Community Nutrition, Growing Food for a Growing Community

Growing Food for a Growing Community

Assignment 4: Final Draft and Presentation Matthew’s House Fullana

Devon Connelly, Andrea Keiser, Mckayla Stoltenberg

FSHN 451: Community Nutrition

Date December 11, 2015

Honor Pledge: I have not given, received, or used any unauthorized assistance on this assignment.

Signature: ______________________________________ Signature: ______________________________________ Signature: ______________________________________

Growing Food for a Growing Community of 38


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Team & Work Distribution Team Members, Team Leader Work Distribution/Plan to Accomplish Team Project

Community Partner Context: Target Audience & Community Description Problem Statement, Project Purpose & Brief Description

Problem Statement Project Purpose Description of Proposed Project

Behavior Change Theory & Research Basis Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) Definition SCT Constructs Selected for This Project & Rationale Research Basis

Lesson Plan Table Evaluation Table Logic Model Presentation Summary of Findings Reflection Acknowledgments References Appendices

Appendix 1: Let’s eat for the health of it. Appendix 2: USDA Food Patterns Appendix 3: Survey (Pre) Appendix 4: Survey (Post) Appendix 5: Plant Grow Learn Brochure Appendix 6: Checklist Appendix 7: Healthy Habits survey Appendix 8: Mediumterm Outcomes Survey


TEAM & WORK DISTRIBUTION

TEAM MEMBERS, TEAM LEADER Andrea Keiser (team leader) Mckayla Stoltenberg and Devon Connelly

WORK DISTRIBUTION/PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH TEAM PROJECT For assignment one we all contributed equally. Devon sent out the initial email to our contact at Matthew’s House to set up a meeting time and

orientate our group. She also contributed her knowledge to the local section of our data. Mckayla helped to provide information on the national

statistics and problems surrounding the population in the United States. Andrea helped to compile our information into Google Docs and provided

state statistics related to our project. Overall, we all worked together on all aspects of the first assignment.

For assignment two, Andrea facilitated organizing a new google doc for better organization and to track progress, and helped provide many

opinions for the Writing to Learn assignments. She also helped to find articles pertaining to the Social Cognitive Theory. McKayla helped provide

new ideas for our project and also initiated finding the materials that will be needed to complete our project. She did the revision for Part One.

Devon helped us to coordinate our meeting times and find recipes to use in a brochure.


For assignment three, Andrea found a new research article, improved and added to the lesson plan table, completed the appendixes, and created a

theoretical survey. McKayla added the information from the research article that Andrea found, and completed the methods used and summary of

results on the evaluation table. Devon improved and completed the lesson plan table, and completed the short, medium and long term impact

outcomes on for the logic model table. We all contributed to editing the corrections from assignment two.

For assignment four, Andrea made the presentation slides for our team, helped make the introduction slides for our entire group, and presented the

slides. Mckayla helped to edit the slides and edit and finalize our final project. Devon helped to proofread and edit the slides and sections for our

final assignment including the theoretical survey, revised appendix 8, 3, 4, 6, and revised references .

COMMUNITY PARTNER “Matthew’s House is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to empower and strengthen families and children in transition who are

at risk or who lack a functioning support network by providing those resources and relationships necessary to better their lives.”¹ In a

conversation with Mary Beth Green, Community Engagement Coordinator of The Matthews House (September 2015), she

communicated with us that they help participants take control of their lives to create a positive future to become successful

contributors to the surrounding community. The Matthew's House provides several unique and tailored services in order to best meet


the needs of the community. They provide an education and employment center that provide vocational and professional development

skills, to help individuals further their career and become more economically stable.2 The “Empowering Youth Program” empowers

youth ages 1621 to transition into adulthood and be provided the resources and support necessary for them to be successful and have

positive futures, despite their pasts.2 Their strengthening families program provides individual facilitation and support to help at risk

families to increase selfsufficiency and helps with certain areas like relationships, finance management, and parenting.2 Community

Life Centers which we will be working with is a consolidated location with special services such as homework helpers, Zumba for

adults, and other educational and enriching programs.2

CONTEXT: TARGET AUDIENCE & COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION During our interview with a representative from the Matthew’s House she explained the population that they specifically serve. According to Mary

Beth, the target audience that Matthew’s House aims to address are lowincome families, mostly Hispanic and Arabic origin.1 Many of them are

families and children who are a part of human services, foster care, and/or justice system.1 These families reside in Larimer County and their

children mainly go to school in Poudre School District.1


The Homework Helpers program that Matthew's House provides, is an after school program we will directly work with. This program provides

tutoring, homework help, snacks, a safe place to play, and a supportive environment for children. We will be specifically implementing our

intervention with the children that attend the Homework Helpers program which range in age from 3rd through 12th grade, with the majority

between 812 years old.1 According to Mary Beth, of the children we will be working with, 8090% of them have a household income of less than

