Four dietetic interns from Sodexo and Virginia Tech spent a week each with AFAC as part of their community rotation internship. AFAC was fortunate to have their assistance from the last week of March until the first week of May.
Melinda Cater, Sodexo Dietetic Intern and Master’s degree candidate in Nutrition/Dietetics, was a great help during the last week of March. Melinda has been a volunteer for the past few years, but spent a week assisting with surveys, conducting cooking/nutrition demonstrations, and writing blogs about her experience. Melinda assisted the Arlington Office of Emergency Management with a food safety and nutrition presentation for older adults and presented a five minute Ignite presentation on “Sugar…Not as Sweet as it Sounds” at AFAC and Virginia Cooperative Extension’s National Nutrition Month event.
James Brockwell, MS in Nutrition Education and Sodexo Dietetic Intern, spent time with AFAC during the first week of April. James spent a few hours during his first day working in the warehouse and meeting with AFAC staff to get a better understanding of how AFAC works. During the week he conducted surveys, cooking demonstrations, and assisted with a kids Cooking Matters class. He will be spending the rest of the week creating lessons for a new set of cooking and nutrition classes with First Presbyterian Church’s English as a Second Language students.
Shelby Vaughn, BS in Dietetics and a Sodexo Dietetic Intern, helped AFAC by conducting cooking/nutrition demonstrations, teaching classes on My Plate, creating a new display board on physical education, creating new handouts, and creating several lesson plans. Shelby worked with families at five community partner sites, four of which were AFAC distribution sites.
Jenny Dang, a Virginia Tech dietetic intern, helped AFAC during the last week of April and the first week of May. Jenny spent about 50 hours doing her last community rotation at AFAC by conducting cooking/nutrition demonstrations, teaching classes on My Plate to children, gleaning for spinach at a local farm, assisting with a Health Fair at Marymount University, and creating several lesson plans!
We hope to see Melinda, James, Shelby, and Jenny back at AFAC after they graduate! Volunteers, staff, and families were impressed with their work ethic and enthusiasm for nutrition education, food safety, and community health. They inters were a great help to AFAC and we hope to continue this partnership with Sodexo and Virginia Tech.
The post Dietetic Interns at AFAC appeared first on AFAC.
