake in it. Of those that responded roughly 69% are willing to assist students going through it. We also allowed them to voice any concerns or questions through a feedback section. We saw several common themes amongst those that submitted a response for that section. Such as: a need for monitoring, lack of time, and sanitation. All of which, we had talked about some potential solutions amongst ourselves and/or was brought up when we met with Mrs. Dana Edwards or the head of the cafeteria at the school.

This being the last Macro Post I feel compelled to say that, while our group may have had challenges tying some aspects of coursework or lessons to our practicum; I feel as though the lectures of food insecurity hit home for our group. In the sense, that a lot of children’s eating habits stem directly from the habits of the adults and more evidently by what they have access to. Dixon Road’s school garden is acting as a forerunner of change for some of these children that may not have access to some of the vegetables that are grown there. Mrs. Tingen is a catalyst of change for several children that prior to the garden and nutrition lesson implementations were continuously creating unhealthy habits for themselves. Now they know that they have a choice and if they eat unhealthy options how productive they should be to counteract the effects.

[sharoncobbler]

Team Garden is pretty pumped up about this presentation 👏🏻 Are you guys ready for it?

[sharoncobbler]

Working hard on my portion of the presentation, while taking a small break from MacroPosting. 👏🏻 Team Garden is going to plant some knowledge 🌱😎

[sharoncobbler]

Urban vs Rural Garden Macro Post

In our working with Dixon Road Elementary a growing rural community, we attempted to make contacts with multiple schools in more urban schools that also had a school garden to look into the differences and similarities between the two. However, contact was never made in return to our reaching out. We were, however, able to make contact with the Raleigh City Farm to compare gardens between rural and urban communities. While the comparison is not direct in scope it does highlight the main differences between the two garden types, it also illustrates some of their similarities.

The garden at Dixon Road has the goal to educate students about the joys and importance of healthy eating and gardening. While a lot of students in this rural area are highly aware of farms and crops, they may not have direct access to fresh options in grocery stores that their families frequent. This garden experience incites excitement about the process of gardening and even towards creating healthier habits. This hands-on experience also shows the students what foods are grown in certain seasons and times. Like the online exercise, we did this when we first started teaching them. The excitement and hands-on also creates an air for their complete willingness to try the foods in the garden and encourages them to ask if they can take it home.

Our preceptor informed us that students only have physical education classes once a week. Once we became aware that it made more sense why the students always wanted to go outside with us. The kids did not want to spend all of their classroom days, inside slouched looking at computer screens or a smartboard. Working in the garden with activities such as planting seeds, raking the garden beds, pulling weeds, and even adding more soil to the beds; promote the idea that the physical nature is beneficial towards their health.

Similarly, to Dixon Road, the Raleigh City Farm allows for community members to have a better understanding of farming. The Raleigh City Farm is viewed by upwards of 10,000 potential community members on a daily basis, some aware of the garden and some unaware. This non-profit works diligently to offer chances to community members to be involved within the upkeep of the garden through various opportunities.

With the Raleigh City Farm getting viewed from the street, the farmers and volunteers work extremely hard to maintain the area to ensure that it remains looking aesthetically pleasing to all vantage points. This type of concern is not seen at Dixon Road. Mrs. Tingen works diligently to ensure the maintenance and upkeep of the garden; she occasionally has parent volunteers that come and help. However, a majority of the upkeep is done by her, her students with supervision, some other faculty members and their classes, and this semester she also had our help. This is a striking difference between the two gardens, as the Raleigh City Farm not only has their community volunteers, but they have experienced farmers.        

Both of these gardens provide educational opportunities to encourage and promote healthy eating habits with fresh produce. In class we’ve talked about the rise in obesity, these gardens work diligently to illustrate a different way of life. The rise in obesity is due in part to the rising cost of healthier food options, and the lowering costs of foods that are highly processed and not considered to be the healthiest of choices. They do this through their access of fresh options and creating areas in which the youth can learn the ways gardening, healthy food habits, and getting more physical activity into their daily routine. The school garden especially works to change the narrative for the rural students through measures of increasing the student’s knowledge about the food that they choose to eat. The children we worked with always wanted to immediately eat the food that they pulled from the garden.

However, the Raleigh City Farm works to inform their entire community about choosing fresh produce options. Due to their location within the city, community members from every walk of life are able to view it and participate in helping with the tasks that they outline to create a helpful learning environment for those with every knowledge level of gardening as a whole. Both areas with gardens have their respective barriers towards healthy living, however, both gardens can work towards educating and using their resources to further inform their communities, especially if the resources were geared towards every income level.

