Mark McCaw writes…
This week, four students accepted the call
to conduct a health outreach to refugees and immigrants in a seven-week poverty immersion experience called the Student Medical Immersion. Check out the tab above by that name…read their profiles…pray for their preparation…and feel free to make a charitable donation to support their involvement.
Nashville, the home of country music, actually has several concentrated pockets of refugees who have fled war-torn homelands and now reside here legally…trying to adapt to a new culture and eke out a living. They face many struggles in adapting to American culture – they are often uneducated on basic issues that have significant adverse effects on their health. These students are committing to spend their summer living and working among them to teach about nutrition, safe food preparation and storage, exercise, how to navigate our health care system. They will also be able to share God’s great love for them as expressed through Jesus Christ.
I’m excited to follow your adventures this summer! It’s going to be inspiring to see how you all pull together healthy menus on a food stamp budget. I’m encouraging my Belmont FNP students to follow your blog. As PCPs, if we can encourage healthy food choices while still acknowledging real-life financial barriers, I think we’ll start to see real change in our patients!
I have found food stamps to be a generous program, so it shouldn’t be too hard! I think the biggest problem is for people to learn to actually cook and make healthy choices – avoid the prepackaged, instant foods and experience the freshness of “just made.” I’m always surprised at how food stamps is seen to be so limiting – my daughter and I never ate as well as when we had food stamps! I think it’s a cultural thing – we’ve lost the art of cooking from scratch, canning and eating fresh. Perhaps teaching these lost arts would be just as effective as training people to make better off-the-shelf choices! Good luck in your programs, they can only help!!!