$40,000.1’

According to Healthy people 2020, children with very low food security have a prevalence of 1.9% among Hispanic or Latino children compared

to 0.6% in the population of White children.3 Nationally, households with low food security is 23.7% in the Hispanic and Latino population

compared to 10.65% in the White population.3 Our organization does a good job reaching the population that needs the most help. Since a large

part of our population is of Hispanic origin, their services at the Matthew's House help empower them. According to the CDC, out of children aged

210 in the United States, 17% is obese. But, for the same population among Hispanics in the United States, obesity is 22.4%.4

PROBLEM STATEMENT, PROJECT PURPOSE & BRIEF DESCRIPTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT According to Compass of Larimer County, 13.5% of children under 18 live in poverty.5 Within the schools in Larimer County, 1,326 children that

they serve were identified as being homeless.6 Fourteen percent of all the families in Fort Collins live below the poverty level, compared to 9.3%

in the entire state of Colorado.7 And this is a growing problem because since 2000, the poverty rate in Larimer County has increased 54%,

affecting many children and families.6


In all of Larimer County, 14,100 students (41.9%) within the school system use the free or reduced lunch program, which keeps increasing.8 For

some of these children the meal they get at school may be the only meal they get all day. Consider some of the implications of poverty and hunger

on a child’s life. These factors can cause an increased level of atrisk youth having health issues leading to obesity or low nutrition. Poverty also

increases the chances of gang involvement, and failure to graduate, where the need to survive may be greater than the desire to attend school.

Matthew’s House helps to address these issues by providing helpful supportive services. These services include the “Empowering Youth Program”

which helps troubled youth to transition into adulthood and the “Strengthening Families Program” which helps at risk families build and navigate

difficulties in the areas of parenting, money management, job readiness and healthy relationships. ²

PROJECT PURPOSE Our project’s purpose is to address the issues that the population in the Matthew’s House face every day. We specifically hope to consider the

demographics of our population. Our population is largely Hispanic, and according to the national statistics above, Hispanics are more likely to

have low food security, and are also more likely to be obese. We will also consider that a significant amount of our population is close to poverty

or in poverty. We hope to empower the children that we will specifically serve and promote selfefficacy and knowledge about food, through fun

interactive ways.


By implementing our project of sustainably growing foods, and teaching the participants to grow and use their own food, we hope to lower these

statistics. Providing the families and children with fresh vegetables and fruits not only help save money, but is nutritious. This project will also

help to teach the participants behavioral aspects of responsibility and caring for a plant, and how the positive outcomes can be beneficial. The

appreciation of hard work and tasting the fresh food will help continue the success of the project.

DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED PROJECT Our project will provide the participants with hands on learning about growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables and promoting healthy eating.

We are going to have the participants plant vegetables such as beans or peas in their own individual pot. They will learn how deep to plant seeds,

how many seeds to use, how much sunshine to provide, and how much water. They will be responsible for their own individual plant. This project

will teach them how to plant their food, and guide them into taking care of and harvesting a healthy plant that will provide them with fresh food.

This will also be a great example to the students of where some food comes from and that it just doesn’t magically appear in a store. This will aid

in the services that Matthew’s House already provides like tutoring, exercise class, snacks, and classes.

We are also going to educate the staff and faculty on how to continue the project, expanding it as the plants grow and how a possible community

garden could provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the families to utilize. We could then educate the families and staff on how to cook, preserve,

and freeze the foods, which they can get on a low income or even from the food bank. This would require educating the leadership on food safety

and proper food preservation methods, which we would supply.


In part two of this project we decided to focus on reaching the participants, and plan our lessons around the first paragraph.

BEHAVIOR CHANGE THEORY & RESEARCH BASIS

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (SCT) DEFINITION Social cognitive theory specifies a core set of determinants, the mechanism through which they work, and the optimal ways of translating this

knowledge into effective health practices.9 The theory works on the demand side by helping people to stay healthy through good selfmanagement of

health habits. It also helps people to gain knowledge and perspective of healthy living and how to continue those choices.

As a whole, it specifies factors governing the development of competencies that can profoundly affect physical and emotional wellbeing as well as the

selfregulation of health habits.⁹ Reciprocal determinism can also be used to understand behavior as it is the basic principle for analyzing

psychosocial phenomena at the level of intrapersonal development, interpersonal transactions, and interactive functioning of organizational and social

systems.⁹ This can be used to determine the personal and environmental interactions within the Social Cognitive Theory.

