Please respond to each of these discussion board posts using 250-300 words. Be sure to not

limit your response to just "I agree with your post. Expand on the ideas discussed in a clear and

1

concise manner.

Casey H

1. The aggregate-level problem I am focusing in the community of the Forest Park neighborhood of

Springfield, Massachusetts is inadequate childhood nutrition, which contributes to chronic health

problems such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Primordial prevention of these

disease states can be accomplished by influence lifestyle habits of good nutrition and physical activity in

school age children. Prevalence of disease and the need for further levels of prevention (primary.

secondary, tertiary) can hopefully be decreased (Kisling & Das, 2023) with promoting children's healthy

habits.

The epidemiological triangle describes the interrelationship of the host, the agent, and the environment

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). In this example of childhood nutrition in the Forest

Park neighborhood, the host is the child, the agent is nutrient deficient foods, and the environment is the

family and school which provide the food. There are already a few programs existing in the area to

promote childhood nutrition in families such as WIC and HIP. WIC provides food vouchers and nutritional

education to parents and children under 5 years old (WIC Information for Participants | Mass.gov, n.d.).

HIP (Healthy Incentive Program) provides supplemental purchases to food stamps for purchase of local

fruits and vegetables (Massachusetts Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) | Mass.gov, n.d.). From my

observations in the community, local school-provided meals are often highly processed, high in sugar and

untasty-leading to a large amount of food waste. Joyce et al. (2018) compared 6 weeks of an actual

school lunch menu meeting National School Lunch Program guidelines with a "best practice" school lunch

menu designed by a dietician and found significant nutritional differences. There is much improvement to

made in school meals which could require employing a district dietician more utilization of local produce.

But school-provided meals not only feed children but also provide an opportunity to introduce them to

tasty, healthy meals using fresh ingredients and encourage lifelong healthy habits.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Lesson 1 understanding the epidemiologic triangle

through infectious disease. cdc.gov. Retrieved September 21, 2023, from

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/bamteachers/documents/epi_1_triangle.pdf

Joyce, J. M., Rosenkranz, R. R., & Rosenkranz, S. K. (2018). Variation in Nutritional Quality of School

Lunches With Implementation of National School Lunch Program Guidelines. The Journal of school

health, 88(9), 636-643. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12665

Kisling, L. A., & Das, J. M. (2023, August 1). Prevention Strategies. National Library of Medicine:

StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537222/

Massachusetts Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) | Mass.gov. (n.d.). Www.mass.gov. Retrieved

September 12, 2023, from

https://www.mass.govinfo-details/massachusetts-healthy-incentives-program-hip

Nicole L