Community Nutrition Lesson Write-Up

Bonnie Caulfield
Fall 2021

A. Lesson Title: Setting up a Healthy Pantry

B. Overall goal: to inform participants of why and how they should set up a healthy pantry,
tips to stock a healthy and affordable pantry and some recipes of how to use items in the
pantry.
a. SMART Goal #1: By the end of the lesson, at least 50% of participants will be
able to recall that a slightly dented bean or vegetable can is safe to eat.
b. SMART Goal #2: By the end of the lesson, at least 50% of the participants will be
able to recall that most whole grains can be stored in a cool, dry place for at least
6 months.
c. SMART Goal #4: By the end of the lesson, at least 50% of the participants will
answer YES when asked whether they are able to think of more ways to set up
their pantry for healthy eating.
C. Assessment/Diagnosis: Full description of audience/participants/site
a. Charter Oak Health Center is located in Hartford, so it is an urban site. Their
mission is to promote healthier communities by providing health care services in
medically underserved areas, regardless of ability to pay. They provide a range of
different services like medical and dental care, behavioral health services and
nutrition services. Within nutrition services they provide cooking demonstrations,
weight management classes, diabetes education and nutrition classes. The staff
was helpful and hands on and were willing to problem solve with us when we
faced technical challenges. We presented a nutrition class on how to stock a
healthy pantry. We had a total of 7 participants, all of which were adults. The
majority were 18-59 years old with one over 60 years old. We had 5 women and 2
men and the majority of participants were Spanish and English speakers. One
person only spoke English and another only spoke Spanish. The biggest challenge
we faced was language. There was one woman in the class that only spoke
Spanish and we did not have a translator available, so we had to rely on another
participant who was fluent in both languages to translate. This presented a couple
challenges. The timing of the presentation was altered because it took a bit of time
for us to speak just a sentence or two and then wait for our translator to translate
that. We also had some Spanish words and phrases in the presentation like we do
for many of the lessons, but the translator said that this actually made it harder for
her to translate because when she read the slides it was getting jumbled in her
head when switching back and forth between the languages. Although the
translation was somewhat difficult, the participant who translated was willing to
problem solve and help us out. Overall, everyone was enthusiastic about the
 presentation and engaged with us when we gave them prompts and asked
questions so it seemed like they all really did enjoy being there for the lesson.
D. Implementation: “what you did”
a. For our lesson which was titled “Setting up a Healthy Pantry”, we gave a quick
explanation of why having a stocked pantry will help your health, steps to
cleaning and organizing your pantry, and tips for stocking your pantry to make
quick and delicious meals. Some important points we talked about were how
many items are good past their best by date so they don't actually have to be
thrown out, how using slightly dented cans is alright (and for this they actually
had a can in the room that had a dent in it so it was a perfect demonstration to
show everyone that the small dent on the side was okay and the item was still
good), we also went over choosing items with shorter ingredient lists when
possible and paying attention to sodium levels in canned goods. At the end we
also provided participants with a couple recipes that use typical healthy
ingredients found in a stocked pantry like we described. We gave out half sheets
of minestrone soup, chicken salad using canned chicken and skillet chili using
canned beans. We finished up with 3 easy chair exercises to get some movement
in and some mindful tips. The participants seemed to enjoy the chair exercises and
it seemed to boost their energy.
E. Evaluation/Modifications:
a. Evaluation Quiz Questions:
1. What is one goal you have for setting up your pantry after today’s
lesson?
____________________________________________________________
___________2. Circle the correct answer:
a. Cans of beans and veggies with dents should be thrown out
b. Canned food items that have small dents are safe to eat
3. Circle the correct answer:
a. Most whole grains can be stored in a cool, dry place for at
least 6 months
b. You should throw out a food product based on the BEST IF
USED BY date
4. How much would you like (or dislike) to set up your pantry with
foods to make simple, healthy meals like we talked about today?Please
use the scale below and circle the face that matches how you feel
about the question.
 5. After today’s lesson, are you able to think of more ways to set up your
pantry for healthy eating? Circle your answer.
YES NO
If you answered yes, please list 2 foods you will keep on hand to make
simple, healthy meals:
1) ___________________________________________
2) ___________________________________________
b. I think this evaluation method was a good indicator of what the participants
learned. We gave the quiz in both English and Spanish, so there wasn’t much
difficulty in terms of language. The group was relatively low literacy though, so
to solve this, I read off the questions and possible answers to the class as a whole
for them to follow along. Yes, we met our goal percentages in our SMART goals.
The entire class answered questions #2 and #3 correctly and all said that they
learned something new in question #5.
F. Main takeaways: In the future, I would make sure to completely translate the
powerpoint into Spanish for this site. I’d then print out front and back copies of the slides
with both English and Spanish to hand out to participants so that they can follow along. I
believe this would improve the difficulty in language barriers. For future lessons (at other
sites as well), I would like to include something like the chair exercises or mindfulness
ideas to wrap up the lesson. I think that this active portion got the participants to engage a
little better and warmed them up to us. Maybe this should be done at the beginning of the
lesson to lead into the information. Another main takeaway from this lesson for me was
that the participants really did seem eager to listen and participate in the information that
we were discussing. Many participants shared anecdotes or suggestions of things they
personally do in their home to eat healthy or stock their pantry on a budget. It was very
collaborative and I enjoyed this aspect.