Rich Community Nutrition Experience Reflection

Bonnie Caulfield
March 23, 2021

This placement was at the Salvation Army of New Britain working in the food pantry. It is an urban
community with a high percentage of Hispanics. The majority of the people we distributed food to were
older, but some young families came too.

The site mentor was Douglas who was extremely kind and helpful. He had so much enthusiasm for what
he does and had a real passion for helping people. He was organized and had a system of how he did
things and was very helpful in his guidance for what Heather and I were to help with and organize.

Since the majority of the people who came to the food pantry spoke Spanish, it was difficult to understand
them and have full conversations. Douglas speaks Spanish, so he was able to have conversations with the
people and relay the messages to us.

Nutrition Care Process

Assessment
The people that came to the food pantry to collect food were doing so because they had difficulty
obtaining groceries for themselves and their families. The price of groceries is a barrier to them
and therefore the quality and nutritional value of the food they might be able to get on their own
is limited. I think that indirect nutrition education at this site would be helpful and effective to
provide the members of the community with education on how to eat healthy with the food that is
available to them. Many of the individuals that came to pick up food denied taking certain food
items because they stated they did not know how to prepare them which resulted in food waste
and further limited amount of food that the individual took home. Direct education would be
difficult because the pick-up process is very fast paced since a large number of people have to
cycle through.

Diagnosis
Limited access to food related to inability to afford or obtain groceries as evidenced by reliance
on food pantry program for groceries.
Impaired ability to prepare healthy foods/meals related to limited variety available from food
pantry and lack of knowledge in preparing new foods as evidenced by individuals refusing to take
certain foods from pantry because they do not know how to prepare them.

Plan
1. Develop a pamphlet that provides nutrition information on the foods that are typically
available at the pantry. Try to adjust the information according to what is available at the
time of distribution.
2. Develop healthy and easy recipes that can be made with ingredients and products
provided at the pantry. Try to vary the recipes to provide for a range of preferences.
3. Distribute these pamphlets and recipes when people come to pick up their groceries.

Implementation
1. Prepared a pamphlet that included important nutrition information on the items typically
distributed at the pantry. The pamphlet was printed in both English and Spanish.
a. One section is on the importance of choosing whole grains. Choosing
whole grain cereals and breads is an easy change to make to your diet
 b. One section is on making sure to take fruits and vegetables that are
available. They contain lots of vitamins and minerals that help you stay
healthy.
c. One section is on choosing lean meats or preparing meat in a way that
does not add extra fat. Baking and broiling are better options that frying.
d. One section is on limiting added sugars. Drinking lots of soda or fruit
juice that is not 100% juice increases the risk of overweight and obesity.
2. Prepared a few healthy and easy recipes that use food items that are available from the
pantry to distribute. Choose the foods that are often times left behind because people are
not sure how to prepare them. The page was printed in both English and Spanish. Also
include recipes that include items that the pantry has a surplus of.
a. Since the pantry has a lot of canned beans available a healthy bean and
vegetable salad recipe was printed. Beans contain a lot of protein and
fiber to fuel you and keep you full throughout the day.
b. Since the pantry has a lot of peanut butter, cereal and dried fruit, a recipe
for energy bites was printed. The healthy recipe provides a quick and
easy snack to replace high salt and sugar snacks. This also reduces the
amount of dried fruit that goes to waste because I noticed a good number
of people saying they didn’t want it.
3. Arrived to the pantry and set up bags to be distributed. Each bag had 1 can of meat, 1 can
of tuna, 2 cans of vegetables, 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 box of cereal, 1 bag of rice, 1 bag
of pasta, 1 can of tomato sauce and 1 bag of dried fruit.
4. Added a printed pamphlet and recipe page to each bag that was packaged.
5. When people arrived to pick up their groceries we informed them that there is a pamphlet
in the bag as well as a page of recipes that they can try.
6. After pick up was completed, we cleaned up the remaining food that was out and

Evaluation/Modification
We were not able to do an evaluation, but I will outline the theoretical evaluation. The evaluation
would consist of an oral evaluation of people’s acceptance of the indirect education handouts to
determine if they were excited about learning a little bit more about food or using the recipes
provided. Another evaluation would have been to come back the following week and ask people
who had taken the pamphlet and recipes whether they actually used the recipes and learned
something from the pamphlet. The goal would be for at least 50% of the people who received the
recipes to have tried one. Another goal would be for out of those who received the pamphlet, 50%
could name at least one aspect of your diet you should pay attention to (eating more whole
grains/veggies/fruit or limiting added sugars and fats).

