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INTER-PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: LOG
Project Description:
Each session at Healing Farms looked similar. I was able to go in, connect with the participants,
teach a short lesson, and guide them through a learning activity. In each session, we focused on a
different aspect of nutrition and food preparation. The goal of these classes was to enable the
participants to know how to make healthy food choices, ways to cook food safely, and begin to
understand balancing caloric intake with energy expenditure for weight maintenance. We talked
about what specific vitamins and macronutrients do for our bodies and their importance. After
each lesson, the participants were able to use the Healing Farms kitchen to make a fun snack
under the supervision of staff members and myself. Allowing them a safe environment to learn to
prepare foods enables them to carry these skills into their homes and future families. Having
knowledge of how to select healthy food options, build a grocery list, navigate a supermarket,
cook, and set a table will benefit these young adult for years to come. I worked alongside the
full-time staff at Healing Farms to learn their missions, support their ministry, and integrate
myself into their daily work. The team welcomed me in and supported my program by joining in
with all of the activities.
Team Members:
Tron Severe (Executive Director, Co-Founder): Tron serves as the main point of contact for
Healing Farms. As a Co-Founder, he speaks at engagements in the community, works on finding
donations and sponsorships, finds ways to grow the organization, and takes care of his team.
Tron is very involved in the day-to-day operations at Healing Farms and is almost always on-
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site. He is deeply connected with all of the participants and their families. He makes sure that
people’s needs are met, listens to new ideas, implements changes, and loves people very well.
Tron was my main point of contact for this service project and helped me to succeed. He gave
me all of the tools for my lessons, found funding for the cooking projects, and provided
manpower to keep everyone supervised.
Mary Tutterow (Co-Founder, Community Engagement): Mary is also a Co-Founder of Healing
Farms. She is currently in a more administrative role for the organization. She is responsible for
community partnerships. Mary is the one contacting local companies, grocery stores, churches,
and food banks asking if the Healing Farms adults can come into their spaces and learn real-life
experience. Mary is very well connected in the community and does a great job at finding
outside places for these young adults to volunteer and learn at. Mary also acts as the current
volunteer coordinator. She was the first person that I contacted when I selected this service
project, and she was able to organize my schedule for volunteering. I was able to get to know
Mary as she helped me to develop a written plan for my lessons to send out to the parents of the
participants to gain their consent and support for what their child was about to do.
Abreigh Youngblood (Clinical Intern): Abreigh is a clinical intern at Healing Farms for the
semester. She is a graduate student studying Social Work at a local college. Abreigh’s intern
responsibilities mostly include interacting with the participants, organizing communication
between Healing Farms and the parents, and coming up with fun new activities for everyone to
participate in. Since she is not planning to be on staff for more than one semester, her role was
very focused on participant interaction and building relationships. I had lots of interaction with
Abreigh since she was always with the participants when they came into my classroom, and she
came into the grocery store and kitchen with us.
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Edward Tucker (Volunteer): Edward is one of the most consistent volunteers at Healing Farms.
He spends 4 days per week at the campus helping in any way that is needed on that day. He is
such a faithful servant and loves the Lord so evidently. It was incredible to see someone
choosing to spend their time serving others with such compassion and grace. Edward was often
in the same spaces that I was in, and we were able to serve alongside one another many times.
DATE
S
HOURS ACTIVITIES SIGNATURE
11/4 2 On this first day of meeting the participants, I
began to teach them basic nutrition knowledge in
the classroom. We talked about the different
types of macronutrients and why each one is
important for the body. We talked about which
types of foods are high in which types of
macronutrients. I taught them about the
unhealthy food options that are consistently
offered to them, and the impacts of added sugars
and unhealthy fats found in processed foods. The
participants and I made a chart on the
whiteboard of their current food snacking
preferences and healthy alternatives that they can
begin to reach for instead. On this day, we
created a plan for the following three sessions.
