Running head: ASSESSMENT, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

Assessment, Planning, Intervention, and Evaluation of EnrichLA

West Vernon Elementary School
Andrea A Avila
NTRS 418
Spring 2015

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

Community Needs Assessment

Define the Community
I am volunteering for the EnrichLA organization at the West Vernon Elementary School
in the city of Los Angeles. During my first time volunteering at this school I was able to notice
that a great portion of the schools population are Hispanics. I was able to see some African
American and even a smaller group of the Asian demographic. During my first time volunteering
at the school we gave lessons to the kids from first grade. The garden ranger told me that that
was the last class for the first graders and that next week we were going to be having a different
class grade. Also, I met the principle and some teachers and most of them were Hispanic. I saw
one African American and one white teacher. During the planting beans lesson that we were
providing for the kids I heard some of them speaking in Spanish and mentioning that they eat a
lot of frijoles at home. This made me realize that those kids were probably first generation here
in America. In order to define the community in the Los Angeles area I looked for the
demographics in this area online. According to the 2010 census, the demographics in this area
according to their zip code 90037 are as follows: 75.4% Hispanic, 21.4% African American,
1.1% White, .8% Asian and 1.3% other. I believe the West Vernon Elementary School is an
accurate representation of these statistics. As it is found in the Tomas OGradys website
(EnrichLAs founder), their goal is to provide a garden in the unprivileged communities, this
also gives an idea of the communitys income levels. Searching on google maps, there are about
10 different fast food restaurants within three miles around the school. These places might
definitely influence the food choices from the students and their families.

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

Set Parameters of Assessment

The main goal of this assessment is to be able to educate and expose kids to healthy
living patterns. In order to accomplish this goal some information needs to be gathered such as,
the demographic of the population from census.gov, percentage of adult and children being
overweight, places to play in the neighborhood, T.V. viewing, uninsured kids, no source of health
care, low birth weight and adults with diabetes and hypertension from the
publichealth.lacounty.gov website.
Collect Data
For this specific assessment we are analyzing and comparing the EnrichLA garden
located at the West Vernon Elementary School in the south part of Los Angeles to the South Bay
area, specifically to the city of Hawthorne. According to census.com, the demographic in Los
Angeles area is as follows: 75.4% Hispanic, 21.4% African American, 1.1% White, .8% Asian
and 1.3% other. As reported in the 2010 census, the population in Hawthorne is 29.3% Hispanic,
27.7% African American, 32.8% White, 6.7% Asian and 3.5% other. According to the
publichealth.lacounty,gov, 25.5% of the children in grades 5,7 and 9 were found overweight and
19.6% in the city of Hawthorne. Los Angeles is within the statistically worse off the L.A. County
average (35.0%) and Hawthorne is within the statistically better than the L.A. County average
(33.9%) in the section of: overweight and obese adults. Los Angeles is considered to be
statistically worse than the L.A. County average showing 71.7% and Hawthorne has a 84.5% of
children whose parents think that they have places to take their kids to play. Under the time spent
by kids watching television category both Los Angeles and Hawthorne scored statistically worse
off than the L.A. County average by having 35.1% and 31.6% respectively. The percentages of

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

uninsured children ages 0-17 in Los Angeles and Hawthorne are 17.7% and 9.6% respectively;
L.A. is considered statistically worse off than the L.A. County. The percentages for Diabetes
9.2% and hypertension 25.4% are both in the statistically worse off than the L.A. County
average. Hawthornes percentages for diabetes (8.0%) and hypertension (22.4%) are within the
average levels. The percentages of low birth weight in Los Angeles and Hawthorne are 7.3% and
6.7% respectively, which puts Los Angeles in the statistically worse off than the L. A. County
average category. According to the google maps website within five miles around the school
there are about 13 different parks where kids can go play, exercise and enjoy, 5 grocery stores
(mainly Hispanic stores), 8 fast food places which half of them are hamburger places.

