Tales from the Lunchroom

Today's Mission: School Lunch

As I walked into Anita White Carson Middle School for an interview with Cafeteria Manager Shirley Higdon, I found waves of nostalgia settling in for my own, not quite fond, memories of trekking to the cafeteria and knowingly bypassing the hot-lunch (unless there was Pizza) for the "FuNacho" line and 2 cookies. Of course, everyone knows the best part about lunch is that there was recess immediately thereafter. I digress.

Ms. Higdon met me in her office which was to the rear of the food preparation/cooking area in which 2 of the staff were already working. The middleschoolers were definitely going to have something chocolate-y as the smell of cocoa permeated the air and nearly distracted me from what I needed to ask. Ms. Higdon provided a wealth of information and was most accommodating which made the interview a pleasant affair. I have many more people to talk to regarding school lunch, nutrition, and student health (which is the topic of my next story) but I already know I'm stumbling upon something very unique about Greene. About 79% of the students at Carson Middle qualify for Free Lunch so not only are they served a free meal, but so is every other student that goes there. In the entire district, all children have free lunch. However, the charter school in the district, Lake Oconee Academy, has a school lunch program that involve parents paying for their child's meal. Again, I have more research to do regarding the legal aspects and jurisdiction of what schools can receive based on public or charter status, but Green is opening my eyes to a diverse community of policy implications that directly affect the youth.

I have a lot of thinking to do between now and my Wednesday deadline, but I like where this is going.

Voices from the Field

As a graduate student in the Health & Medical Journalism Program in Grady College, I have many unique opportunities to hear, meet, and speak with individuals from the field that have wisdom you simply cannot obtain in the classroom.

Side note: As this blog (and my skills as a writer/reporter) evolve, I hope to share with you experiences on my health beat as well as reflections from these valuable lectures I attend.

Forgive me if I ramble.

Last night, Stanley Foster, MD., MPH, spoke in a Voices from the Vanguard Lecture Series about global inequities, social justice, and empowerment. Having worked in multiple capacities with the CDC in a myriad of global communities (from India to Central America), Dr. Foster's lecture was moving on both emotional and intellectual levels. He hit on political, social, and economic determinants of social injustice that impede on basic human needs--such as proper health care. However, what I found most interesting was his emphasis on poverty and education. Together, poverty and the lack of education keep people oppressed, with health care being a secondary fall out to this cause. This is especially interesting, because I just read a paper that discussed how one should define and measure human development; not by economic terms but by a persons ability to pursue a quality of life with health being an indicator of that ability (Sen, A., 1999). Of course, health, poverty, and education are inextricably related and are confounding factors in the greater schemata of what we consider "Quality of Life." It is how Foster spoke about his exemplars of tackling the problems of poverty and education that were more convincing than the "blurb" of information from that paper.

Although I have not traveled to much of the developing world, I have spent time in Ghana and Turkey and have seen the hard-to-miss differences in how people approach health. Therefore I could completely empathize with the difficulties the community people like Chepe Romero and Rosario Diaz (mentioned by Dr. Foster) have in facilitating a change. I also know that education is a powerful tool and in any marginalized groups of people, education has been a key factor in helping people help themselves. A perfect example of this are the flow-charts being used by a select group of local Ethiopian individuals who were trained in reading and assessing/diagnosing illnesses in their communities. I had no idea that such methods were being used.

I could go-on forever but I fear that I am rambling and I do have to switch modes. Leave a message if you want to ask any questions or discuss anything from the lecture. Also, Attend the Voices from the Vanguard lecture series!

WebMD's Senior Writer for Medical News, Daniel J. DeNoon, spoke in class today. I frequent WebMD, mostly for the "Symptom Checker" (I spent a few months being a closet hypochondriac) but I do read the articles and spent some time being in awe of a person who I read hundreds of times online. The discussion was informative, especially in regards to writing for an online publication, interviewing and sources, and, of course, life as a science/medical writer. The conversation flowed effortlessly as we all laughed and took appreciative notes on all that he could offer as we picked his brain.

In the last 24 hours, I have learned a multitude about writing, best practices for a medical reporter, and the world we live in. Many of these things I will try to practically apply (for my future work and in the short-term, graded assignments). Others I will have to mull over as I try to modify and adjust my own messy tendencies into more refined works of art (this post is obviously not one of those works of art). If you made it to the end, all I can tell you is that the best is yet to come.

Links:
DeNoon article on Teen Pregnancy

More information on Stanley Foster Click Here

Exploring the Jewel

In the coming weeks I'll be reporting on health-related interests in Greene County, Georgia. Home to the Oconee National Forest and Lake Oconee, Greene is a small (pop. 15,000), yet beautiful home to many of North Georgia's natural wonders.


As I continue to acclimate myself to the people and places of Greene, and better understand the evolving issues that effect the community, I hope to being you words, images, and a general feel for the concerns, cares, joys, and pains of Greene County citizens.