Community Needs Assessment

Today was my second day of class, and I was assigned into my gardening group, group C. We talked about the needs assessment project and what it entailed. We defined needs assessment as well as the seven steps that are involved in the process. My group is going to meet early next week to brainstorm our top three populations of interest for our project.

We also learned about food insecurity and watched a clip from the Erin Brockovich movie. We had a class discussion about how Julia Robert's character acted in the movie, and what signs of food insecurity we could spot. It was interesting to notice how food insecure families may live on a daily basis.

We then watched a 60 minutes segment on free food lines in Ohio. This segment was very eye opening and sad. Many families were interviewed, and it showed me how common food insecurity is in Ohio and what measures are taken to survive by many families.

First Day of Community Nutrition

Today I had my first class of nutrition in the community. We discussed the definition of nutrition as well as the definition of community nutrition. I think this class is going to be a great learning experience and I hope to improve my gardening skills and knowledge of community nutrition as a whole. We discussed some of the assignments we will be doing this quarter and I am interested in learning how to live on a budget, create food menus on a budget, and create menus for school systems. I also hope to learn more about the many areas of community nutrition. I have had some experience with gardening and WIC, but I know there are many more areas to study. Community nutrition focuses on improving the health, well-being, and nutrition of individuals within a community. Since the number of communities is vast, there is much to learn within this study of nutrition. I am excited to learn about different types of communities this quarter, and how nutrition differs within each community.