Introducing: Dan Weber, IHCRC Community Food and Garden Specialist
I started with Indian Health Care Resource Center in December 2010 as a Community Food and Garden Specialist with the Health Education and Wellness Department. This position is funded by a Partnerships Active in Communities to Achieve Health Equity grant from the US Office of Minority Health (OMH). This grant, titled the "Healthy Tulsa Pathways" project for short, will serve to expand IHCRC's community garden advocacy to schools and organizations in north, west, central and east Tulsa.
I am a Tulsa native and in 2009 earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Biogeosciences from The University of Tulsa. While attending TU, I helped found and maintain the TU Food Garden, a student-led community garden for the university and its neighbors. The difficulties and successes of the TUFG project developed my interest in the complexity of food as it pertains to environmental and social justice. I am excited to use my experiences to advance community gardening as an institution in Tulsa's underserved communities.
My role with the OMH grant program is to promote community gardening as a preventive health activity, particularly for areas of the city grappling with the "food desert" phenomenon. I collaborate with educators and community organizations to establish gardens in community spaces such as public schools and churches. My work is focused on the 10 Tulsa zip codes identified as having the poorest overall health in Tulsa County, each selected through the grant for targeted cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes outreach.
I am responsible for coordinating installation of garden projects, providing all necessary starting materials and instructing community members and students in raised-bed construction and the fundamentals urban gardening. New projects are already under way for Sequoyah, Madison and Park Elementary Schools and the Tulsa Dream Center. As a complement to gardening projects, I will be teaching courses on cooking with fresh produce and informed grocery shopping.
The Healthy Tulsa Pathways project will be conducted in close coordination with IHCRC's established Food for Life community food project. Current projects include restoring the functionality to the McLain High School greenhouse, establishing a co-op for small neighborhood markets and helping support nearly 30 community gardens in the Tulsa area.
Food Security featured on OETA
Food security programs, featuring IHCRC's "Food for Life" Community Food Project, aired on Oklahoma Horizon Sunday, October, 18 on OETA. Oklahoma Horizon is a weekly television show that showcases contributions made by individuals, companies and other organizations across the state to benefit Oklahoma's economic development and quality of life. The show that aired on October 18 featured: Obesity in Oklahoma - The Oklahoma Department of Health is taking action in response to Oklahoma's obesity-ranking of fourth in the nation. Oklahoma's Food Deserts - Work is going on to turn around a growing phenomenon in Oklahoma that leads to a neighborhood's decline, malnutrition and obesity. A food desert is an area where fresh food is unavailable. Food Deserts - State Representative Richard Morrissette discussed the issue of food deserts. Community Gardens - Thanks to a revolutionary new growing method, members of the Women in Agriculture have planted a community garden in the midst of Oklahoma City's urban landscape. McDairy - McDonald's may be more healthy thanks to Oklahoma dairy farmers.
The 30-minute weekly production is a partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Oklahoma Horizon is broadcast on a network of stations reaching 150 million homes. Oklahoma Horizon also airs on local cable stations, nationally on RFD-TV and in Europe on the Global Broadcasting Network. For information about show times: http://www.okhorizon.com/show_archives.htm. For more information about the IHCRC's "Food for Life" Community Food Project, contact Steve Eberle at (918) 588-1900 ext. 3221 or via email at seberle@ihcrc.org.
Taste of North Tulsa
The second annual Taste of North Tulsa was held on October 7 to educate the community about making better food choices when eating out. Guests at the event enjoyed the live music of the Full Flava Kings while they tasted healthy menu items from neighborhood restaurants. The free dinner event was held at Tulsa’s McLain High School for Science and Technology, 4929 N. Peoria Avenue.
Read more in the Healthy Spirit Fall 2010 issue. Read about the first annual in the Healthy Spirit Fall 2009 issue.
The Problem
In its December 2007 report, the Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger found that Oklahoma is one of the hungriest states in America. Over the past ten years, the percentage of the state's population classified as "food insecure" rose from 13.1 percent to 14.6 percent; the percentage of our state population experiencing hunger, classified as experiencing very low food security, rose from 4.2 percent to 5.3 percent. On both measures, Oklahoma ranks as one of the five worst states in the country. The threat of hunger is especially prevalent among children, as more than one in every five Oklahoma children lives in a food insecure household. Due to their special needs, Oklahoma seniors and disabled individuals are also at high risk of hunger.
Oklahomans face many challenges in terms of household income, current health trends, and access to healthy foods. Oklahoma's food insecurity, is linked to our state's high poverty rate and to our state's obesity epidemic. Nearly one in six Oklahoma families are living in poverty at 15.9 percent. The poverty level in 2007 is $20,650 for a family of four. The lack of financial resources for adequate food budgets makes it difficult for families to obtain nutritious food on a consistent basis, leading to unhealthy eating patterns and poor dietary habits. Among Oklahoma households living below the poverty line, 36.3% are classified as food insecure and 14.8% experience hunger; and in households with income at or below 185% of the federal poverty line, 27.3% are classified as food insecure and 10.7% experience hunger.
Surprisingly, food insecurity can lead to obesity when households are forced to trade food quality for food quantity in order to alleviate hunger. Cheaper foods that are more likely to decrease hunger for a longer period of time include processed foods and foods with excess calories. This trading of food quantity for reduced quality allows the purchase of more calories for the dollar, but can lead to obesity. The body changes its utilization of calories based on the frequency and types of meals it receives. It can quickly become more efficient at storing calories as fat in order to compensate for when food is not available. This dynamic, in conjunction with significant overeating when food is available (thus storing significantly more calories and putting on extra pounds), can also lead to obesity.
Skipping meals, decreasing portion size, and reducing variety (i.e. being classified as food insecure) can lead to a host of problems. In the US, being food insecure can lead to malnutrition, elsewhere in the world it can lead to starvation and death. Food insecurities in America more often lead to more frequent and/or severe illnesses, stunting in physical development, learning disabilities and decreased psychological development (Food Research, 2007).