Lessons learned
Although I do not know whether the indirect education would be effective or not since we were
not able to actually do it, I think that I would definitely suggest it or try it at a food pantry. I think
that since it is indirect and an action that people would have to do on their own time, I am not
sure that they would follow through. On the other hand, they did not sign up for the lesson, so
they can’t be forced to participate. Another reason that it has to be indirect instead of direct is that
so many people have to cycle through the pantry to pick up food that it would not make sense to
hold them up at all. Maybe if this could be done somewhere that there are fewer people coming in
and out or somewhere that people sign up and set the time aside it would be more effective.
Competencies met:
CRDN 2.3 Demonstrate active participation, teamwork and contributions in group settings
 Worked with site manager and other volunteers to put together bags of food for individuals and
families
CRDN 2.9 Participate in professional and community organizations
 Worked with the Salvation Army in New Britain following their procedure and guidelines
CRDN 2.11 Show cultural competence/sensitivity in interactions with clients, colleagues, and staff
 Made an effort to engage despite language barrier, was able to converse with clients through
translation
CRDN 3.1 Perform the Nutrition Care Process and use standardized nutrition language for
individuals, groups and populations of differing ages and health status, in a variety of settings.
 Went through the NCP to develop the idea for the indirect education
CRDN 3.3 Demonstrate effective communications skills for clinical and customer services in a
variety of formats
 Was able to communicate with site manager to clearly determine what my role was at the site as
well as communicated with clients throughout the day
CRDN 3.5 Develop nutrition education materials that are culturally and age appropriate and
designed for the literacy level of the audience
 Pamphlet and recipes would be translated in both English and Spanish to cater to clients
CRDN 3.9 Coordinate procurement, production, distribution and service of goods and services,
demonstrating and promoting responsible use of resources
 Organized, packaged, and distributed meal bags to clients
CRDN 3.10 Develop and evaluate recipes, formulas and menus for acceptability and
affordability that accommodate the cultural diversity and health needs of various populations,
groups and individuals
 Pamphlet and recipes based on available ingredients would be translated in both English and
Spanish to cater to clients

It is so important to provide nutrition education and helpful recipes and tips at food pantries because a
study of the hunger-obesity paradox that was performed in Minnesota in 2008 found that there was an
increased odds of purchasing “less healthy” food groups in food shelf and food store usage (Dammann). It
is important to be providing individuals with food and nourishment in general, but it is also important to
take into account how nutrient dense or energy dense the food provided is. Encouraging individuals to
prepare new kinds of meals that are more nutritious from the food at pantries may help to improve their
overall health. I noticed that a large portion of the food that was donated to the pantry at the Salvation
Army in New Britain were energy dense snacks or high sugar sweets and the individuals gravitated to
taking more of those than the vegetables or meats that the did not know how to prepare.

I think that our presence at the site was widely accepted. The people that came to get food were all happy
and seemed to have positive outlooks on life. Many of them thanked us a lot when we distributed the food
to them and made sure to show their gratitude for it.

I think that the indirect education would be very effective to widen the use of the ingredients distributed
as well as support the fact that eating healthy is important and can also be done easily. The pamphlet
describes little changes that can be made in everyday life that actually has bigger impact on health than it
may seem.

I think that Douglas would find the indirect education to be effective because I actually came up with the
idea for it after he mentioned that a lot of the individuals that come pick up food will mention that they
don’t want a certain item provided because they don’t know how to prepare it. He said that he had taken
some of the ingredients home himself and prepared meals with them in order to be able to tell them what
possibilities they have in using them. It would increase the amount of food they can utilize from what is
distributed as well as cut back on waste of ingredients they might have previously discarded.

At first I was a little hesitant to be at the site because I didn’t know what to expect prior to arrival, but I
think that having such a helpful and inviting mentor like Douglas there was incredibly reassuring. He
made sure to give clear instructions on how to go about the day and also helped to translate conversations
with the people coming to pick up food since I do not speak Spanish.

Throughout this experience, I have gained a greater appreciation of what it means to work in a
community setting, especially with low income communities that might not be fortunate enough to have
ample access to healthy food. It has fostered a new motivation in me to help improve the access of a
wider range of people to nutrition food to support a balanced diet. I grew up in a very small town and was
not previously exposed to as many walks of life and I am grateful to have learned so much through this
experience and am excited to learn more in the future and broaden my horizons even more.

References:
Dammann, K. W., & Smith, C. (2010). Race, homelessness, and other environmental factors
associated with the food-purchasing behavior of low-income women. Journal of the
American Dietetic Association, 110(9), 1351–1356.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2010.06.007