From what we’ve learned from our classes and directly from our experiences at Dixon Road Elementary these educational methods are definitely ensuring that the students have a better understanding of the importance of building healthy lifestyles and that the choices they make now could have an impact on them later in life. While our comparisons are not direct in nature there is an amazing amount of overlap in what both places seek to accomplish with their target populations, and both places have worked tirelessly to execute their plans within their programs, and both plans are done well for their environment.

[sharoncobbler]

Advocacy MacroPost

Team Garden met our advocacy competency by scheduling and meeting with the Head of Child Nutrition, Dana Edwards to voice the potential for a salad bar within Dixon Road for the children, faculty, and staff; by advocating to the parents during a Trunk-Or-Treat event at the school, assessing the faculty and staff on their opinions, and even having the opportunity for those parents that missed our table or that didn’t see the form a chance to receive the information that we were pushing for them to have! Hopefully, they will want to continue the push for their children, we are giving them the information that they need to successfully do so.

We planned for our meeting with Miss Edwards to be 9:30 AM on Monday, October 21st, 2019, the same week as the Trunk-Or-Treat event, as it was the best time for her. Miss Edwards was very open to the idea once presented with the grant information that we had found, even more so when we stated that she could apply for the grant for more than one school, unlike some other grants that she had faced. Naturally, she was concerned about the financial implications, which we understood, which allowed her to also give us some inside knowledge about the inner workings of the operating cafeteria. She was also highly pleased to hear about the Dixon Road garden that the children are so highly invested in, she seemed more apt to telling us more information. From our meeting, we found out what day that the fresh fruits and vegetables come in (Tuesdays), but they are not available for students, faculty, and staff until Wednesdays. She also stated that they have a working budget for the fresh produce that they receive from GAP certified farmers and other avenues of funded food programs.

She was more open to having it in a middle or high school, however, upon finding out that we were willing and planning to assess the student and faculty buy-in for such an endeavor she, was even more willing to see what could be done. At least depending on the overall numbers that we are able to accrue from each side. We even offered to do anything we could to help the process along if she preferred to have more hands-on-deck, this warranted a chuckle from her, but she was very receptive and gave us her card to pass along to Mrs. Tingen. She even mentioned that she hoped to see us again, as she was hoping that we would be the ones continuing to push for this within the school. The meeting with Miss Edwards ended with the promise of her looking into the material that we collected and our promise to email her back with the numbers and figures that we collected and a great many thanks for her taking time out of her busy schedule to meet with us.

The parents that were willing took a survey to help us assess the foods that their children value, be it healthier options or more prepackaged choices. The parents that were slightly more invested also had the chance to grab an informational handout about salad bars within schools that also had a template letter that they could use to advocate for their child to have healthier food options as well. The survey seemed to go over very well with the parents during the event we had prepared 100 surveys, all of which were taken, 80 received back (but you’ll hear more about that experience when we analyze the data for another competency; so don’t forget it! ). However, it is essential to mention that the overall surveyed percentage in favor of a salad bar for the students from the parents is 72.50%, which is impressive and further helps our point of advocacy as the children would be more apt to use it and continue healthy eating habits for the future.

I am incredibly pleased with how everything turned out for both accounts. We had a fantastic time meeting and talking with Miss Edwards, chatting with parents, and even getting the children excited about eating healthier. Once we have the chance to fully regroup as a team, we plan on sending Miss Edwards an email with all of the promised information about the potential buy-in for the salad bar, preferably by the end of this very week! The students that we have taught will also be passing along the extra copies of the informational handout about adding salad bars into their cafeteria in their Friday folders for their parents to see thanks to the help of Mrs. Tingen! Hopefully, the parents that feel compelled will continue our fight as it will mean more overall towards the buy-in coming from them, as it directly affects them and more importantly, for their children. As the salad bar option would give the children the chance to cultivate and foster healthy eating habits that they could carry throughout their lives, directly challenging the growing childhood obesity norm in our current culture.

[sharoncobbler]

This week & weekend team garden is hard at work preparing a lesson about food choice for Mrs. Tingen’s 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders. Also I feel like our macro posts are all coming together we’re just fine tuning some details.

[sharoncobbler]

This week team garden helped out at MedFest & collected some information via surveys from parents at Dixon Road’s Trunk-or-Treat!