Category: Summer 2022

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle – Raleigh, North Carolina

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Food Recovery and Distribution 1: Sara on a Food Recovery Route - May 19, 2022 - Raleigh, NC
Food Recovery and Distribution 1: Sara on a Food Recovery Route – May 19, 2022 – Raleigh, NC

A little bit about me
My name is Sara Cathey, and I am currently working on my Master of Public Health degree in Global Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before starting at UNC, I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from Texas A&M University, where I was first introduced to global and local food systems, food security, and food justice. Through my previous job developing nutrition programs with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Food and Nutrition Unit, to performing food security research with the Texas A&M Sociology Department, to leading my student organization and on-campus farm, Howdy Farm, I gained a robust understanding of local food systems and what it looks like to actively translate public health suggestions into person-centered, attainable solutions. As a student at UNC, I have continued my work within the field of food security, with class projects set at the global and local level, and now with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, North Carolina as a Community Health Education Intern. For my Summer 2022 practicum, I am excited to continue applying my background within the Food Shuttle’s multifaceted context of food recovery and provision, nutrition and agriculture education, and service to and by our community.

Ag Education 1: Camden Street Learning Garden - Shed and Community Bulletin – May 11, 2022 - Raleigh, NC
Ag Education 1: Camden Street Learning Garden – Shed and Community Bulletin – May 11, 2022 – Raleigh, NC

What is the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle?
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, first established in 1989 by Jill Staton Bullard and Maxine Soloman, seeks to “feed our neighbors, teach self-sufficiency, grow healthy foods, and cultivate innovative approaches to end hunger.” As an entity of the Feeding America National Network of Food Banks, we serve neighbors in the following seven North Carolina counties: Wake, Durham, Johnston, Orange, Chatham, Nash, and Edgecombe. To reduce the impact of hunger and food insecurity, we reach our neighbors with food, job skills, and education at all life stages through programs like:

The Food Shuttle is based in Raleigh at the Malone Center, where, among many other operations, recovered and donated food is sorted and packaged for distribution. The Food Shuttle also has several satellite locations to expand our reach to our neighbors— in Raleigh, we have the Camden Street Learning Garden and the 14-acre Food Shuttle Farm & Farm Stand; and in Durham we have the Geer Street Learning Garden. Likewise, the Food Shuttle also has a mobile food truck called The Spinning Plate which aids in food distribution in our service counties. On top of our various locations, Cooking Matters classes and agriculture education programs take place at elementary schools and community partner locations.

Ag Education 2: Camden Street Learning Garden - Rainwater Collection Cisterns – May 11, 2022 - Raleigh, NC
Ag Education 2: Camden Street Learning Garden – Rainwater Collection Cisterns – May 11, 2022 – Raleigh, NC

What am I up to?
During the short time I have been with the Food Shuttle, I have worked on numerous projects, including my practicum products. I am currently developing a 3-part webinar series about nutrition during pregnancy while experiencing food insecurity for the CHE Academy. Aligning with the Food Shuttle’s goal of alleviating hunger and equipping residents with limited resources to be self-sufficient, this education series seeks to reduce health inequities among pregnancy-capable persons experiencing food insecurity by increasing knowledge, self-efficacy, skills, and awareness of resources pertaining to increased nutrition and food access during and after pregnancy. On a second and separate project, I will perform a literature review to summarize and assess current literature on social advocacy education frameworks surrounding food sovereignty, food justice, organizing skills, and local policy education. Once the literature review is complete, I will design a logic model to reflect the frameworks that currently exist, barriers in previous programs, what resources are needed, and potential outputs and outcomes for a 14-week social advocacy fellowship. This information will be used by the Community Health Education team to develop the fellowship, which will equip neighbors with the knowledge and skills to positively influence their local food system.

Health Fair 1: Hummus Taste Test and Nutrition Education Materials - First Baptist Church Wilmington - May 21, 2022 - Downtown Raleigh, NC
Health Fair 1: Hummus Taste Test and Nutrition Education Materials – First Baptist Church Wilmington – May 21, 2022 – Downtown Raleigh, NC

On top of my intended practicum products, during my first three weeks, I have accomplished quite a bit. To start, I wrote a teleconference script for the FAERS program about managing diabetes during disasters. I will lead this teleconference in June, which is the start of hurricane season. With this, I have developed several interactive documents that will be sent out with food packages to ensure seniors have the tools and time to prepare the diabetes supplies and food they need in an emergency. I have also led nutrition education outreach at a health fair in downtown Raleigh in collaboration with the First Baptist Church Wilmington. There, we taught individuals about sodium and food labels, while letting them taste test two types of hummus with various vegetables and bread. Moreover, on Wednesdays, I have an Ag Education rotation, where I aid in gardening lessons and food demonstrations at alternating elementary schools in Raleigh and Durham. I have also gone on food recovery routes and led volunteers in food packaging. Further into my internship, I will teach a 4-week Cooking Matters camp to kids in Chapel Hill, and, overall, develop a fuller perspective of the function of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in our local community.

