February 27 th, To whom it may concern:

Transcription

1 February 27 th, 2015 To whom it may concern: We, the nutrition project staff at the University of California, Davis are writing to apply for funding for the Whoville community nutrition education program for a duration of 3 years. Upon a thorough observation of the Central Valley community, there are numerous nutrition and health problems that are negatively affecting families due to their financial constraints and environment. Because of the staggering rate of obesity within the community, we have decided to focus on essential nutrition education to reducing the rates of overweight and obese individuals. To accomplish successful implementation of an effective nutrition education program, adequate funding support is greatly needed. We are requesting for a $3,000,000 funding allowance to support the community s nutrition improvements. The funds would support the initiation of nutrition ducation/intervention programs and promotion in Whoville s community to aid improvement of the individuals health status. The strategy of our intervention program is to reduce the community s high obesity rates and increase prevention awareness of associated diseases secondary to obesity. Our target population is migrant farmer workers (MFW) and their families, whom majority had emigrated from Mexico.The criteria for admission into the program is MFW families with a total income lower than 30 thousand annually. Our goal is to have a 10% reduction in obesity rates in this community by the end of 2015 and a 30% reduction by the end of The barriers that prevent MFW families from obtaining high quality nutritious food include language, culture, and poverty. English speaking, writing, and listening skills are often limited within the Spanish-speaking community, limiting some of the citizens employment to physical work that requires little to no formal education. Due to the nature of their jobs, MFW are primarily employed in harsh working conditions, such as plant fieldwork and harvesting crops. MFW are severely underpaid workers and because of this, their annual financial income is far below the Federal Poverty Line. This makes it incredibly difficult to support their families, living costs, and achieve healthy lifestyles. Most of them are eligible for aid programs such as Medicare/Medical and Food Stamp Program but are unable to obtain these benefits due to different state eligibility requirements. The primary nutrition problems are malnutrition, obesity, diabetes (primarily DM II), CVD, and maternal health in this particular project, however, we will be placing our primary focus on obesity reduction and disease prevention. Obesity rates are alarming within this community, as a whopping 86% of adults and 69% of children under the age of 18 are obese or overweight in Whoville. These statistics concluded our decisions to focus on obesity reduction, as the associated risk of chronic diseases such as CVD, Diabetes Type II, and cancers may be very high in this particular community. We strongly believe that the prevalence of the population s health problems arise from financial difficulty and food insecurity, as many families are unable to afford healthy food choices, even with food stamp support (SNAP). Quantity is more prioritized than quality of food choices, enabling families to choose unhealthier food choices due to the larger amounts that are in the packages. (e.g. there is more sugary cereal than fruit in a package for the same price) Also, when food

2 becomes available to the citizens, their psychological mindset is to eat as much as possible to maximize the amount of calories they can obtain. These main factors enables overeating, which contributes to the obesity rates. A part of our nutrition intervention supports part of the funding for a local supermarket membership program called Healthy Eating for Families that lowers select healthy food prices for financially eligible families. We are proposing a 40% price reduction for fruits, vegetables, and whole grain products for families with the special membership. This price reduction is mainly to reduce costs of healthy, nutrient-dense foods and to reduce the amount of unhealthy food purchasing. Our goal with this membership is to discourage eligible families from purchasing refined grains, simple sugars, high fat products, and caloric-dense foods. Providing healthier food options for these families can help with lowering obesity within the community and reduce risk of obesity-associated diseases. Also, by lowering healthier food prices in the market can better preserve their available funding from SNAP, and their personal finances. There would be a significant loss of trade-off thinking with quantity versus quality families can focus on both. The focus of purchasing can be more on selecting nutrient-dense food choices and not disregarding the importance of including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in the diet. Monitoring the success of the Healthy Eating for Families membership program would be to keep records of the families purchase history and frequency of their visits, using the membership card. Another problem with the families lack of healthy eating patterns are severe time constraints. Upon interviewing the families, there were concerns pertaining to lack of time due to strict farm work schedules and the ease purchasing fast food for their families because food is ready-made and does not require a long time to prepare. Other issues that are contributing to the obesity rates are include lack of access to immediate healthcare due to the rural nature of the city of Whoville. Most importantly, the community is lacking a strong nutrition education program, which is fundamental to the citizens health improvement. Although the project staff are unable to change the work schedules for the employed population, there are ways that time constraints to healthier food preparation can be accomplished. This is where implementing an education program at the local community center would be ideal. In this intervention, we would need to provide the community with a bilingual Registered Dietician alongside 2 DTR s, and several volunteer staff who are also competent with communicating in Spanish. These healthcare professionals would provide their nutrition care services, free of charge, to the MFW community biweekly. The classes will cover the same topic within the same week, so the residents that miss the class can go the other class for the same topic. Services would include anthropometric measurements, and nutrition-related counseling to improve the health of the citizens. Volunteers would provide cooking classes designed to teach families how to utilize healthy food choices and prepare meals without too much time being spent (how to prepare meals for a family of 6 in 30 minutes, for example). Cultural foods would be kept in consideration in cooking classes, but would be prepared with lower fat and simple carbohydrate content. To ensure high attendance, brochures would need to be prepared in both English and Spanish and placed at the local supermarkets, and perhaps in commonly visited fast food stores to encourage nutrition counseling and efficient cooking support. Providing these educational

