Gardening and nutrition: A systems approach to an intervention and evaluation

The overarching goals of this paper are to promote the use of gardens as a systems approach to education, and propose that they should be evaluated as such. Current literature shows the positive effect of gardening education on nutrition, including consumption of fruits and vegetables and nutrition knowledge. A wealth of anecdotal evidence reveals that gardening education programs affect multiple domains in the lives of participants. The first objective of this paper is to review gardening programs with nutrition education components in literature to understand the areas where these programs are already effective and what gaps still need to be filled. Another objective is to propose evaluative tools for an existing gardening program entitled "My Garden Vegetables" in Wilkinsburg, PA. These proposed tools will assess both nutrition education components of the program and components related to cooperation, sharing, and the environment. Such evaluations provide information that is vital for reshaping the goals and objectives of future programs. The proposed evaluation tools consist of a food frequency questionnaire, food preference questionnaire, nutrition knowledge game, focus group questions, interview questions, and observations. Once implemented, this evaluation has the potential to add valuable data to the relatively minimal body of research related to systems effects of gardening programs. The public health significance of this paper is that with childhood obesity on the rise, we have the opportunity to create lasting programs that not only influence nutrition knowledge but integrate that knowledge into a child's understanding of his or her role in changing the environment and developing cooperative networks

Peace-process infrastructure: constructing landscapes in-between Irelands

Over the course of 30 years ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland led to the rupturing of physical sites from people’s everyday environment. In a post ‘Good Friday/Belfast Agreement’ era, this thesis considers the construction of common ground and the space of encounter as an instrument in peacemaking. I investigate how both the physical and the imagined landscape work together to form what I call peace-process infrastructure: landscapes that bolster a peaceprocess by being re-appropriated for civilian purposes and knit back into their surroundings. Under the practice strand of this study, I use movement as a tactic by choosing a series of traverses that were not possible to undertake as a civilian during the conflict: Divis Mountain next to Belfast City which changed hands from military zone to nature reserve; the now navigable Shannon-Erne Waterway; and the borderline hills between Ireland/European Union and Northern Ireland/United Kingdom where the watchtowers once stood. The garnered film footage works as testimony to a fragile peace-process, which in turn becomes an active archive that generates text. Specific tools that were used at each site to overcome topographical distance — limelight, lock and lens — are deployed once more to make what is considered remote and out of touch, close and tangible. At its heart, this project builds a multi-tiered rendering of particular landscapes — drawing on Hannah Arendt, Edmund Burke, amongst other political, landscape and feminism theorists — but it is motivated by the larger desire to contribute to a worldwide discussion about peace-process situations from a spatial perspective. People’s reactions to the constructed encounter in the world around them are a direct consequence to the architectural systems that command our surroundings. Landscapes hold the potential to deconstruct toxic territorial organisation leading to creative production. Revolutions are not just a protest but a creative process — a tool for remaking states and societies. In world terms the cultural Irish revolution preceded the political revolution galvanising world and Irish opinion towards independence for Ireland in 1916. About one hundred years later, this work creates a cultural milieu about the peace process that gathers strength for its advancement

Small food stores and availability of nutritious foods: a comparison of database and in-store measures, Northern California, 2009.

IntroductionSmall food stores are prevalent in urban neighborhoods, but the availability of nutritious food at such stores is not well known. The objective of this study was to determine whether data from 3 sources would yield a single, homogenous, healthful food store category that can be used to accurately characterize community nutrition environments for public health research.MethodsWe conducted in-store surveys in 2009 on store type and the availability of nutritious food in a sample of nonchain food stores (n = 102) in 6 predominantly urban counties in Northern California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Santa Clara). We compared survey results with commercial database information and neighborhood sociodemographic data by using independent sample t tests and classification and regression trees.ResultsSampled small food stores yielded a heterogeneous group of stores in terms of store type and nutritious food options. Most stores were identified as convenience (54%) or specialty stores (22%); others were small grocery stores (19%) and large grocery stores (5%). Convenience and specialty stores were smaller and carried fewer nutritious and fresh food items. The availability of nutritious food and produce was better in stores in neighborhoods that had a higher percentage of white residents and a lower population density but did not differ significantly by neighborhood income.ConclusionCommercial databases alone may not adequately categorize small food stores and the availability of nutritious foods. Alternative measures are needed to more accurately inform research and policies that seek to address disparities in diet-related health conditions

From 19th Century Social Reform to 21st Century School Improvement: A Community Service-Learning Quilting Project for Middle School Students

From 19th Century Social Reform to 21st Century School Improvement is an interdisciplinary teaching unit built around a community service learning quilting project. It is designed for use by middle schoolteachers who want to integrate lessons from United States history (19th Century social reform), English/ Language Arts (writing of school improvement plans), and mathematics (scale drawing and measurement in quilt design). The unit includes approximately two weeks of academic work; an additional period of time is needed in school or after school if students are going to sew their quilts