We decided that session 2 would focus on meal
planning, session 3 would focus on grocery store
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etiquette and execution, and session 4 would
focus on preparing our food in a safe way. After
the first classroom session ended, the
participants were invited to come into the
kitchen. In the kitchen space, I had prepared the
table with lots of different snacking options
(processed chips, fruit, granola bars, candy, etc.)
and their task was to separate the snacks into
healthy and unhealth piles. We then had a snack
break (eating the healthy snacks) before using
the leftover fruit to make a fruit salad. Since the
participants haven’t been taught how to safely
cut fruit, the fruit was pre-cut, and we focused
on assembling a fruit salad in a bowl and finding
a proper utensil to serve it with.
11/5 2 Session 2 was focused on meal planning. We
built on yesterday’s lesson of healthy and
unhealthy food options and macronutrients. We
talked about calories and how they are the
energy that our bodies need to function and
exercise. The participants learned how to find
the calories on a food label. We talked about
reaching calorie goals (2,000 kcal per day), and
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how our calorie goals change based on our
activity levels and weight goals. Then, we spent
a long time using Chronometer.com and building
example meal plans that reach near our 2,000-
kcal goal with foods that are healthy and
enjoyable. It was interesting to see which foods
the adults picked and their reactions when
realizing how many calories are in their favorite
snacks. We decided which meal we were going
to attempt to cook in session 4 so that we could
see its caloric values and macronutrient
breakdown. The participants decided that they
would like to cook tacos. After the classroom
portion of this session, we went into the kitchen
where I had set up different types of dips to
snack on with different vegetables. The
participants tried cucumbers, celery, carrots, and
broccoli with hummus, ranch, tzatziki sauce, and
blue cheese. We discussed the benefits of
healthy snacking, and they were able to try new
foods.
11/11 2 Before heading to the grocery store for session 3,
we met in the classroom to talk about
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expectations and build a grocery list. Many of
these adults had never shopped for themselves at
a grocery store. Although we would be nearby, I
wanted to instill confidence in them that they
would lead the way in Publix today. I taught
them about walking in a store, the general layout
of a grocery store, how to politely ask for help
finding an item, to bag their produce, and
checkout manners. We reminded them to avoid
unhealthy snacks that look tempting on the
shelves and how to check food labels for
nutrition facts. We then spent a short period of
time building the grocery list for our taco dinner.
The participants brainstormed ingredients
needed and concluded that they would buy
ground beef, flour tortillas, a block of colby jack
cheese, lettuce, a few tomatoes, chips and salsa.
Abreigh, Tron, and I loaded them into the
Healing Farms van and took them to Publix. The
participants did a great job collaborating to find
all of the things on the list and successfully
checked out with everything we needed. When
returning the Healing Farms, we talked about
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proper ways to store groceries. The refrigerated
items needed to be put away in the refrigerator
and shelf-stable items needed to be placed neatly
on the shelf for our cooking adventure
tomorrow. We then sat in the kitchen and made
air-popped popcorn on the stove. This was
mostly a demonstration, but the participants
were able to see how it is done and enjoy a
healthy snack.
11/12 2 The fourth session in the classroom was all about
kitchen safety. I taught the participants about
when would be an appropriate time to call 911,
how to handle a fire extinguisher, the best way to
carry kitchen scissors so they don’t hurt
someone, how to cut something without cutting
your fingers, proper handling of boiling water,
and reminded them of objects in the kitchen that
might be hot. It is likely that these adults will
never cook without someone else nearby, but
even with supervision, it is important that they
learn the consequences and dangers of not
paying attention in the kitchen. Then, we headed
over to the kitchen for some experience. We
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decided to all work on one aspect of dinner at the
same time so that everyone could try every type
of preparation step. Tron and I supervised and
assisted in the preparation of tacos. Each
participant was able to wash produce, work on
cutting it, and placing it to the side for later use.
We all seasoned the ground beef, stirred it on the
stovetop, and talked about what it would look
like when fully cooked. When the beef was
cooked thoroughly, the participants safely
drained the grease off of it and set the meat into
a bowl for use at lunch. Finally, the tortillas were
warmed in the microwave. We talked about how
to properly set a table with all of the utensils, a
plate, and a cup. The adults were then able to set
their own place at the table before we all sat
down to enjoy our tacos and talk about our
experience cooking a meal. Many people shared
that they learned so much from planning, going
to the grocery store and then cooking the meal.
They had no idea that so many steps were
involved in eating something healthy and
nutritious.
