CMC, Valley Settlement Project, area elementary schools work together to present nutrition workshops
In December, three nutrition workshops taught throughout the mid and lower Roaring Fork Valley taught participants how to make healthy food choices, how to avoid food with pesticides and how to purchase nutritious food on a budget. For many of those attending, this might have been the first time they ever have heard this information.
Dec. 8 and 9, more than 65 participants – mostly Latina mothers from Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs – took part in one of three nutrition workshops. Called Su Comida, Su Vida (Your Food, Your Life), the sessions were translated into Spanish and led by Jody Powell, a Carbondale naturopathic doctor who specializes in family nutrition and is teaching a series of healthy living workshops at Colorado Mountain College this spring.
A partnership, sharing information
The nutrition workshops originated with Jill Ziemann, who directs several Colorado Mountain College programs for economically challenged community members. Ziemann discovered that CMC had some Colorado Trust grant money that was available.
According to Adrian Fielder, an instructional chair at Colorado Mountain College in Carbondale, the funds were specifically dedicated to teaching lower-income people about health equity, a term that recognizes the nutritionally poor diets that many of those living in poverty have and the desire to improve the health among those in poorer populations. The grant money was earmarked for nutrition education among low-income individuals and families.
To address these issues, Ziemann elicited help from several individuals and organizations to work with the college in presenting the series of three nutrition workshops. The Valley Settlement Project, which helps low-income, immigrant families settle into the communities in which they live, was one such organization. The organization’s Parent Mentor program, which places parents into volunteer teaching support positions in elementary school classrooms in Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, was pinpointed as the group to focus on for the nutrition workshops.
An engaged audience
The first workshop, held at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library, had a surprisingly large turnout.
“We had more participants than we expected,” said Powell, the naturopathic doctor who led the session, of the nearly 30 Latina mothers who attended. “The audience was engaged for the entire hour and a half, asking so many questions that we ran out of time.”
Powell was impressed by the interest the participants took regarding reading ingredient labels and in learning how to make healthy food choices while working within their budgets.
“I was so thankful for the opportunity to get this information out to the community,” said Powell. “They left with very practical information they can apply today to help themselves and their families combat obesity, heart disease, depression, diabetes and more, all through diet.”