Update from Richard 12-20-2010

I have contacted the food distribution site at Kerr of the Interfaith Ministries, and Barbara England there was so busy she said to call back on the first week after the new year. She said they are working on a gleaning program to get food to the hungry here.

Also, I am working up a short video with Carole Collins on their Walking Path, to submit to Oprah (and other possible funding sources, since it may be unlikely to be chosen by Oprah).

Update from Debbie 12-20-2010

I contacted Beverly Hatcher of the Paradise Weed and Seed (which is morphing into the Modesto Community Development Corporation) and she was very happy to hear about our initiative. She would like to come to our meeting and mentioned several others who she thought would be interested too: Orin woods, Jeremiah Williams, Pastor Bridegroom and Carole Collins. Beverly said that they like to bring events into their community and they have two locations (both of which have kitchens): The Maddox Youth Center and a facility at Marshall Park.

I then left a message for Carole Collins who is the projects manager of the King Kennedy Collaborative which is already working with Kaiser on an childhood obesity initiative. To find out more see attached and read this Bee article: http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/24/1352786/walking-trail-benefits-health.html.

Notes from 12-10-2010 Meeting on our Health Initiative

Stanislaus Solutions:

As Debbie said, today's meeting was sort of a back up and start over again meeting, but I think it was very productive. We firmed up our intentions and now we move on to involve more participants in the next meeting that we will hold on a still-to-be-determined Friday at 12:30 meeting (in January?). Our list of groups/people to contact, and who will do each:

• Amanda will contact Linus and select a date to gather at Richard's home, 916 Melinda Lane, 529-5182 on a good Friday noon. (Linus has contacts with people such as Interfaith Ministries.)
• Karl will contact Public Health.
• Pam will contact the (something with a name like) Central Valley Obesity Prevention Coalition, and
• Pam will contact Linda Smith, also a dietitian
• Michael will contact someone in Ag about the status of the Ag Truck, and
• Michael will contact Habitat For Humanity, possibly through Dan Onorato
• Richard will contact local Food Banks, and
• Richard will contact George Boodrookas, who was quite helpful at the start of the Employment symposium.
• Debbie will contact "Weed and Seed" (City of Modesto)
• Debbie will contact Kaiser about their Outreach and Education program.

For each of the above, the concept is to gather a group of idea-people who know who we should invite to move us to our next stage.

Each of us will explain to the people we contact something like this:

- Our Stanislaus Solutions Committee is exploring local health, wellness, and nutritional issues. We are in a fact-finding phase, to see how MJC can engage the community on these issues.

As we identify people who can help in this project, we will Email their contact information to the whole SS group.

Then we will schedule a Friday noon meeting for the larger group to gather to make our master plan. (in January?)

Notes from October 2010 meeting between Richard, Mike and Pam

Notes on Discussion, Pam Noonan, Michael Smedshammer, Richard Anderson

(Pam and Michael, I hope you can correct and fill this out. I will reorganize it then send it to the rest of the group)

Next Meeting of the Stanislaus Solutions group will be Dec. 10, at 10 a.m. (did we decide where?)

Pam is an RN was a Registered Dietitian, and Certified Diabetes Educator.
Existing related local programs:
Childhood Obesity Program- Stanislaus County

Nan mentioned acanthosis nigricans, a visible effect of diabetes type II and some other endocrine problems. The neck, underarms, umbilicus, forehead and groin may become darkened, so this is being used to screen for childhood obesity and diabetes.

Needed: a transportable way to show people how to purchase and cook inexpensive yet high quality meals, possibly with locally grown foods.

Sandy Cadra (how to contact her?) may be able to take a cooking demonstration out to sites.

CCROPP.org: “Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program are working to ensure that there are improved opportunities for San Joaquin Valley community members to have access to healthy food, potable water and physical activity opportunities. CCROPP’s sound efforts and testimonials have been captured in a series of articles known as the CCROPP-HEAC (Healthy Eating, Active Communities) StoryBank. The StoryBank Project was spearheaded by The California Endowment in an effort to help demonstrate successes to the media, key stakeholders and for advocacy efforts. The articles were written by journalist, Sylvia Sukop.”

Carol Craft is an MJC nutrition teacher. We can contact her to ask for her participation.

Mike: there should be two parts to the presentation:
• What is the problem?
• Cooking demonstration

We discussed the heady idea that Kaiser might endow an MJC chair for this program…

How can we hear from the people themselves? Take the programs to them- Legion Hall near the Airport District; Modesto High School; Kennedy-King Center.

Is it really true, as Dr. Loewenstein stated, that cheap, healthy food is available, if people are just educated to know what to buy and where, and to cook it well?

Dan Onorato lives quite close to Modesto High. Where doe HE shop?

We also need to address the other leg of the fit lifestyle: exercise. Getting enough exercise to balance caloric intake needs to be naturally programmed into the person’s habits, and be cheap or free.
This is where we can bring in MJC’s phys-ed folks.