SCT Constructs Selected for This Project & Rationale

The Social Cognitive Theory constructs we selected for this project were environmental and selfefficacy. Environmental factors are the reliance on

many external physical factors that also provide opportunities for social support.¹º This will be important in our project of sustainably growing foods,


because planting is influenced by learning to help nurture a plant and utilizing it afterwards. Planting vegetables will also include the use of many

external factors like supplies, an area to place the vegetables, and the support of administration and volunteers.

Selfefficacy is the confidence in performing a specific behavior and overcoming barriers to achieve it.¹º Through our project, the students will learn to

build confidence in having responsibility and gain knowledge to make better food choices. This will also enable them to overcome barriers of

knowledge deficit and selfconfidence.¹º By learning to nourish a plant, see the results, and then learning how to utilize this food in a snack; the

students will obtain selfefficacy in knowing how to successfully plant a vegetable.


RESEARCH BASIS **Complete this table for two selected research studies that support your project design**

Citation AMA format

required; include a copy of each complete article with your

electronic submission.

Setting & Participants Intervention description (include Social Cognitive

Theory constructs)

Evaluation strategies (include how SCT constructs were measured)

Describe study findings relevant to your project

outcomes

Based on their results, what can you expect from your

project?

Hall, E, Chai, W, Koszewski, W Albrecht, J. Development and validation of a social cognitive theorybased survey for elementary nutrition education program. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2015; 12(47):147.

The participants included 98 fifth grade students aged 912 years old from four local elementary schools in Nebraska.¹¹

The relationship between knowledge, behavior and selfefficacy were evaluated, and then evaluated on how they relate to health and nutrition among fifth graders.¹¹ The intervention included a Healthy Kids Survey that assessed the student’s selfefficacy and behaviors and related those results to their healthy eating behaviors and habits. Students who had higher selfefficacy scores also had healthier eating habits. They now use survey as an intervention tool to assess school nutrition programs. ¹¹

A forty item instrument was developed for testing students for internal consistency reliability. Relationships between knowledge, behavior, and selfefficacy were assessed using Pearson Correlation Coefficients. Differences in behavior and knowledge scores between children with high and low selfefficacy were examined using ttest.¹¹

For behavior, the questions were measured based on a scale from 15, with 5 being the most positive. For selfefficacy, questions were measured on a scale 13, indicating low (1), medium (2) or high (3). Knowledge was based on correct or incorrect; if correct, the student received a 1. The findings indicated many nutrition related demographics like how many fruits and vegetables were eaten and how much exercise students got in a day. Nutrition knowledge was also measured, for example, like what nutrients do in the body. Based on the survey results, students who had higher scores on selfefficacy had

We can expect our project to have many different outcomes based off the demographics, and the children and families that we are working with. By successfully growing their own plant, we can expect the kids to experience the knowledge of how to grow, behavior by taking care of their own plant, and selfefficacy related to the increase in confidence in performing a behavior and overcoming barriers to achieve it. Once they utilize their


.

better health habits and behavior patterns.¹¹ This is relevant to our project in finding what vegetables are consumed,their knowledge pre and post lesson, and confidence in planting vegetables.

plant in a snack and discover how rewarding and healthy this can be, our goal is to encourage them to eat healthier and understand the importance of nutrition. The success of our study will be based on a survey that will include short and easytoanswer question before and after the experiment based on their knowledge of the topic and their personal feelings, like what eating healthy, and fruits and vegetables, means to them. The study that we are comparing ours to, “Development and validation of a social cognitive theorybased survey for elementary nutrition education program,” used a 40 item instrument and ttests, whereas we are using a pre and post survey, which


we feel is more appropriate for our demographics.

Ball, K., MacFarlane, A., Crawford, D., Savige, G., Andrianopoulos, N., & Worsley, A. (2008). Can social cognitive theory constructs explain socioeconomic variations in adolescent eating behaviours? A mediation analysis. Health Education Research, 24(3), 496506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/her/cyn048

Data was obtained from a communitybased sample of 2,529 adolescents aged 12–15 years, from 37 secondary schools (middle schools) in Victoria, Australia.

The study had three different parts.

In the first part, the study looked at socioeconomic position(SEP) differences in adolescents dietary intake. They looked at three indicators: fruit consumption, energydense snack foods and fast foods.

