Health care: it’s more than medication

by Jeffrey Wankel, Community Health and Farm Outreach Coordinator.

Jeffrey meeting with a patient in the Medical Clinic.

Bread for the City provides food for the hungry and medical care for the sick. Thousands of people depend on us for this, but what happens when they leave the building?

Health care doesn’t just happen in a medical clinic. If done right it happens every day, as part of a lifestyle. And while medicine can help our clients fight back illness, good habits (in things like diet and physical activity) will help keep them healthy in the first place.

As the new Community Health Coordinator, I’m working to make Bread for the City a center for health knowledge in addition to medical care. From patient visits, to group sessions, to informative literature placed around the clinic and posted on our walls, Bread for the City makes education a priority.

We work with our clients to achieve a broader understanding of how daily choices directly affect our long term health and wellness. This includes specifics like learning how to avoid foods that cause heart disease, or the negative mental and physical effects of alcohol and tobacco. Already this year, thousands have read the material and hundreds have taken information home to share with their friends and families.

One patient I’ve worked with recently found out that she has high blood pressure, and I shared some of our fact sheets about the matter. She requested more information, and then asked for multiple copies – and by the end of our meeting, she walked away with five different brochures. Her whole family was going to make some dietary changes, she said, because she did not want her children to also end up with high blood pressure.

These are the kinds of outcomes that happen here every day. And we are starting to do more. As part of a new community health initiative, we are identifying leaders among our client community, and training them to be volunteer peer educators. Peer educators will take this critical information into their own communities, where they can spread the word even further. In underserved areas that lack the resources to obtain adequate care, peer-to-peer health education is a great way to raise awareness of preventive health. We’re excited to be spreading word about healthy lifestyles beyond our doors and into the community.

Jeffrey comes to Bread for the City through a partnership between the DCPCA and AmeriCorps.

Beyond Bread: Supporting Reusable Bags

~Bread for the City recently came out in support of the Bag Bill, a measure that would put a five cent fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores. As we discussed, Councilmember Wells came to our Southeast Center to discuss the specifics of the legislation, and also take suggestions from our staff on how to implement the program in a way that didn't disproportionately affect low-income residents. A number of helpful measures were built into the bill, but on top of that reusable bags will be available for Bread for the City, public agencies, and other non-profits to distribute free of charge. Greater Greater Washington, And Now, Anacostia, The River East Idealist, and Congress Heights on the Rise have also come out in support of the measure which we believe will help drastically reduce contamination of the Anacostia River.

~The AFRO started a series to document what homelessness really means in the nation’s capital. The first article by Joseph Young follows Myra Diggs, a 43 year old woman whose bipolar disorder was misdiagnosed.

~TPM had a nice write-up about how Bread for the City is handling the weak economy, the Poverty & Policy Blog continued our discussion of how TANF needs to be given a cost of living adjustment (among other things), and renewshaw has a helpful, condensed list of all the changes (including Bread for the City’s expansion) that are slated to take place in Shaw.

Helping people help people: Help the Common Good City Farm

This week we have an update from former Bread for the City neighbors, the newly-renamed Common Good City Farm (nee 7th Street Garden). They will be screening a film called “Garden Cycles” and they need some help copying the DVDs. (Gardener Liz Falk tells us, “We'd pay for the DVD cost of course.”)

Is that something you can help them with? Also, um, do you have a big industrial fridge (for veggies) that you might want them to take off your hands? Email them directly.

In the meantime, while we have your attention on the garden: Common Good City Farm has a great program for local residents who are earning less than living wage, and their families. Through the Green Tomorrows program, people can work the field in exchange for bags of produce. It’s a great proposition: learn gardening and then enjoy the fruits of your labor! There’s a Green Tomorrows informational meeting on April 7th at 6:30 at the Florida Avenue Baptist Church. The meeting will have snacks and drinks and garden people on hand to answer questions about the program in more details.

To find out more about the garden, including programs, events and hours, visit their website or call 202-330-5945 and leave a message.

Groundbreaking photo roundup

A pictorial follow up to our great groundbreaking ceremony last week. Many thanks to those who came, especially our fantastic guest speakers.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Also, thanks to Katie Norwood for taking many of these pictures.