Blog Reflection

This, being most of our first blog experience, has been a very educational one that has opened our eyes to the benefits of sharing opinions through social networking. When reading the other blogs it was very beneficial to have issues that pertain to our potential lives and professions in such an easy to learn way. This has definitely motivated us to become more involved politically as nurses now that we have seen all of the potentially beneficial legislature pertaining to our profession. Why does being a patient advocate have to stop when you leave the hospital?

Nursing gives us the unique opportunity to see people's needs from a different perspective and it is amazing that we have this way to share our insight with politicians who lack the knowledge of how beneficial some of this legislature really is to our society. Our perception of the nurse's role in politics has been forever changed and we look forward to learning more about how we can make a difference in the world.

Being Put into Action

As a group we contacted all of the key stakeholders associated with our bill on Food Deserts. We received no reply from any of the politicians and our bill continues to be left in Rules. We firmly believe that this bill will not get passed without serious additions and revisions, some of which are stated in our political action plan.

If additions were made to the bill stating exactly where the money would come from and how it would be used, this bill would be easily supported but until the additions are made no further progress can be made.

We think this is a really great idea that could greatly benefit underserved communities in our State. The benefits of a healthy diet being affordable and available are invaluable to the health status of these communities. We hope that our opinions of additions will be taken into consideration and that this bill will eventually be passed leading towards a healthy America.

Contacting Key Stakeholders and Updates on the Bill

This week our group contacted the following people:

The chief patron of this bill: Delores McQuinn

She is a delegate for the 70^th district of Virginia. Her areas of special interest include youth and family success, education, public safety, and neighborhood improvements. She is currently serving on committees for General Laws, Counties Cities and Towns, and Transportation. 

And other patrons:

Mamye BaCote: 

She is a delegate for the 95^th district of Virginia. She is currently serving on the General Laws, Health Welfare and Institutions, and Transportation committees. 

Betsy Carr:

She has been a member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2009 representing parts of the City of Richmond. She serves on the Transportation, Finance, and General Laws Committees. In the House she serves as the House Democratic Caucus and the co-chair of the Capital Region Caucus.

Roslyn Tyler: 

She is a delegate for Virginia’s 75^th district. She is currently serving on committees for Education, Commerce and Labor, and Militia Police and Public Safety.

      We contacted these legislators because they are the patrons of the bill and will help to further develop this bill and push it forward.

     As of February 14, 2012, this bill is currently “Left in Rules.” This means that in the House subcommittee, it was given first consideration, but not automatically given second consideration and “laid on the table” to be reviewed at the next legislative day. If it is not removed from the table after 15 days, it is automatically removed and placed on the calendar for second consideration the next legislative day. Therefore, there have been no further developments in our bill. 

Political Action Plan

Food Deserts

              It is common knowledge that America’s obesity rate is climbing and there are still areas in America where healthy food is not available or affordable. Our group believes that this is a very important issue and this bill comes at a great time; America is moving towards a healthy change. This bill calls for making healthy food available and affordable in “Food Deserts,” which are defined as areas where there is limited access to healthy food. The bill, however, does not state any specifics on how they plan to do this. The initial cost is going to be significant and this could be difficult on an already stretched budget, but we believe the benefits of this bill greatly outweigh the initial costs.

Political action plan: 

1. Government Agency designated for implementing strategies to increase the availability of healthy foods.

• There should be one committee that is in charge of implementing this project. 
• Supportive research shows that by combining behavioral change and environmental strategies to increase the availability of healthy food choices in local shops and consumption of nutritional foods. The media and free giveaways, including water bottles, were used to encourage to participation. Modifying outdoor food advertising is an example of advertising the opportunity to increase healthy food promotion and decrease unhealthy food promotion.  
• The government can implement small steps like these to promote participation.

 2. Communities where this is to be implemented should undergo a general health survey one year before, and one year after, healthy foods are made available.

• Each year a survey, involving health and eating habits, should be performed to chart the improvement of the community’s health to see if it’s worth the cost that it takes to implement.

        3. Encourage people to buy from local farmers and encourage the institution of Farmer’s Markets to make access to healthy food easier.  The government should offer big corporations, such as Wal-Mart, incentives to encourage them to purchase from local farmers. This would decrease the transportation costs and support the local American economy. 

   

• Governmental incentives to these corporations could potentially involve tax refunds for supporting the local economy and benefiting the community through providing healthy foods. Research shows that protecting and supporting urban agriculture and horticulture increases access to healthy foods within the community.

       4. These interventions should be done on a small scale first, choosing a few small communities in Food Deserts, so we can determine the impact. If the impact is significant, then we can move to a larger scale in Virginia, and eventually across the US.  