The study examined self efficacy, social and environmental social cognitive theory constructs to see how they are related to or patterned by SEP. The study aimed to determine if the socio economic variations within the social cognitive theory constructs could explain the variation in adolescents diets due to socioeconomic status. The study addressed these issues by finding programs to implement to increase selfefficacy

They measured self efficacy using items that they adopted from project Eat Among Teens (EAT). They were asked questions that would depict their confidence in eating less junk food on a scale of one to four. Their responses were summed to form self efficacy scores for cutting down on junk food and increasing fruit consumption. Cognitive, social and environmental constructs from SCT were included as mediators. Two environmental constructs used social support derived by summing responses (1: never or rarely, 2: sometimes 3: often) and four questions assessing support separately from friends and family: whether friends and

This study confirmed that adolescents of low SEP generally have diets that are not as consistent with the current dietary recommendations compared to their fellow peers with higher SEP. The adolescents that had mothers that have low amounts of education had lower levels of self efficacy for increasing fruit intake and reducing junk food, and lower perceived importance of eating healthy, less family support for healthy heating and less healthy and greater unhealthy food availability in the home compared to adolescents with mothers with higher education. Of the The availability of food in a household, part of the environment was an important mediator in the consumption of fast food and high energy snacks in adolescents. This was not the case for fruit intake because there was less of a correlation, and they do not

The majority of our demographic is of lower socioeconomic status. This study explains that this population has lower self efficacy to increase fruit intake and lower junk food intake, and have a lower, perceived benefit of healthy eating. this just shows the need among our participants to positively affect their self efficacy and environment. We hope to make vegetables more available in the children’s environment through having a planted vegetable available to eat. This study states that increasing the presence of fruits is less correlated with increasing fruit consumption by itself. We are hoping that when combined with more self efficacy and perceived benefit and knowledge it can make a difference. The study showed cognitive factors such as self efficacy and the perceived value of healthy food having a greater and broder effect. So we expect that in our project, the participants will increase their self efficacy in planting and growing vegetables on their own. Doing so will help increase their intake of vegetables by having confidence


and environmental support, specifically in education environments, among lower income socioeconomic positions.

family make you feel good about what you eat, eat healthy food with you, discourage you from eating junk food and encourage you to eat healthy food. The environmental construct used was the availability of different foods within the home environment. This was assessed with items adapted from Project EAT. Respondents were asked how frequently (1: never or rarely, 2: sometimes, 3: usually, 4: always) the following items were available within the home: fruit, vegetables, cakes or sweet biscuits, potato crisps or salty snacks, chocolate or lollies and soft drink. The frequency of availability of fruit and vegetable items was summed as were the frequencies of the energydense snack items.

know the reasons for the differences. They found that cognitive factors such as self efficacy and the perceived value of health promoting behaviors where strong mediators across all three dietary indicators, fruit consumption, energydense snack foods and fast foods.

and success in growing a vegetable. We expect based on this study that knowledge about how many vegetables to eat and examples of those, will increase the participants self efficacy and perceived importance of healthy eating.


Lesson Plan Table Specific 2010 Dietary or 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans emphasized: According to the ChooseMyPlate.gov through the Dietary guidelines 2010, children aged 48 need 1 and ½ cups of vegetables. Females age 913 need 2 cups while those aged 1418 need 2 and ½ cups. Males aged 913 need 2 and ½ cups of vegetables while those aged 1418 need 3 cups of vegetables per day.¹³ **Complete this table for each lesson developed** Grow, Plant, Learn. Social Cognitive

Theory Constructs Nutrition or Activity Message(s)

Learning Objectives Learning Activities Instructional Materials Evaluation Strategies for learning objectives

To teach the participants how to plant vegetables, how many vegetable servings they should be consuming, and how to easily incorporate into a snack. This lesson plan can be called “Grow, eat, and learn.”

Our project will be implementing the environmental constructs through the physical factors. These physical factors include planting, nurturing a plant, and learning to incorporate it into a snack. Our project will also provide social support by learning how to care for a plant and having volunteer’s and administrative support. The project will implement selfefficacy by helping the participants build confidence by seeing positive results of growing a plant successfull. They will also obtain knowledge to make better food choices.

Our lesson’s message will provide information about the amount of vegetables that participants should be consuming in a day. This will also teach them how to incorporate more vegetables into their diet to meet those recommendations. We will also be teaching them how to plant a vegetable, to provide an example of where their food comes from and how it grows.

At the end of this lesson plan, 70 percent of participants will be able to implement their knowledge they obtained in order to plant a vegetable successfully and know the guidelines for how many vegetable to consume in a day, as measured by a post survey. At the end of this lesson plan, 50 percent of participants will be able to understand how to utilize a fresh vegetable in a snack or meal, measured by a post survey. .

