Food Insecurity and Topic Discussion

Today in class we continued our discussion of food insecurity. We talked about the Guide to Measuring Household Food Security, Revised 2000 (Bickel et al.), which is a Canadian health survey used to indicate food security status. This questionnaire has 18 indicators for determining food security status and it only takes four minutes to administer. The survey is done once a year in December. We actually went through and took the survey and discussed the questions. The question is based on a point scale from 0-18: where 0 is on the food secure side and 18 on the severely food insecure side. I ended up with 0 total points meaning I am food secure. This survey really made me think of all the families that struggle with feeding themselves and their children. I am grateful that I have always been able to to buy food. We also learned about some of the coping strategies, risk factors, and consequences involved in food insecurity. This was very eye opening, and I am definitely looking forward to researching my agency that may help food insecure households.

Today we also were told our agency topic and group topic. The agency I will be researching is the Summer Food Service Program, which I am really excited about. My group is doing a needs assessment and garden plot for Adults with Hypertension, specifically using the DASH diet. We met as a group and discussed possible crops to plant including: green beans, summer squash, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, beets, and flax. The DASH diet is high in Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, and fiber as well as low in fat and salt. We tried to pick vegetables that followed these guidelines and that will grow well in the Spring.