University of Maryland Food Stamp Nutrition Education
One week of my community rotation was spent at the University of Maryland Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) Office. This office is based out of Columbia, Maryland but has employees throughout the state providing nutrition education to Food Stamp participants. During the week that I was at FSNE, I was able to participate in an activity with Haylee Staruk at Baltimore Highlands Elementary School teaching them how to prepare healthy snacks. I also spent time at the state office looking for events in local areas that Food Stamp participants would be able to attend. Lastly, Jinee and I participated in a Food and Fitness Expo and prepared Pumpkin Pie pudding to let attendees taste. We were able to meet some residents from the local area and give them some nutrition information on behalf of the Food Stamp office.
As part of our internship, we go to a low-income community and provide nutrition lessons to these individuals once a month through a grant at the University of Maryland. As partners, we provide the nutrition lesson to the residents, go shopping for prizes to be given away that day and have a snack for them to try. Below is a copy of our materials that we presented on January 8th at Johnston Square.
Health By Design Outline (PDF) -- This is the outline for what we planned to do the day of our presentation. This was also given to all other interns in order to follow along.
Health By Design Program (PDF) -- The program that we followed for the physical activity exercise at Johnston Square.
Food and Friends
Food and Friends is a non-profit organization in Washington D.C. that seeks to provide meals to individuals with life-threatening illnesses for the purpose of taking the burden off the individuals to prepare their own food daily. Food and Friends has four dietitians on staff that provide nutrition services to their clients. In addition to the nutrition services, they also assist the chefs in preparing menus to accomodate the 14 different types of diets that they provide their clients. During my time at Food and Friends, I helped to place all of their menus for their new menu cycle into Food Processor so that they were easily distinguishable and analyze each day's menus to determine its nutrient content. I also prepared a guideline for a Diabetes Grocery Store Tour that will be performed later in May.
Diabetes Grocery Store Tour (PDF)
School Lunch -- Montgomery Co. Public Schools
The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program that is found in public and non-profit private schools systems as well as residential child care facilities. This program seeks to provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to to children each school day. I spent three days observing the Montgomery County Public School Lunch and learning more about other programs that they were involved in such as the Senior Citizen program and the Summer Feeding Program.
The Montgomery Co. School System has a Central Processing Facility (CPF) that prepares and delivers over 100,000 meals to elementary schools in the Montgomery Co. school district daily. This facility also functions as a warehouse in which other supplies such as paper products can be purchased through this facility rather than the school having to purchase them from another vendor.
While visiting the Montgomery Co. office, I had the opportunity to visit several schools to better understand the school breakfast and school lunch program. While there, I conducted a survey to determine what breakfast foods the students liked the best to help better plan the breakfast program for next year. In addition to learning more about the School Lunch Program, we made a handout that can be used for future newsletters that will go home to parents for the summer.
Nutrition During the Summer Months -- (PDF)
Nursing Home/Long Term Care -- HCR Manor Care
HCR Manor Care a Long Term Care and Rehabilittion facility located in Rockville, MD. This is a 150 bed facility that provides a place for elderly individuals to live full time if they are unable to continue to stay home and care for themselves and also a rehabilitation facility where patients can come to stay for a short time while they are trying to recover from falls, surgery, or other conditions in which they need help to become stronger away from their home. This facility also has an Alzheimer's unit which provides added protection and assistance to those residents with Alzheimer's Disease
During the week in which I was there, I learned about the process in which the dietitian does assessments, fills out the MDS, completing care plans for the residents, and deciding when the resident will need to be followed up. In addition, I was able to attend some family care plan meetings in which the dietitian explained to the family how the resident was eating, their weight status and any changes that may have occurred with the residents diet. The dietitan also plays a critical role in the helathcare team by attending morning staff meetings in which updates are given about the residents.
Renal -- Bon Secours
Bon Secours Hospital is the site of our Renal rotation. During the Renal rotation, I spent three days following the two dietitians that work in the Dialysis clinic. At the Dialysis clinic, the dietitians monitor the labwork of the dialysis patients and then counsel them on changes that they may need to make in their diet to better improve their labwork. In addition to counseling the patients about their diet, the dietitians also play a critical role as part of the healthcare team by managing other aspects of the patients' care. The dietitians are trained to adjust medications such as Procrit and Hectorol D that is given to the patients as part of anemia and bone management. While visiting the dialysis clinic, there was a patient that come to talk to Jinee and I about being on dialysis. This patient had been on dialysis for 28 years and was able to provide us with a better perspective on how a patient with dialysis functions on a daily basis.
Last updated:
June 7, 2008