Anchor: Provide examples of vegetables the children consume and enjoy. Add: Inform them of the Dietary guidelines for vegetable consumption and provide pictures of portion sizes. Apply: Show the children where vegetables come from by teaching them how to plant their own vegetable. Away: Teach the children how to incorporate vegetables into the diet and provide a brochure to take home to their parents.

One material we may provide is the “Let’s eat for the health of it” brochure produced by the 2010 dietary guidelines, to help inform parents and administration of proper nutrition and dietary guidelines. ¹⁴ We will also provide “USDA Food Patterns” in the appendix to explain the caloric and nutrient needs for children.¹³ The information for planting and growing a vegetable will be included in our brochure as “Planting Steps.”

Our learning objectives were measured by our postsurvey. We asked the participants the same questions using a pre and post survey. These measured their knowledge growth in their daily recommended vegetable consumption and steps to planting a vegetable. We could also measure their planting success by observation.


EVALUATION TABLE

Process Evaluation (these are measures that will tie to the activities and participants you outlined in your logic model)

Impact Evaluation (these tie to the learning objectives, behavioral intent, skill demonstrations, etc., listed in your lesson plan table and short term outcomes in your logic model)

Outcome Evaluation (these tie to the medium term outcomes listed in your logic model).

Definition (include reference)

Process evaluation determines whether program activities have been implemented as intended and resulted in certain outputs. You may conduct a process evaluation periodically throughout the life of your program and start by reviewing the activities and output components of the logic model (e.g., the left side).¹⁵

Impact evaluation assesses program effectiveness in achieving its ultimate goals.¹⁵An impact evaluation looks at the immediate changes in the participants. It assess if the changes achieved were desired and at which amounts in order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention.

Outcome Evaluation measures program effects in the target population by assessing the progress in the outcomes that the program is to address. To design an outcome evaluation, begin with a review of the outcome components of your logic model (e.g., the right side).¹⁵ An outcome evaluation measures the long term effectiveness of the intervention in changing someone’s behavior and health status. It determines if what was taught in the intervention is remembered after some time and if the participants changed a certain aspect of their behavior.

Specific purpose of each type of evaluation for our project

The purpose of process evaluation is to help us keep track of the progress and effectiveness of our project. Process

The purpose of impact evaluation is to determine if the participants specifically learned how many vegetables to consume in one day for

The purpose of outcome evaluations is to measure the program's effectiveness in changing nutritional or health status, and the longterm effectiveness. Outcome evaluation will determine whether or not the participants learned to consume more vegetables, and will actively do so in the future.


evaluation will help us use time effectively and appropriately, measure team accountability, and monitor program activities and efforts.

there age group and examples of what those vegetable are. We wanted to determine whether the participants gained selfefficacy in knowing how to plant vegetables.

1 to 3 4part objectives for each type of evaluation (action, population, measure of success, time frame)

At the end of our presentation, we will have involved each participant in the process of planting a vegetable and provide a brochure, as measured by observation.

After demonstration, participants will be able to apply their knowledge by repeating the process of planting and to be aware of the proper daily vegetable consumption, as measured by observation.

(Theoretical) Three months after completion, 70% of participants will indicate having planted a vegetable and are consuming them, as measured by survey.

Method/s used to measure each objective for each type of evaluation

We created “Steps to Success,” in Appendix 6, which detailed when certain tasks in our intervention should be completed and what those tasks are. We followed these steps successfully, measured by observation.

We handed out the survey we created to the participants, and most of them answered the questions appropriately.

Hopefully 70% of the participants will have planted a vegetable or planted a vegetable and used it in creating a snack and consumed it since the time of the intervention. The participants planted a vegetable based off of the demonstration and steps that we provided. This will be measured by observation in demonstration of the skill in effectively planting a vegetable and by survey.

Summary of actual results OR expected results from each type of evaluation method described above

We followed the “Steps for Success” shown in Appendix 6, that detailed the order in which we needed to complete our intervention tasks such as handing out the presurvey, going over the brochure, showing

In response to question 5 in the presurvey in Appendix 3 nine out of the ten children said that they do have the skills in knowing how to plant a vegetable. In response to the question above shown in our post survey in Appendix 4, nine out of

In question 7 on the post survey in Appendix 4 five of the seven participants answered the question with yes, they do plan on planting their own vegetables in the future.


our demonstration, handing out the post survey and providing the participants with brochures. Out of the 10 participants one of us observed the others handing out the brochures we made, shown in appendix 5, to each participant.

the nine participants responded with a yes. This yes indicates that the participants feel confident in knowing how to plant a vegetable. This question addressed the children’s level of selfefficacy or confidence in planting a vegetable before and after the demonstration. The response increased from 90% in to presurvey to 100% in the post survey. In response to question 6 on the pre survey in Appendix 3 nine out of the ten participants responded that they do know how to plant a vegetable at home and care for it . In our post survey question 5 in Appendix 4, seven out of the nine participants answered yes to this question. This question was designed to address the environment construct of the social cognitive theory.


