Field Placement: Inglewood Inspiration Nutrition and Fitness Project
Location: Inglewood, CA
Preceptor: Joanne Leslie
Student Name: Maiteeny Pumpuang
Year: 2002

From June - December 2002, I worked for the Inglewood Inspiration Nutrition and Fitness Project, a result of a grant submitted by Holy Faith Episcopal Church to the California Nutrition Network for Healthy Active Families (the Network), who were sponsoring projects under their Faith-based Community Outreach Program. The project focused on the faith-based community in Inglewood in order to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, particularly among low-income families and African Americans, who are noted for having declining levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. The main activity I worked on was planning and implementing a Summer Fun and Fitness program for the church's already existing Afterschool Program, which was ending for the summer. This involved recruiting students, planning snack/cooking projects and physical activities that promoted consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and supervising the participants, as well as day to day responsibilities. I also documented all the activities and wrote a curriculum for future project staff. Every other week, I also helped prepare a healthy dish for those who participated in the church 's Food Program (in which they come to the church and get free groceries collected from the local food banks)in order for them to sample a healthy and tasty dish made from the food they were receiving in their grocery bags. I also had the chance to attend two conferences: the African American Task Force meeting and the Network's Social Marketing Conference, which enabled me to put the my daily work and efforts in a public health context, while also having the chance to hear about other like-minded projects all over California.

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