The Baltimore Nutrition Group

During Food As Medicine 2006 and 2007, The Center provided training in clinical nutrition to 25 health professionals who are currently offering nutritional counseling and education in schools, clinics, hospitals and educational institutions in underserved communities in Baltimore, Maryland (22 participants) and Washington, DC (3 participants).

These Scholars are serving Baltimore City Head Start; the Baltimore City Health Department, School Health Program; the Special Needs Clinic, Johns Hopkins; JHU School of Nursing’s Birth Companions Program; Chronic Kidney Failure Clinic & Drug Rehab Center; the Jericho Program, a post-prison project; the Penn North Clinic substance abuse program; Children’s National Medical Center; and Howard University.

In addition, the Center has:  

  • Provided a day-long Community Nutrition Educators Workshop for these Scholars and their staffs
  • Created power points and handouts on healthy nutrition for the use of workshop participants and the public, through a new Community Nutrition Resources page on the Center’s website
  • Begun creation and support of an on-going, sustainable Baltimore Nutrition Group (BNG), made up of health professionals interested in networking, discussion around common challenges and solutions, and continuing education.
    • A lunch & learn session is scheduled for April 2008 on the topic of Eating Healthy Economically

This work has been generously supported by the Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Foundation, a Baltimore family foundation promoting social justice and human rights. We are most grateful for their vision and support, as are our Blaustein Scholars.
 

“This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Only the birth of my daughters tops this training… I can now create a cohesive learning tool for the staff who are charged with counseling our students. This training should be made a mandatory part of every course we health care professionals take during our training. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”

Aasya Amatus-Salaam , MS , BSN
Community Health Nurse Supervisor I,
Baltimore City Health Department, School Health Program  

“The information I received will serve me well as I work with our staff, parents and children…Most importantly, I learned that there is a holistic approach to good nutrition which starts with self, and then spreads to others. Our goal for our Head Start participants includes a “head start” on understanding the power of nutrition.”

Burnette Douglass Rahmaan, MS
Health Coordinator, Baltimore City Head Start

“Thanks to your vision and your commitment to the people we serve, I was able to attend, absorb, gain and share from this superb mind and body experience. It has been nourishing, fresh, vibrant, and colorful like a good, yummy organic salad. Now it is time to apply the knowledge. Thank you!”

Elva Anderson, BFA, MPS, Health Educator/Art Therapist,
Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC

“The information from the Food as Medicine continues to serve those clients from the community that I see in clinic... II am finding that whatever the population, the potential for food allergies impacting the health of youngsters through to the elderly, is so commonplace and prevalent. Addressing this cause with eliminating and reintroducing foods is serving to resolve many health issues…The conference was a gift to me that keeps on giving.”

Thelema C. Martin, RD, LD , Chronic Kidney Failure Clinic & Drug Rehab Center, Baltimore, MD

“As a nutritionist working in low-income urban communities for over 22 years, I found the course to be invaluable.  It has helped to bridge the gap between science and application.  I can explain from a broadened knowledge base why an individual can prevent and even heal disease through nutrition. In addition, the course was presented in a way that I can easily translate the information to a lay person. And as a result of this course my nutrition work in the community will focus more on inclusion of ‘whole foods’ and less on elimination of ‘partial foods’. The whole foods will squeeze out the partial foods.”

Linda Thompson, MS, Doctoral Student, Howard University