LOGIC MODEL Inputs Outputs Impact Outcomes

Activities Participation Short Medium Long What was invested by you & others? Donations of supplies for planting a vegetable from the CSU Horticulture Club Matthew’s House Administration Matthew’s House Community (Grades 112) and Parents Lesson Plan Development Community Members and Volunteers Dietary Guidelines Research on steps to successfully plant a vegetable.

1. Provided

knowledge and skills for the children to successfully plant and grow a vegetable by presenting information and having a handson activity of planting a vegetable.. They then learned how utilize that vegetable in a snack and know how many vegetable servings to eat in a day.

Our supporting materials were the Dietary Guidelines and the “Let’s eat for the health of it” brochure.

1. The children

participating in our lesson plan at Matthew’s House, their parents, and the administration.

The children learned how to successfully plant and grow a vegetable, learned

how to utilize it into a snack and learned the appropriate serving sizes of vegetables they should be

consuming in a day.

What actions (behaviors) are they

now doing?

The participants should know how many serving sizes of vegetables to consume in a day. This question will be included in the survey to avoid influence from other classmates that might have an impact on student’s honest answer. The questions on the survey include easytoanswer, multiple choice questions that are appropriate for all ages. We will do a pre and post survey (see appendix 8) to understand their knowledge before and if they learned anything after our presentation. A reasonable outcome that we expect is that 70% could recall the types of vegetables and 25% would remember the guideline from MyPlate. By three

How will health conditions improve?(assuming your projectcontinues into the future

and expands)

The participants will beable to plant and grow avegetables and know howto utilize it in a healthy snack. We will measurethis by giving a survey tothe Matthews House togive to the kids. This survey will ask the kidswhat they grew and howthe utilized their vegetablein a healthy snack. Of thekids who took part in learning how to plant, wewill expect 50% to knowhow to use a vegetable tomake a healthy snack. Byone year after the presentation, 50% of theparticipants that understood basic plantingskills will be able to use avegetable to make a healthy snack.


months after completion of the lesson, 70% of the participants will be able to recall the guideline using the information provided in the lesson using the information provided in our brochure. We expect 50% to have the skills and be confident in planting a vegetable and how to use it in a snack or meal.

Assumptions

External Factors The external factors that are our project interacts with is the environment at the Matthew’s House Fullana location and the limited resources that it has. The season that our project is being implemented in will impact the outcome of the participants growing a vegetable. Since our project is being implemented in the winter, it will be a harsh environment for the plants to grow. Also, Matthew’s House does not have heat lamps to help provide warmth and light for the plants to grow, so this will affect the success and the children’s selfefficacy and environmental growth.

The beliefs we have about our project are that the participants will not be as easily captivated in the verbal lesson as in the handson lesson, and that they will be easily distracted by their surroundings. This is because the children come right from school, so they will be ready to play and not have to learn more information. Therefore, we believe that our project will work well with them getting handson experience in planting a vegetable. It will be hard to get the parents involved since Matthew’s House is an afterschool program for their children and parents are not involved.


PRESENTATION For our presentation, we will be including a brief summary of our project and its details. First, we will present Matthew’s House and introduce what

their purpose is and their mission statement. We will explain the need in this community for a nutrition intervention and how our project reaches them.

Then we will go on to explain our project “Plant, Grow, Learn,” how we implemented it, and what the outcomes were. We hope to actively engage the

audience to inform them of our handson approach in teaching the Matthew’s House participants. We will do this by presenting the audience with a

brochure that we made for our participants. This brochure includes information and facts on vegetable consumption and how to plant a vegetable. We

will share with the audience how the participants were able plant their own vegetable and the reward they all got from it. At the end of our

presentation, we will provide examples of questions (pre and post demonstration) we used to measure our social cognitive theory constructs,

selfefficacy and environmental factors. This will help summarize our project and the outcome, while providing information of what the participants

learned.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The main goal of “Plant, Grow, Learn” was to successfully address issues of low vegetable intake, food insecurity, and obesity among Matthew’s