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

Interpret and Analyze Data

According to the data provided above about the city of Los Angeles, the main problem is
weight management. More than one fourth of the children in this area are considered overweight
and more than one third of the adult population is considered overweight or obese. This
information is pretty alarming; its unbelievable that such a big portion of the LA population has
unhealthy body weight. Such staggering numbers should start a movement for community
nutrition information. If no action is taken soon, problems much bigger will arise in the
community other than just being overweight. As it was mentioned above, 9.2% of the population
suffer from diabetes and 25.4% suffer from hypertension. This means that one fourth of the
population is having problems with their blood pressure levels and as I have learned in my
nutrition classes, the main cause of blood pressure abnormalities is being overweight. The data
also mentioned that there are about 13 different parks within five miles from the school but it
also mentions that 35.1% of kids in the LA area watch more television than the state average.
This means that even though there is access to parks kids are spending most of their free time in
a sedentary state. The statistics also show that 17.7% of the population in the LA area ages 0-17
is uninsured which means that they do not have the opportunity to visit a doctor on a regular
basis. That also means that they are not exposed to any nutritional education, lacking this
information their risk for having unhealthy body weight increases. The numerous fast food
restaurants in the area are a great temptation to the community and play a huge role in their
weight management.
In conclusion, this whole problem becomes a cycle: a sedentary life coupled with
unhealthy eating patterns will increase the risk of being overweight; being overweight will

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

increase the risk of having diabetes and hypertension; and diabetes will make one want to have a
sedentary life.
Program Planning Report
One of the main nutritional problems plaguing the LA area is the elevated numbers of
overweight and obese people. An adult with a BMI of 25 or above is considered as overweight
and a BMI of 30 and above is considered as obese. Those that are 18 years and younger that fall
between the 85th and 95th percentile are overweight and those above the 95th percentile are
considered obese. As mentioned earlier, the majority of the community is Hispanic. Many
Hispanics have diabetes in their family history.
In order to combat this alarming trend, EnrichLA can sponsor after school programs
where children can have healthy snacks such as vegetables and fruits. These after school
programs would take place at one of the 13 parks in the area. There would be certain days where
nutritional knowledge would be imparted in a fun and interesting way to the children; all while
engaging in physical activity. This would be a great idea because EnrichLA would be able to
reach further than just the students of West Vernon Elementary. All children from the area would
have access to this program and would greatly benefit from the nutritional education and from
the physical activity. It is a common trend in the Hispanic community for the parents to work
during the hours when their children are home. This program would not only serve as an
educational program, but also as a way to take care of the children during the time that their
parents are unavailable. By having the children at the park, they would decrease the hours of
them lying around in front of a television. This program has the power to break the

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

aforementioned vicious cycle by exposing a new generation to improved nutritional habits;

knowledge that they can then give their children when the time comes.
Program Intervention/Evaluation Report
The intervention that I will be a part of is providing a class to children about nutrition and
educating them about a specific food. The class will be about the function of vitamin C in our
bodies and foods that contain vitamin C in them. This is scheduled for May 22 of this year. An
intervention like this must be done very carefully in order to ensure that the children grasp the
information. In order to do so, my colleague and I will be teaching the class in an interactive
manner to increase knowledge retention. First, students will be given an introduction about
vitamin C and how it can greatly benefit our bodies. After the introduction a game where the
class will be divided in three groups (vitamin C, antibodies, and germs) will be played by having
each group line up and take a step forward all groups at the same time, once the vitamin C
touches the antibody then it becomes stronger and will be able to catch the germ faster. This
game will help them understand in a broad way the importance of vitamin C in our bodies.
Finally, the kids will be taken to the back of the garden and show them some of the vegetables
that contain vitamin C, pick them, and prepare a salad rich in vitamin C. A sample of this salad
will be given to each student so that they will be exposed to the taste of rich vitamin C fruits and
vegetables. Children will be encouraged to share the information at home and to consume them
on a daily basis, so they can improve their immunity. This intervention will be evaluated by
asking how many children liked the food sample given, and by counting the food waste from
their samples. The knowledge retention will be accounted for by asking the children about the
information that was imparted.

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

We asked each kid (all from kinder garden) a question about the lesson and were
rewarded with a strawberry; every student obtained a strawberry. The salad ingredients were:
chard, kale, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, basil, olive oil, pepper and a pinch of salt. They
loved the salad! All the students (a total of 25 students) finished their salad and about 10 of them
had seconds.

ASSESSMENT, PLANNING, INTERVENTION, AND EVALUATION OF ENRICHLA

References
(2011-2012). Hawthorne, California Population: Census 2010 and 2000 Interactive Map,
Demographics, Quick Facts. Retrieved from http://censusviewer.com/city/CA/Hawthorne
Fielding, J. E., (2013). Key Indicators of Health. Retrieved from
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/wwwfiles/ph/hae/ha/keyhealth.pdf
EnrichLA. (2015). 70 Edible School Gardens Enrich LA for Information only. Retrieved from
tomasogrady.com/enrichla/