Stakeholders:

Delores McQuinn, Mamye BaCote, Betsy Carr, and Roslyn Tyler.

Scholarly Research:

Evans, A., Wilson, D., Buck, J., Torbett, H., & Williams, J. (2006). Outcome expectations, barriers, and strategies for healthful eating: a perspective from adolescents from low-income families. Family & Community Health, 29(1), 17-27.

Good, E., Hammond, M., Martin, C., Burns, C., & Groos, A. (2010). An audit of local government planning tools for their potential use in addressing community food and nutrition issues. Health Promotion Journal Of Australia, 21(1), 5-11.

Sharma, S., Gittelsohn, J., Rosol, R., & Beck, L. (2010). Addressing the public health burden caused by the nutrition transition through the Healthy Foods North nutrition and lifestyle intervention programme. Journal Of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, 23120-127. doi:10.1111/j.1365-277X.2010.01107.x

HJ 88 Food deserts: Governmental Objectives, Political Influences, and Impact

Governmental Objectives:
     Governmental objectives stated in the bill include “creating innovative ways and opportunities to make affordable healthy foods available and accessible to poor citizens and their families which may help to improve health outcomes, increase economic productivity, lower morbidity and mortality rates, reduce disease and chronic health conditions, lessen the need for certain costly health and social services, and control exorbitant and spiraling health care costs.”

Political Influences:

     Supporters of this bill include the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, United States Department of Agriculture, and the School Nutrition Association.

     NSAC strongly advocates for the bill because in making healthy food affordable, they are hoping people will buy more locally, supporting local farmers and thereby boosting the local economy as well as address the health needs of the community.

http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/us-mayors-food-policy/

     USDA believes that this bill and many like it will combat hunger and improve health status through healthy diets. They state there are “1 out of 6 Americans facing food insecurity and 2 out of 3 adults overweight.”

http://www.snaptohealth.org/farm-bill-usda/farm-bill-2012-platforms/

     The School Nutrition Association supports collaborative efforts and legislation to make access to child nutrition programs more available. They also support America’s agriculture community and its efforts to supply nutritious food to schools and Federal funding to ensure a comprehensive coordinated nutrition education program in schools.

http://www.asfsa.org/Content.aspx?id=2378

     Through research, while we originally thought that fast food restaurants and chain grocery stores such as Walmart would oppose this bill, they are actually in support of incorporating healthy foods into these ‘food deserts.’ It is well known that America needs to change its dieting habits because of the increasing number of obese people.

     Those who oppose this bill will be focused on lack of planning and the amount of money it will cost to implement these programs.

Potential Impact on Nursing, Clients, and the Health Care System:

     In changing the diets of community members it will increase positive health outcomes which affects clients, nurses, and the health care system.

     Childhood obesity has tripled over the last 25 years. Obesity carries with it many co-morbidities including diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease. Patients are developing these problems at a younger age, which is putting increased stress on our health care system. It is a widely known fact that low-income families are unable to provide nutritionally adequate diets for their families so they have a higher risk of becoming obese. In providing health food at lower costs and educating we would be decreasing the rate of obesity, which would lower the rate of chronic illnesses suffered by people who are overweight.

     Beginning nutritional education at a young age as well as educating their parents,  it is possible to teach them the risks of unhealthy eating and what it can lead to.  

Scholarly Research:

Childhood Obesity Trends:

Skelton, J., Cook, S., Auinger, P., Klein, J., & Barlow, S. (2009). Prevalence and trends of severe obesity among US children and adolescents. Academic Pediatrics, 9(5), 322-329. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285909001090 doi:10.1016/j.acap.2009.04.005

How the Food Industry Drives Us to Eat:

Brownell, K. (2010). In your face: how the food industry drives us to eat. Nutrition Action Health Letter, 37(4), 3-6. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/In+your+face%3A+how+the+food+industry+drives+us+to+eat.-a0224932028 

Introduction to Affordable and Available Food

HJ 88 Food deserts; SHHR to explore strategies to eliminate to make healthy food affordable, report. 

House Patrons for the Bill: Delores L. McQuinn (Chief Patron), Mamye E. BaCote, Betsy B. Carr, Roslyn C. Tyler

        This bill encourages the government to look into making healthy food affordable for low income populations. There is a vast number of people living in poverty in our country and it has been shown that the lower the income, the greater the health problems.

        Increasing healthy food availability to low income populations, increases health status, economic productivity, and reduces morbidity and mortality rates.

        Initially, there will be extensive costs to set up programs enabling low income populations access to these products, which is stressful on an already overextended budget. However, the benefits greatly outweigh the initial costs. Risks for this bill include cost, knowledge deficit, and disinterest in healthy eating.