Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Mothers Refuge
November 15, 2016
Laura Wendte
HN 600
Laura Wendte
BACKGROUND:
The nutritional status of pregnant or nursing adolescents is vitally important to not only the
fetuss development but also to that of the growing adolescent. Lack of general, prenatal & postnatal
nutrition has negative impact on overall health of mother and fetus/child and adverse consequences
towards future chronic diseases (Wise, 2015). Proper education to enhance understanding of nutritional
needs, serving sizes and how to discern healthy options when eating out is crucial to maintaining overall
good nutritional status. Pregnant adolescents are at increased risk of nutritional deficiencies and many
have poor eating habits relying heavily on convenience foods that are high in calories and fat, plus lack
Many homeless teenagers have lacked the atmosphere growing up where proper nutrition is
demonstrated in their home/personal life coupled with a lack access to a variety of healthful foods
compounds the need for nutritional guidance. The participating group has heavy reliance on fast foods as
main source of nutrition and low socioeconomic status and age both negatively affect use of nutritional
information at fast food restaurants (Green, Brown, Ohri-Vachaspati, 2015). Individuals who reported
using calorie information purchased an average of 146 fewer calories than those who did not (Green,
Mothers Refuge is a home for pregnant homeless teenage girls, whom can stay up to the childs
first birthday. They receive weekly monetary allowance for completing chores and attending
informational sessions. In addition to money, they receive coupons to be used at the house store that
contains baby items, personal items, foods; clothes, etc. They are all priced comparable to Wal-Marts
pricing to help the residents learn to budget money; though they are free to use their money any way they
want. The onsite staff noted that all of the girls frequently eat fast food, with some spending the primary
JUSTIFICATION:
safe and nonjudgmental learning opportunities (Glanz & Rimer, 1997) (Montgomery, 2003)
According to The Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, the best practices in nutrition education
is the use of evidencebased approaches as effective tools to promote healthy eating (Society for
Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2009). One such approach would be using the Social Cognitive
Theory to promote self efficacy. Some ways to promote self efficacy would include: Active Mastery,
Vicarious experiences, Verbal Persuasion and Emotional Arousal. It is also important to note that utilizing
peer based learning strategies can increase self efficacy (Glanz & Rimer, 1997).
I decided that rather than try to convince them to never eat fast food, it would be more beneficial
to try to persuade them to make healthier, educated choices when dining at fast food restaurants. It was
also noted that they frequently consumed improper serving sizes and relied heavily on convenience foods,
leaving their diet to be lacking in nutrients and unbalanced in general. For this education session I focused
on activities where participants broke into 2 groups. They practiced active mastery, vicarious experience
and verbal persuasion through choosing appropriate serving sizes for food groups based off of visual
household items. Emotional arousal and active mastery were practiced through matching up the fast food
items to their appropriate nutritional content, showing some surprising nutritional facts while verbally
informing on how diet can affect their and their childs health. There was verbal persuasion by
emphasizing every small achievement and close to right answer during demonstrations.
Laura Wendte
I decided to make the presentation as interactive as possible to try to keep the participants
engaged throughout. I started off with 1 board that listed the average womens nutritional needs that
included total daily calorie and a breakdown of food groups and recommended serving sizes, chats of
food items and their corresponding household item serving size (item name covered for purposes of game
later on) and 1 large picture of the #11 meal from KFC (teams were to try to guess cal and fat in meal) &
2 identical game boards, one for each team that contained picture of items from McDonalds, Taco Bell,
KFC, and Subway. Teams were to try to match the calorie and fat on pre printed labels to the appropriate
meal in an effort to show them that it can be very hard to discern which items have more or less
After the matching game I showed them the correct answers and they talked about how surprised
they were at how far off some of their guesses were. Next we talked about serving sizes of and used
visuals of household items for reference, for example 4 dice = 1 oz of cheese, tennis ball = 1 medium
fruit/1 cup of berries, etc. Next I showed them some common food items in appropriate serving sizes. I
showed them what 100 calories of carrots looked like, a cheese stick, and apple, a potato, yogurt, tilapia,
Grilled chicken breast atop a bed of lettuce, popcorn, noodles, spaghetti sauce, & ground beef. We talked
about how some serving sizes such as pasta and meat were much smaller than what is typically consumed
at one meal. I told them this was ok, as long as you account for eating more than 1 serving in you total
calories for the day. They then made their predictions for the fat/cal content of the #11 meal and after I
posted the responses I revealed that the meal contained 1410 cal & 70g fat, whereas all the food I brought
In the beginning of the presentation the participants were on their phones or laying on the couches
(It was held in a den style room) and once I started the games they began to become more and more
engaged. I was very pleased with the amount of questions being asked and conversation/debate going on
about nutrition as it opened up new areas to discuss. I handed out each participant a folder which
Laura Wendte
contained 3 recipes of nutritious meals that are appropriate to be blended into baby food, a handout
covering the household item serving size equivalents, the chart listing the average womans daily caloric
and food group servings needs, a informational paper titled The Five Most Unhealthful Fast-Food Kids
Meals a sample 7 day menu for a 2000 calorie diet plan & a Nutritional Questionnaire to be completed
SUPPORTING MATERIAL:
Laura Wendte
Laura Wendte
QUESTIONS:
-Majority reported eating lots of salad, fruits, vegetables, not too much fat..
What are some reasons that make it difficult to eat foods that are nutritious for you?
(What foods do you wish you could eat more of, and why dont you?)
-Main answers were: lack of access/ not knowing how to cook, lack of time, convenience
of pre packaged or fast-food meals, not knowing what to eat.
What did you find was the most helpful resources for you to use in making healthy
choices from todays presentation?
-They really liked the activity and were shocked at some of the nutritional content of their
favorite fat food items, many stated they would always look up the nutritional infor from
here on out.
-They implied the household item portion guide was helpful and were glad I included that
in their packet.
-They were pretty excited about the recipes stating that one of the employees had been
teaching them how to cook.