Sesame Street: Our new partner!

Take a look at this article- it appears Sesame Street is also "aiming to help lower-income families eat healthier on a budget."

The article talks about the difficulties families face regarding food insecurity due to a number of issues we have discussed: lack of education regarding nutrition, lack of access to healthy choices (neighborhoods that do not have good access to grocery stores are classified as "food deserts").

A new DVD coming out in December will include "a guide for parents and caregivers about how to make nutritious and economical food choices, and some child friendly recipes."

Review of Class Notes

Hey all,  I went through all of my class notes and picked out all of the points we should make sure to include or do more investigation into.  It is formatted as an outline of the class notes with questions/notes on what we should include.

Paper Outline

Main Problem: Food Insecurity; malnutrition

-Globally (stats)

-Locally (stats)

Issue Breakdown (narrate it)

-How we got where we are, but DON'T specifically go into our project yet

Research Pertaining to Where We're Focusing

-Nutrition in schools research

-Legislation research

-What has been done so far/already

-Include here what surprised us, etc.

Our Solution

-How we got here

-How its diff

-How we'll frame it

(*tie into global networks)

Final Notes for Our Presentation

Here are some last thoughts we should consider before our final presentation:

Keep in mind our goals- mid and long term: how will they be measured?

Measure student comprehension of material through fun activities like game-show-style quizzes (ie jeopardy) and eventually activities like "recipe contests" that allow them to use their new skills to invent new recipes and fun, possibly themed snacks and meals.

Measure our organization efficiency in terms of "cost per life affected", using our budget and number of kids we work with.

Speaking of goals...

We should make sure to specify that long terms goals include scalability and replicability. Hopefully, this program will ultimately expand to teach a wider range of nutrition-oriented skills, also in a fun, hands-on setting. Long term possibilities include reaching out to families (parents and guardians), teaching shopping classes (how to shop for healthy food on a budget), and classes that give a broader nutrition-based education on what a healthy day or week looks like.

In terms of the presentation, let's make sure to start with the main problem (food insecurity, malnutrition), show why it matters (statistics of health problems, etc), BEFORE narrowing down to our specific issue, and, ultimately, our solution.

And as we finalize our presentation, we should make sure that we are constantly clarifying "how" the entire way through- for example, specify how we are going to partner with student groups, how we are using our contacts to our best advantage...

Marketing Dude, and Fundraising Office !

Tawna Rathe returned my email yesterday after giving birth....nbd that's totally normal. Anyway, through my friend Esther Chou, she told me to send her an email detailing exactly what we wanted from her. Literally, "do you know anyone who works in catering, whole foods, etc. and could you please provide us with their contact information?" So....I'm on that.

In other news, while talking to Esther, she told me that she knows a really good marketer who can apparently get really good press for us. I emailed her for his contact info, and I'm awaiting a response.

Correction: I misunderstood what Esther said. I heard a marketing GUY... turns out she said marketing GUIDE, so I guess I'll get the book from her tomorrow.

Miss Jeanie Contacted me back !

Hey everyone !!

I just received a return phone call from Ms. Jeanie inviting me to her home in Newton, MA to discuss the project in more detail, and to see how she could be involved !

I'll be meeting her at her house this Friday afternoon !

The Waiting Game

Still waiting to hear back from Ms. Fantasia to get a look at the "Nutritious U" curriculum. I've been thinking how funny/frustrating/sad it is that our university has no trouble scrounging up hundreds of dollars for a nutritionist to come in and teach a series of healthy cooking classes to sports teams, but when it comes to working with our young neighbors, we're left to appeal to student groups for financial help.