Hi there,

I have been busy with balancing my day job with my practicum as Chair to the Benton-Franklin Food & Fitness Coalition.  The F & F Coalition is a diverse group of health professionals aimed to promote policies that support and create an environment for healthy food choices and physical activity.  Our membership is all volunteer, and includes physicians, county health department personnel, school health staff, community non-profits, local CSA farmers, dietitians, staff from the hospital cardiac rehab program, etc.

This practicum has been a very exciting experience.  I am meeting new contacts throughout the community and will be able to influence the food and fitness culture and environment of our community in a way that is not possible at my place of employment.  Therefore, I feel that this experience has added tremendously to my skill set and will be an asset throughout my career.

My practicum supervisor has been great to work with.  Carol is available, open to my ideas, energetic, and supportive.  I couldn’t ask for a better leader in this role.  She gives me the freedom to work independently, while she also provides me with input and leadership necessary to facilitate my new role as chair.  For example, she reviewed my proposed meeting agenda for the first Food & Fitness Coalition meeting I lead as chair and the first newsletter (see below) I produced from meeting minutes.  She has also guided me in how to approach business owners for financial support of the Coalition, with the goal of building funds to deliver programs, influence policy, and create visibility for food and fitness issues.

My main challenge relates to the newness of the type of work I am engaged in with the Coalition.  I am very used to hands-on health education as a profession.  I am challenged to step back and look at a complex community.  In my job I am focused on an employee population with similar age, income, sex, and health risk status.  The employees all have health insurance and are mostly highly educated.  In the broader community, however, I understand that the demographics vary considerably.  As we plan events, initiatives, influence policy, and create a visual presence through newsletters and a website, it is important for me to consider the diversity of the larger population we are hoping to reach through our efforts.

At this point in time, I have:

• Distributed the first Food & Fitness Coalition newsletter (link below) and collected material for the second edition, due out next week,
• Chaired one Food & Fitness Coalition meeting and planned the next,
• Established contacts in the community,
• Scheduled a meeting with the Health Officer of our county to better understand the role of coalitions within the government structure and the funding challenges faced by county health departments, and
• Met with a local business owner to interview him for an article about his grocery store that will be featured in my next newsletter.  An additional goal of this meeting was to build a relationship that may eventually lead to this business providing financial support to the Coalition.

During the remaining portion of my practicum, I plan to:

• Summarize my discussion with the Health Officer as a background for the need for Coalition efforts,
• Provide education (in a newsletter article and/or as a meeting agenda item) on coalition structure for our members and offer background information gleaned during my discussion with the Health Officer,
• Attend Community Council meetings (first meeting is scheduled for 7.18.11)
• Begin planning a Food Day (10.24.11) event with Coalition members, and
• Assist in the development of a new Health Alliance and Food & Fitness Coalition website.

06-11 Food and Fitness Coalition newsletter