3 services will not only increase the knowledge of the importance of maintaining a nutrition-dense diet, but also will improve the obesity rates. Dieticians and DTR s are responsible for keeping and maintaining records of participation and visits. The staff are required to provide surveys to those families and individuals that came in for satisfaction assessment. Increasing physical activity can help reduce obesity and overweight individuals, such that exercise can improve weight loss, and help with overall health status. Our project staff have thought of two solutions for increasing physical activity. Whoville is located in a rural community where the safety may be compromised, which may contribute to children being unable to freely exercise. One way to help this is to build two playgrounds near elementary schools and the one near the Whoville city community center. The playgrounds can provide a potentially safe ground for physical activity and play for younger children. They can also be a new place where families can spend quality time together. Building community playgrounds can serve to improve physical health as well as building family bonding together. A more general and fun establishment is the organization of a seasonally marathon in the community. The proposed seasonal race, Families Run 1 Mile Together provides a system where families must register together as an individual unit or team to participate in a relay event. This would help families train together for better endurance and physical strength for the event which is also another way to spend quality time together as not only a team, but as a family. Families who have the shortest time (added running time together) are rewarded with a grand prize. This would be assessed with a list essential household items where the families can choose what they are in need of, such a microwave, refrigerator, or an in-house water filtration system, to name of few. Likewise, with any program, satisfaction rates would be assess surveys. Overall the long term follow up is to keep track of the participants, BMI, waist line, BP, and food record of any kind. We thank you for your time and consideration for the funding. Our project staff are confident in the radical changes that can be made within this community. Sincerely, Maggie Chen, Haiyan Wang, Wan Yi Wang, Kaori Murata University of California, Davis Clinical Nutrition Initiative Project Staff

4 Budget Summary For 3 year Intervention. Cost of education material o Estimated budge of printing material is $3000 annually and $9,000 in 3 years o Cost of HP printers (3): $3,000*3=$9,000 Salaries of staff o RD (4) : $71,870/year *4 RD * 3 years = $862,440 o DTR (6): $33,190/year *6 DTR * 3 years= $597,420 o Healthcare Managers (1) $88,580/year *2* 3 years = $265,740 o Spanish Translators (4) $ 45,430/year * 4 translators *3 years = $545,160 o Truck Drivers(2): $55,000/year * 2 drivers * 3 years = $330,000 Cost of cooking class (the class will be run by local interns or volunteers biweekly and estimated about 30 students per class) o The estimated budget of food and materials for 1 cooking demonstration is $200. $ 200/class * 8/month * 12 month/1 year * 3 year = $57,600 Building rental for cooking studio=$800*12*3=$28,880 Cost of playground: it is planned to build 2 playgrounds o Playground is estimated to be $60,000. The total is $120,000 for 2 playgrounds. Cost of marathon (estimated about 500 participants) o Waters: 1pack of Kirkland signature premium water, 1 Liter, 20 ct is $ packs is 500 bottles and $507. $507/season * 4 seasons/year* 3 yrs = $6084 o Prizes for the winner family and best improved family: it is estimated $500 per prize. $1000 seasonal, $4000 annually, $ for 3 years. In 3 years, the program have to spend at least a total of $2,843,324. We will utilize the remainder cost of $156,676 for program maintenance and emergency costs as needed. Reference &lang=e n-us&whse=bd_827&topnav=bd

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