Ag Education 4: Elementary School Lettuce Harvest - May 18, 2022 - Raleigh, NC
Ag Education 4: Elementary School Lettuce Harvest – May 18, 2022 – Raleigh, NC

What do I hope to gain from my practicum?
With my practicum, I hope to gain an active, system-wide knowledge of the state of food security in North Carolina and efforts to improve it. As I work on my designated products, it is my goal to create engaging, equitable content that provides realistic, consumer-level solutions while challenging the status quo within nutrition education which often centers affluence and whiteness. To do this I plan to integrate concepts I have learned throughout my work experience, my time at UNC, and what I learn along the way from staff members and neighbors of the Food Shuttle.

-Sara C.

Ghana Holds Most of my Heart

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My star research team and me
My star research team and me (front row, in white coat)

As a 3rd year medical student, I began brainstorming with one of my mentors how I could integrate my interests in women’s health and global health together. By the start of my 4th year, and just a few months before I began my MPH degree, I knew I wanted to study the relationship between dietary selenium deficiency in pregnant women in Ghana. It has been my habit to find every academic excuse to do work in this country, as a first generation Ghanaian-American. In 2014, it was a nutrition internship at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) the summer after my sophomore year in college. In 2019, it was a 4 week internship with Ubora Institute, a Ghanaian owned healthcare quality improvement (QI) organization. Interestingly, my project for this internship became a mixture of both past experiences– studying the process of administering dietary recall surveys (QI and nutrition) to pregnant women of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), the primary public tertiary hospital in the southern region of Ghana.

My previous experiences in Ghana taught me that in order to be effective in reaching my goals, I need to start early and communicate often with people on the ground. Delays were a common part of my experience both times. At NMIMR it was unavailability of nitrogen gas for beta-carotene analysis. At Ubora Institute, it was the Ministry of Health that delayed in giving me approval to interview government health care workers to assess the successes and failures of a completed maternal mortality intervention. This time around, I was determined to hit the ground running with my practicum and begin work as soon as possible to prevent these delays from occurring again.

Training session before data collection
Training session before data collection

I figured that I would receive approval from the KBTH Ethics Committee within a few weeks of submitting my application, which I did in mid-January, then could submit my UNC IRB soon after. Despite the fact that my UNC IRB approval came before my KBTH approval, the latter finally came on May 10th, the day before data collection (note the ~4 month delay).

My research assistants preparing food samples in the lab
My research assistants preparing food samples in the lab

My first two weeks in Ghana were everything I could have imagined and more. Every single research assistant (RA), mentor and supervisor were as enthused about my work as I was. RAs and I did nutrition lab work together, running food samples of endemic Ghanaian foods to determine their selenium content.  They subsequently eagerly showed up to do the training for data collection at KBTH. Data collection was beyond successful– we took advantage of the high clinic volume and completed more surveys than anticipated each day.

My RA interviewing a patient during data collection. Verbal consent received
My RA interviewing a patient during data collection. Verbal consent received

The final two weeks, during which I scheduled to complete my data analysis and report writing, I waited 1.5 weeks for data from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) needed to complete my data analysis.

Despite my attempts to control delay, each experience I have had has taught me something new about working in the Ghana context. Giving up working in Ghana is not an option for me– this country holds much of my heart. I am actively working towards a career as a public health physician that will incorporate service in Ghana annually. With perseverance, an open mind to continue adapting, and a lot of heart, I will overcome delays, and as I expect, I will leave a big mark here.

-Amy A.

Curamericas Global Maternal Projects Grant Writing

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Willow (L) and Alexandra (R) calling each other to discuss their current readings and presentation they must discuss that week
Willow (L) and Alexandra (R) calling each other to discuss their current readings and presentation they must discuss that week

Hello! My name is Willow, and I am an MPH student in the Global Health concentration. Some of my primary public health interests are maternal and child health, women’s health, health equity, and LGBTQ+ health. For my practicum this summer I will be working with Curamericas Global, working on grant writing for one of their partnered maternal mortality projects. Curamericas Global is a community-centered organization that partners with underserved communities to make sustainable improvement in overall health and well-being. I have one partner who is also an MPH student working with me this summer named Alexandra! So far, we have been researching and reading about different models and methodologies like the CBIO methodology and Care Groups.

Slide from Care Group Model presentation given to preceptor. Slide is discussing how to get ready to implement the care group model within a community. First is looking towards eligibility and criteria to determine if this model will even work, and then preparing a budget, timeline, and beginning recruitment and training of project staff. Source: Laughlin, M. (2004). The Care Group Difference: A Guide to Mobilizing Community-Based Volunteer Health Educators. World Relief
Slide from Care Group Model presentation given to preceptor. Slide is discussing how to get ready to implement the care group model within a community. First is looking towards eligibility and criteria to determine if this model will even work, and then preparing a budget, timeline, and beginning recruitment and training of project staff. Source: Laughlin, M. (2004). The Care Group Difference: A Guide to Mobilizing Community-Based Volunteer Health Educators. World Relief

After this, we will begin shifting to looking at actual projects, literature reviews, and identifying possible donors for the grant proposal we must write. During this position, I look forward to reaching out to grant donors that I identified and improving my ability to create a full grant proposal, including a budget! These are tasks that I expect to have to complete in my career and I am excited to have the opportunity to apply these skills now!

-Willow