House participants and families. By providing a handson activity of planting, growing, and making a vegetable into a snack or meal, children were

able to gain selfefficacy and have strong environmental factors as support. After our project, many children were able to recall the amounts of


vegetables they should be consuming in a day for their gender and age. They were very excited to be able to grow their own vegetables and take

them home to their families. Hopefully, by gaining confidence in being able to nurture a plant and having it successfully grow, children will start

consuming more vegetables. Also, with the support of staff and volunteers helping and providing the children with support, the children will gain

confidence by having positive encouragement. At the end of our project, we provided chips and salsa to exemplify how a tomato, pepper, or onion

could be made into a snack. Many children stated they did not like tomatoes, but they loved eating salsa which had tomatoes in it. Some of our other

goals were to reach the families and parents of the children, and help them gain interest in sustainably growing their own vegetables. We provided a

brochure full of information about daily vegetable intake recommendations for children, how to plant a vegetable, and an easy recipe for parents to

follow. This would not only help them to save money, but to be able to provide a healthy nutritious meal for their families. Overall, “Plant, Grow, Learn”

has many positive outcomes by successfully reaching our audience and addressing issues specific to their needs.

REFLECTION After completion of our project, we learned many things about the community of the Matthew’s House and Fort Collins. We were shocked to hear the

statistics of homeless and hungry children, as well as the limited vegetable consumption among school aged children.

We learned how to develop, plan, implement and evaluate our intervention in order to reach our audience most effectively, and what went well and

what didn’t. Other school districts and organizations working with schools might be interested in learning about our project and implementing it as a

way to increase vegetable intake for children. By applying the information taught in our project in a handson demonstration, participants will see how

vegetables are readily available and can be planted in their own backyard. Having vegetables that the participants grow will make their vegetable


consumption improve to DRI standards. The limitations of our project were the minimal amount of supplies available and time. The winter season

impacted the growth of the plants limiting the potential of our project. If we had more time, we would have liked to expand our project into a community

garden for use by students, parents, and the faculty. What we might do differently if we were to repeat our project is to ensure that there are lamps

available to compensate for the winter season and lack of sunshine needed to grow a vegetable, so participants could see the plants grow effectively..

Our project contributes to the field of community nutrition because we are hoping to impact the schools, children, parents, and faculty to educate and

improve nutrition, through this hands on interactive experience to increase vegetable intake. By involving all people from all parts of the community,

providing a program that aligns with policies in place, we hope that “Plant, Grow, Learn” will be an impacting program.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Matthew’s House Faculty and Participants Colorado State University’s Horticulture Club

REFERENCES

1. Organization The Matthews House. The Matthews House. 2014.


2. Overview. The Matthew's House website. http://thematthewshouse.org/overview/. Published 2015. Accessed October 23,2015 3. Healthy People 2020 website.www.healthypeople.gov. Published December 09, 2015.Accessed September 1, 2015 4. Obesity. Center for Disease and Control website. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.htm. Published September 14, 2015. Accessed September 1, 2015 5. Poverty. Compass of Larimer County website. http://www.larimer.org/compass/poverty_ec_ind.htm. Updated December 17, 2012. Accessed September 1,

2015. 6. Fort Collins, Colorado (CO) Poverty Rate Data. City Data website. http://www.citydata.com/poverty/povertyFortCollinsColorado.html. Updated 2015.

Accessed September 1, 2015 7. Poverty. Compass of Larimer County website. http://www.larimer.org/compass/poverty_ec_ind.htm. Updated December 17, 2012. Accessed September 1,

2015. 8. Students available for Free/Reduced School Lunch. Compass of Larimer County website.

http://www.larimer.org/compass/schoollunch_ec_ind.htm#chart1. Updated January 28, 2013. Accessed October 23, 2015 9. Bandura, A. Health promotion from the perspective of social cognitive theory. Psychology & Health. 1998:623649 10. Glanz K, Rimer B, Vaswanath K. Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. 3rd ed. San Francisco, California : JosseyBass;

2002:544. 11. Hall, E, Chai, W, Koszewski, W Albrecht, J. Development and validation of a social cognitive theorybased survey for elementary nutrition education

program. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2015; 12(47):147. 12. Ball, K., MacFarlane, A., Crawford, D., Savige, G., Andrianopoulos, N., & Worsley, A. (2008). Can social cognitive theory constructs explain

socioeconomic variations in adolescent eating behaviours? A mediation analysis. Health Education Research, 24(3), 496506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/her/cyn048

13. Daily Vegetable Chart Daily Recommendations.U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Choosemyplate.gov. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; Updated 2010. Accessed November 11, 2015

