The Greater Cleveland Food Bank

During my second week of my community health hours, I was placed at River City Food Bank. River City Food Bank’s main goal is to lessen hunger in the Sacramento region by offering healthy food and assistance to vulnerable populations. They do not only provide healthy food but they also provide nutrition education and counseling. In addition, they provide diapers for babies and the older population. They also provide health services for mothers and assist them with contraceptives and other important education for their women daily life. Their mission is to help people from all ages, from homeless to the working poor and families who are struggling.

The relationship between diet and chronic disease made the federal government to issue dietary guidelines for Americans since1980 and publication of dietary guidelines were made every five years. The dietary guideline is in response to the public’s desire for authoritative, consistent guidelines on diet and health (Slavin, 2012). One of the reasons for developing the dietary guidelines was to provide science based advice for two years old or older to help prevent chronic diseases and promote health. Another reason why dietary guidelines were created was to lay a good “foundation for federal nutrition programs and nutrition education programs and serve as a basis for research gaps and priorities” (Slavin, 2012). Also, the government wants to make sure the

Over the past few decades, deficiencies of essential nutrients have drastically diminished, many infectious diseases have been reduced, and most of the U.S. population can now foresee a long and productive life. In the meantime, rates of chronic diseases hefty portion of which are identified with poor quality diet and physical activity has increased. About half of all American grown-up have one or more preventable, diet-related chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes, and overweight and obesity.

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of the workings of the Houston Food Bank and the concepts discussed during the course which were demonstrated through our volunteer experience.

Nutrition is important to understand because it is a significant contributor to the health and wellness of a human being. Nutrition can determine the weight of a person, the performance of organs and the body’s ability to prevent or accelerate certain diseases. Health and nutrition can be influenced by several factors such as family, friends, peers as well as physical and mental stress. As a young child, the immediate family is the biggest influence on nutrition because they are the first role models and establish the initial habits that the individual will develop. Through daily meal plans given to children, they can develop a standard of care in regard to nutrition and then incorporate key food groups into their daily diet. A child’s

Eating healthy is important for many reasons, it will promote intellectual development in children and adolescents prevent major health problems from developing and ensure a long and healthy life style. This research paper will introduce the importance of forming a healthy eating habit from a young age onto the senior years and will also point out some of the negative effects not eating healthy can cause such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, iron deficiency anemia, dental caries, under-nutrition, and eating disorders.

Daily Bread Food Bank. (2010). Fighting Hunger. 2010 Profile of Hunger in the GTA. Retrieved

Children and young people’s health and development is closely linked to their dietary choice as they need the right amount of nutrients necessary to keep their energy and to maintain the body for growth, tissue repair, healthy skin, hair and teeth, red blood cells and strong immune system.

As adults, they are also at an increased risk for coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) compared with those not overweight as adolescents.” It is important to help reduce the growing trend of obesity in children and young adults, as it has been documented in recent studies that children who are overweight tend to carry this problem with them into adulthood. Revitalizing the school lunch program would be an incremental place for the government to start revamping the obesity problems that they have caused in children. David Satcher stated in HEALTHY and Ready to Learn that, “Well-nourished students tend to be better students, whereas poorly nourished students tend to demonstrate weaker academic performance and score lower on standardized achievement tests. The majority of U.S. children are not eating a balanced, nutrient-rich diet. Inadequate consumption of key food groups deprives children of essential vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins necessary for optimum cognitive function (Tufts University School of Nutrition, 1995). Children who suffer from poor nutrition during the brains most formative years score much lower on tests of vocabulary, reading comprehension, arithmetic, and general knowledge (Brown & Pollitt, 1996). In a 1989 study, 4th graders with the lowest amount

The Plain City food pantry collects donations from people and/or stores like Wal-mart, Wendy’s etc. They also have a small thrift store that they run based off only donations. Their mission is to contribute to the small community of Plain City by providing food, toiletries, clothes etc. They want to feed people who struggle and can’t afford to put food on the table or clothes on their back. The specific area they provide for is the locals in Plain City. The schools in Plain City will have food drives and all the donations would go to straight to the pantry.

During the time I spent volunteering at John C. Lincoln’s Food Bank, I was able to provide food, individual hygiene items, and infant supplies to families struggling to obtain these critical items for their families. When I first arrived at the food bank, I spent time constructing care packages with soap, toothbrushes, personal wipes, and other essential items for health care. Later in the day, I had the unique opportunity to assist with the simulated grocery store within the food bank. The structure of the store allowed individuals receiving food to feel as though they were actively participating instead of passively accepting food and feeling helpless. Overall, I was able to instill a sense of self-efficiency in individuals who were struggling to provide for their families while personally interacting and sharing my time in a meaningful way.

“School age children with poor nutrition are at risk for: obesity, high blood pressure, sleep problems, diabetes, orthopedic problems, and heart disease”

The author’s intention is to inform the reader that the healthy lunch programs are failing. The author provides plentiful information and research on the failing school lunch programs in the U.S. “In the war to get America’s children to eat healthier, things are not going well.” Kids are not eating their vegetables. This has become a big problem in America and steps need to be taken to stop unhealthy eating. Like The Agriculture Department mandating that students in the federal lunch program choose a fruit or vegetable with their meals. This solution didn’t work and actually worsened the problem. “Their consumption of fruits and vegetables actually went down 13 percent after the mandate took effect.”

The Plan and Recommendations for Health Promotion Healthy People 2020 One of the main objectives of Healthy People 2020 is to nurture the healthy lifestyle and reduce the chronic diseases through healthy eating and by sustaining stable body weights. To support the healthy status, Healthy People 2020 objectives have strong science supports that diet and body weight are one of the essential parts of any person’s health status. Healthy People 2020 also stresses out that changes in Americans’ foods intakes and way to live should be started in schools, working places, communities and healthcare establishments. Today in America one of three children is obese, which leads to wide range of diseases such as hypertension, increased cholesterol level causing heart problems, and diabetes. That’s why promoting healthy meals and snacks in school is the first step to preventing obesity in children.

Furthermore, you should not give poor donations for items sure as, junk food that can add to the problem. For example, sheet cakes, holiday cakes, sugary sodas and other processed bakery items. Our group is looking to purchase healthy food to give our community food bank, which includes, canned foods, pasta, veggie, dry cereals, potted meats, and nuts. Besides, U.S. has increase to forty-eight million of people going hungry by 2012, a five-fold jump since the late 1960's. Finding food has become a central worry for millions of Americans. According to National Geographic Magazine. This is not the solution for food poverty, but it removes the responsibility of the government to tackle hunger allowing them to not fix the gap between our income and the cost of nutritional food. Finally, the food banks are a charitable organization to distribute food to those who have difficulty purchasing food to avoid