JANUARY NEWS

CENTER LEADING MEASUREMENT ON
LANDMARK ANTI-HUNGER PROJECT
The ConAgra Foods Foundation, also located in the Center’s hometown of Omaha, Neb., is putting the HERE in the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign. Over the next three years, the Foundation will invest more than $4 million in Omaha community organizations and non-profits with a goal of reducing food insecurity by 10 percent, to bring the number of food-insecure kids well below the national average.

The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is the evaluation partner for this project, and Drs. Bertmann, Pinard and Yaroch all serve as scientific personnel on the project.

Child hunger rates in the Omaha metro are consistent with national statistics with more than one in five not having consistent access to food throughout the year. This equates to more than 30,000 children who are considered food insecure.

Child nutrition programs (including both breakfast and lunch) make up one of five elements critical to improving food security and food sufficiency along with low-cost food availability, food banks for emergency supply, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, previously known as food stamps) and budgeting skills.

According to ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin, “The ultimate objective is to create systems to prevent families from becoming food insecure.”

Other partner organizations include Hunger Free Heartland, Food Bank for the Heartland, Creighton Financial Hope Collaborative, Heartland Hope Mission, Heart Ministry Center, Together and United Way of the Midlands. 
 
For more details on this project, read the Omaha World-Herald story that ran on December 18.

 

BERTMANN REVISITS “FOOD SUFFICIENCY” TERMINOLOGY
As the Center continues to conduct more studies and evaluation in the areas of hunger and food insecurity, related terminology have been explored. Dr. Farryl Bertmann, who has been leading this effort, is advocating the use of a 1990's concept related to anti-hunger efforts – “food sufficiency.”

Through her work on the Child Hunger Ends Here project mentioned above, Dr. Bertmann sees food sufficiency as a different concept from food security and hunger as it relates to a reliance on emergency food sources.
 
Food Security = Access to food at all times for an active, healthy life with the assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (Household Measurement)

Hunger = Painful sensation caused by lack of food (Individual Measurement)

Food Sufficiency = Alleviating physiological hunger through food attained in both socially acceptable and unacceptable ways (Household and Individual Measurement)

To read Bertmann’s rationale behind current use of the food-sufficiency concept, click here.

 

LANDEN RETIRES FROM BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jim Landen, president, Security National Bank, recently completed six years of service on the Center Board of Directors. Joining in February 2008, Landen is the third generation to serve on the Center’s board. His grandfather, Clarence L. Landen Sr., was a member from 1975 through 1980, and his mother, Mary Landen, served from 1984 through 2005.

We thank you, Jim, for your involvement in and support of the Center these past six years!

 

Center staff members participated in The Ugly Sweater Run in Omaha on December 15.
 

TWO NEW MEMBERS JOIN BOARD
The Center’s Board of Directors gained two new members in 2013 – Danielle Gordman and Angela Cooper.

Danielle Gordman grew up outside of New York City, and studied political science and East Asian studies at Indiana University. After working in Washington DC in politics and nonprofit, she moved to Omaha where she worked for several nonprofit organizations before obtaining her master’s degree in mental health counseling.

Gordman is very active in the Jewish community, currently serving as a board member for the Anti-Defamation League as well as sitting on the Board of Trustees for Temple Israel. She is also involved with Omaha Performing Arts, and loves traveling with her husband, Jeff, and their children Zev (10) and Harper (11).

Angela Cooper is the manager of benefit solutions operations at Mutual of Omaha, where she has worked most of her career. Cooper is very involved with local women’s and young professionals groups including the Women’s Fund of Omaha Circles program and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Council. She helped to introduce the “Council Of Companies” concept with other local firms, launching internal young professionals and women’s support networks.

Also, Cooper is a founding member of Mutual of Omaha’s Emerging Leaders Network, has led marketing efforts for bands in the Christian and jazz music industries, and is an active member of the Omaha Business Process Management User Group.

 

CARPENTER LEADING ‘SALAD BARS TO SCHOOLS’ WEBINAR
On Wednesday, January 22, Project Manager Leah Carpenter will lead a webinar for a joint meeting of United Fresh Produce Association Foundation's Let’s Move Salad Bars to Midwest Schools Campaign and Nutrition and Health Council where top-line results of the salad bar survey conducted by the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition will be presented.

Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (LMSB2S) is a comprehensive grassroots public health effort to mobilize and engage stakeholders at the local, state and national levels to support salad bars in schools. The vision is to significantly increase salad bars in schools across the country until every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school.

Carpenter will discuss the purpose of this evaluation, which was to determine LMSB2S outcomes and effectiveness, as well as challenges to participation. The evaluation offers an overview of the districts that received the salad bars, describes how salad bar recipients are currently using their new equipment, details any changes to the administration and execution of school lunches as a result of the salad bars, highlights nutrition education and activities that schools/districts are implementing to support the initiative, and finally details challenges as described by recipients.

In addition to United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, partners also include the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance, the Food Family Farming Foundation and Whole Foods Market.

 

SAULSBURY HIRED AS INTERN
Shannon Saulsbury has been hired as an intern to work on various projects at the Center including the Child Hunger Ends Here project. A junior at Green Mountain College, a small environmental liberal arts college in Poultney, Vt., she is pursuing a double major in philosophy and a self-designed major in social, environmental and economic systems. Growing up on a farm near Sioux City, Iowa, her fascination of food systems began early.

In the future, Saulsbury plans on attending graduate school and continuing her work in the realms of food systems and food ethics to feed a lifelong passion for all things related to food.

 

PINARD LEADING WEBINAR ON
BREASTFEEDING ASSESSMENT RESULTS
On Wednesday, January 29, from Noon to 1 p.m. CST, Research Scientist Courtney Pinard, PhD, will present “A Needs Assessment of Breastfeeding Policies and Training Opportunities in Nebraska” for the Partners N Health Teleconference Series.

Partners N Health is a statewide partnership formed around the implementation and evaluation of the Nebraska Physical Activity and Nutrition State Plan, and Dr. Pinard is an advisory group member.

There are a limited number of lines available for this teleconference. To register, contact Joshua Russo with your name, organization and e-mail address. The Conference Access Number is (888) 820-1398, and the Participant Passcode is 8580231#.

 

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Pinard CA, Smith TM, Carpenter LR, Chapman M, Balluff M, Yaroch AL. Stakeholders’ Interest in and Challenges to Implementing Farm-to-School Programs, Douglas County, Nebraska, 2010–2011. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2013;10.


Byker CJ, Pinard CA, Yaroch AL, Serrano EL. New NSLP guidelines: challenges and opportunities for nutrition education practitioners and researchers. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2013;45(6):683–689.

The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition aids in survey development and evaluation for national organizations and others. If you are interested in finding out more about these services, please contact Dr. Amy Yaroch, executive director, at ayaroch@centerfornutrition.org.