Last week, I went to Jackson for the Health Improvement Organization's Kickoff Event. I had no idea what this meant at first but I figured it would be a good opportunity to meet some new people. It ended up being SUPER cool and extremely inspiring, and I'm so glad I was able to attend.
The Health Improvement Organization is a committee sponsored by Allegiance Health, a hospital in Jackson. Jackson High School sponsored a pretty healthy lunch for everyone (a couple hundred people attended) and following the lunch there was a presentation of the HIO Coordinating Council’s Community Action Plan. The plan is years in the making, and includes a research component, showing the current health statistics of Jackson residents (among the worst in the State of Michigan), as well as a thorough plan for the steps necessary to improve these statistics. Now the plan is completed and ready to be put into action throughout the county. We all received printed copies of the plan and I've been reviewing it in detail over the last week - it's pretty awesome.
It was really great to see a group of people so passionate about improving the health statistics in their area. I was able to get in touch with the leadership who created the plan, and it looks like my work in the schools can be incorporated into the school / kids education component of the overall master plan. Pretty cool step forward.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Fun Day in Jackson
On Friday, I went out to Jackson and it was a really fun day. My FSEP supervisor, Michaelle, and I made some great progress: we continued our brainstorming and actually started putting names and dates into the overall agenda. In the next few weeks I'll be making several more trips to Jackson for meetings with community health organizations, the school district, and events where I'll be helping to give the community an introduction to the Farm to School Program.
I got to spend the rest of the afternoon on with a guy named Chris, the director of the Dahlem Eco Farm in Jackson. He was about my age, a lifelong resident of Jackson, very proud of the city, a vegetarian, and very passionate about changing the way food is produced and made available to our communities. He and I have a lot in common and it made for some very interesting discussions about food and how we can help our population.
Chris took me on a mini-tour of Downtown Jackson and we got lunch from the Pickle Barrel, where I had one of the best black bean burgers I've ever tried. We ate our lunch outside in a park and discussed the all-too-important concept of how the growing health crisis is this country is a direct result of our diet. We talked about where we both saw ourselves in ten years and Chris said he saw himself owning a farm, and his own indoor Farmers Market in Jackson.
Chris then took me to check out Jackson's existing Farmers Market. We stopped at a plum stand, and he touched and analyzed all the different plums, commenting on what great condition they were in. He took out five dollars, bought a quart of plums, and ate one right there at the table. I just watched while he commented on how awesome the plum was. It was so cool to meet someone else who understands the greatness of fresh fruits and vegetables and appreciates them the same way I do.
This week we will be working on planning an event in the third week of September at the Jackson Public Library, where parents, students, and interested community members can come find out about all of the positive changes being made to the lunch program in Jackson Public Schools and how F2S in the Classroom is being implemented. I've always been afraid of public speaking, and I have a feeling that's going to have to be thrown to the wayside very quickly... yikes.
I got to spend the rest of the afternoon on with a guy named Chris, the director of the Dahlem Eco Farm in Jackson. He was about my age, a lifelong resident of Jackson, very proud of the city, a vegetarian, and very passionate about changing the way food is produced and made available to our communities. He and I have a lot in common and it made for some very interesting discussions about food and how we can help our population.
Chris took me on a mini-tour of Downtown Jackson and we got lunch from the Pickle Barrel, where I had one of the best black bean burgers I've ever tried. We ate our lunch outside in a park and discussed the all-too-important concept of how the growing health crisis is this country is a direct result of our diet. We talked about where we both saw ourselves in ten years and Chris said he saw himself owning a farm, and his own indoor Farmers Market in Jackson.
Chris then took me to check out Jackson's existing Farmers Market. We stopped at a plum stand, and he touched and analyzed all the different plums, commenting on what great condition they were in. He took out five dollars, bought a quart of plums, and ate one right there at the table. I just watched while he commented on how awesome the plum was. It was so cool to meet someone else who understands the greatness of fresh fruits and vegetables and appreciates them the same way I do.
This week we will be working on planning an event in the third week of September at the Jackson Public Library, where parents, students, and interested community members can come find out about all of the positive changes being made to the lunch program in Jackson Public Schools and how F2S in the Classroom is being implemented. I've always been afraid of public speaking, and I have a feeling that's going to have to be thrown to the wayside very quickly... yikes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)