FDACS FNW Week

Sometimes things do not go as planned. My clinical start date was pushed back two weeks so I spent two weeks at FNW in October, rather than in January. Going back to my department was really nice because I was able to meet more people in the department and gain more of an understanding of our department .

Coming into this program I knew very little about Child Nutrition Programs. While here at FNW I learned what some of the issues are with the new meal patterns for the National School Lunch Program.

Our department  really worked hand in hand with the schools this year to help them get through these school lunch changes. For those of you that do not know what the changes were, this year, United States Department of Agriculture implemented a new meal pattern.

Through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by the First Lady and signed by President Obama, USDA made the first major changes in school meals in 15 years, which will help us raise a healthier generation of children. The new standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools. These responsible reforms do what’s right for children’s health in a way that’s achievable in schools across the Nation.

This new meal pattern implemented specific amounts of food items for each grade group (K-5, 6-8, 9-12). Vegetables contained weekly sub-group amounts. There are minimum daily grain and meat/meat alternative requirements. Milk must be low fat unflavored or fat free flavored or unflavored. 

More information can be found on this topic at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/legislation/nutritionstandards.htm

While at FDACS during these two weeks I started working on my intern research paper, the topic is influences on student food choices in schools. 

Dept of Ed- Office of Healthy Schools

The first two weeks of October I was at the Department of Education- Office of Healthy Schools. This rotation was awesome. Everyone was super excited to have us there, our preceptor got there an hour early to prepare for us!

At this rotation we get to work on lesson plans for all grades (K-12) in order to integrate nutrition into the class rooms. We're also working on integrating physical education and health education concepts into our lesson plans. We created 7 lesson plans total!

We had a few projects on the side to complete, we were asked to make a brief nutrition education tip of the month for the 'on hold' recording for DOE. Another project we worked was to make a Myplate puzzle.

While at this rotation, the staff came to check on us to see how we were doing and see if we needed anything. This really made us feel welcome. Our preceptor was impressed with how much work we were able to finish. She emailed our director to thank her for having us intern there. The email was then forwarded to another staff member at Dept. of Ag. It's great to be recognized for our hard work!

Our lesson plans are posted on the FDACS website: http://www.freshforfloridakids.com/Sponsors/Programs/DieteticInternshipProgram/NutritionEducationLessonPlansandMaterials.aspx