14. USDA. Let’s eat for the health of it. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010. Published June, 2011. Accessed November 16, 2015. 15. 2. Tom Chapel C, Prevention C. Program Evaluation Home CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/eval/. Published 2015. Accessed November 16, 2015. 16. Healthy Habits Questionnaire. 1st ed. Scope;2015.1. Available

at:http://www.live5210.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2014/02/SCOPEHHQuestionnaireage10+.pdf. Accessed: November 19, 2015.

http://thematthewshouse.org/overview/

http://thematthewshouse.org/overview/

http://www.healthypeople.gov/

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.htm.

http://www.larimer.org/compass/poverty_ec_ind.htm


http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Fort-Collins-Colorado.html

http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Fort-Collins-Colorado.html



http://www.larimer.org/compass/schoollunch_ec_ind.htm#chart1

http://www.larimer.org/compass/schoollunch_ec_ind.htm#chart1

http://www.cdc.gov/eval/

http://www.live5210.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SCOPE-HH-Questionnaireage10+.pdf


APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: LET’S EAT FOR THE HEALTH OF IT.

The above image is a selection from the brochure “Let’s eat for the health of it” produced by the USDA in accordance with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. It explains healthy food choices and how to make a healthy meal and plate. ¹¹


APPENDIX 2: USDA FOOD PATTERNS

The above image is a table from USDA ChooseMyPlate.gov supported by US Dietary Guidelines 2010.¹³ It lists the amount of vegetables recommended by age and gender.


APPENDIX 3: SURVEY (PRE) 1. How many cups of vegetable do boys and girls your age need every day?

a. ½ 1 cup/day b. 1 ½ 2 ½ cups/day c. 34 cups/day

2. How much of your plate should be filled with vegetables or fruits?

a. All of it b. ¼ of it c. ½ of it

3. What of the following is not grown in the ground?

a. Tomato b. Tortilla chip c. Celery

4. Which of the following is not a vegetable?

a. Cucumber b. Apple c. Lettuce

5.Would you know how to plant a vegetable at home and how to care for it?

a. Yes b. No


6. Could you show someone else how to plant a vegetable? a. Yes b. No


APPENDIX 4: SURVEY (POST) 1. How many cups of vegetable do boys and girls your age need every day?

a. ½ 1 cup/day b. 1 ½ 2 ½ cups/day c. 34 cups/day

2. How much of your plate should be filled with vegetables or fruits?

a. All of it b. ¼ of it c. ½ of it

3. What of the following is not grown in the ground?

a. Tomato b. Tortilla chip c. Celery

4. Which of the following is not a vegetable?

a. Cucumber b. Apple c. Lettuce

5. Do you think you are able to plant a vegetable well?

a. Yes b. No


6. Would you know how to plant a vegetable at home and how to care for it? a. Yes b. No

7. Did you enjoyed us teaching and showing you how to plant?

Yes No (circle one) 8. Do you plan on growing your own vegetables?

Yes No (circle one)


APPENDIX 5: PLANT GROW LEARN BROCHURE


APPENDIX 6: STEPS FOR SUCCESS Checklist:

1. Give the pre survey to the participants to complete while one of us takes a hand count of the number of participants.

2. Go over brochure pictured above in Appendix 5 page by page, highlighting the important parts. a. Present the nutritional information dietary guidelines and MyPlate diagram featured in the brochure in

Appendix 5 relating it to the participants. 3. Give planting demonstration (according to steps in brochure):

a. Go over instructions on seed packet b. Drizzle water onto soil c. Press seed into soil for the recommended depth on packet

4. Have each participant plant a seed handson activity. 5. Give post survey and collect the data with hand count of the number of participants.


APPENDIX 7: HEALTHY HABITS SURVEY


The above image is an example of an Healthy Habits Survey used in the article “Development and validation of a social cognitive theorybased survey for elementary nutrition education program” as an assessment.¹⁶


APPENDIX 8: MEDIUMTERM OUTCOMES SURVEY Theoretical Survey for MediumTerm Results if in Season 1. Did you plant a vegetable on your own?

a. Yes (continue to answering question 2) b. No

2. Did you complete the steps for planting a vegetable that was given to you in the brochure? a. Yes b. No

3. Did you use a vegetable that you grew in a snack or meal? a. Yes b. No

4. How many vegetables should kids your age be eating every day? a. 34 cups b. 1 ½2 ½ cups c. ½ cup

5. Have you eaten more vegetables since the “Plant, Grow, Learn” lesson? a. Yes b. No

Community Nutrition, Growing Food for a Growing Community

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