Community Action Partnership (CAP) SLO
Assisted the RD and nutrition assistant in creating presentations for specialists to present to parents at Migrant Head Start Centers throughout San Luis Obispo County. Also had the privilege of using ChildPlus, a software analysis program designated for use on children ages 0-5 for interpretation of anthropometric measurements and documentation.
Laguna Middle School
This was a fun project that was both part of my coursework to fulfill the requirements in FSN 344 and a volunteer opportunity. During this experience my group and I collaborated with Kathy Chavez, Food Service Director at Laguna Middle School, to help develop breakfast entree recipes for the new implemented food program. The breakfast food program involves every student in the San Luis Obispo School District with the idea of ensuring that no child goes hungry while at school. $500,000 for this project was donated and our team, along with a few others, had the privilege of assisting in creating breakfast ideas that were both, nutritious and appetizing to students. The guidelines for the breakfast entree were: a breakfast entree that is kid friendly that can be served in the classroom, an entree made from scratch cooking, a cold entree or reheat entree, a recipe that yields 50-100 servings, a recipe that uses commodities, and an entree that has 170-320 kcal (each meal has 350-500 total calories with milk being 120 kcal and fruit/juice being 60 kcal).
Winifred Wollam Elementary School
Assisted the school garden educator in planning and delivering small presentations to incorporate and introduce fruits and vegetables. Each day there was a new snack that everyone was able to sample which included a food item from the school garden. Examples of foods we made included: lemonade, zucchini fritters, and celery with peanut butter.
Senior Nutrition Program
Assisted the staff at the central kitchen with food preparation. I also had the opportunity of volunteering at the Oceano congregate meal site with preparing and plating meals for seniors, and clean up.
Here is a typical meal that can be found on the menu for the senior nutrition program. Upper left is cauliflower, middle contains fruit, upper right is peas, lower left is brown rice and lower right is chicken with peach slices and gravy. I was able to enjoy this meal with the seniors and I must say, it was pretty tasty and fun to sit and visit with some of the seniors who attend.