Winter break provided a substantial amount of time for me to deep dive into the world of plant-based nutrition and the obesity epidemic in the United States. Through some wonderful connections I was able to interview 6 experts in various fields in order to understand nutrition from a multidisciplinary view.
I interviewed: - The Director of the Nutrition Department at Bastyr - A medical doctor who has been published hundreds of times for research on the connection between child obesity and their environment. - A wellness-coach who emphasizes the use of plants as nutrition and eating mindfully - A 16 year old self-proclaimed vegan student. - The head architect of The University of Washington. - The lead of University of Washington’s Landscape Architecture designs. From these varying perspectives I gained a deeper understanding of the potential for change that food can offer Americans. To further my research I watched the documentaries: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead; Sugar-Coated; Forks over Knives; The Kids Menu; Vegecated; Cowspiracy; PlanEat; and Plant Pure Nation. These documentaries all shared a common theme: that despite scientific evidence, Americans have been taught that food is for consumption and not health. The food paradigm throughout the States pressures us to make unhealthy decisions about what we consume. The lack of food education and access to fresh produce has detached the American public from where we source foods which has created a disconnect between what we see at the grocery store and what we see growing in the ground. My project is focused on reconnecting the American public with the food they consume in an effort to decrease life style induced diseases. In order to approach this task I’ve decided to focus my efforts in school-aged children. By teaching them and allowing them to have access to fresh foods which are well prepared. Beginning with the kids has been successful in multiple cities such as Chicago where a community garden was built geared towards high schoolers. The garden has become wildly successful and has changed all of its members lives. Community gardens have long been put into schools as a solution for getting them more involved with the food they eat. However, the major limitation with this solution is that during the most fruitful months- the summer- the kids are gone and never experience the satisfaction of eating what they grew. According to the head of the Nutrition Department at Bastyr the most successful way for people to change their eating habits is by physically putting food into their hands and having them try how velvety smooth, rich and creamy parsnips can become when blended and mixed with toasted coriander seeds. By letting kids try these treats they become interested and excited about what they are consuming, bringing that interest home. Many times people’s only option is to eat a $1 bag of Cheetos verses a $2 bruised banana. Some areas don’t have access to any fresh foods because they live in a food desert, meaning there is not fresh foods available within 5 miles. The correlation between food deserts, low school district ratings, life style diseases and income are strong. In more impoverished areas where there is no available fresh, whole foods, there is more disease. To make this project more tangible I wanted to keep it as local as possible. I began researching where in WA state there were food deserts, high obesity rates, high heart disease, low school district ratings and high cancer rates. By looking at the map and shading areas of gray I found the most affected areas in Aberdeen, in the county Grays Harbor along the coast. I looked at major towns in these areas and compared their census data and found that almost a quarter of Aberdeen’s population is school age. Having so many school aged kids could really positively change this area. They have 2 public high schools, and multiple elementary schools, yet only one middle school which is on the other side of the river than the other schools. All of the schools in the area rate less than 3 of 10 on their test scores, leaving a lot of room for improvement. My project will focus on rehabilitating a community in the heart of Aberdeen on the lot next to one on the high schools and an elementary school. The lot is zoned for commercial and will be transformed into a community park and green house that will be open year round producing foods. Students will be welcomed to work in the garden for free food; the DECA club at the high school will work in the small retail shop attached to the greenhouses; and classes from all three schools will be held in the space to learn about the earth. The building will work towards earning the Living Building certification, being self-sufficient and therefore not changing the homeostasis of the community. The schools will also receive grants from Farm to School, and will begin incorporating local produce and products in place of nationally produced ones (such as changing to a local swiss cheese verses American cheese). Farms to Schools is already in existence in WA in the Bellevue School District and has had very positive feedback. Moving forward my next steps are to think about what the needs are of such a lavish building. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Barrett, Peter, and Yufan Zhang. "Teachers' Views on the Designs of their Primary Schools." Intelligent Buildings International 4.2 (2012): 89-110. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. Campbell, Thomas M., and Dan Woren. The China Study. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio, 2016. Print. Chiles, Prue. "Classrooms for the Future: 'an Adventure in Design' and Research." Arq : Architectural Research Quarterly 7.3 (2003): 244-61. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. Gislason, Neil. "Mapping School Design: A Qualitative Study of the Relations among Facilities Design, Curriculum Delivery, and School Climate." The Journal of Environmental Education 40.4 (2009): 17-33. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. King County. "Commercially-grown farm products in King County, Washington." Commercially-grown farm products in King County, Washington - King County. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2017. LB Web Pro of Grays Harbor WA. "History of Aberdeen." Brief History of Aberdeen WA. N.p., 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. Mozaffar, Farhang, and Seyedeh Somayeh Mirmoradi. "Effective use of Nature in Educational Spaces Design." Organization, Technology & Management in Construction 4.1 (2012)ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. Roehl, Amy, Shweta Linga Reddy, and Gayla Jett Shannon. "The Flipped Classroom: An Opportunity to Engage Millennial Students through Active Learning." Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences 105.2 (2013): 44-9. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. Sigurðardóttir, Anna Kristín, and Torfi Hjartarson. "School Buildings for the 21st Century: Some Features of New School Buildings in Iceland." CEPS Journal : Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal 1.2 (2011): 25-43. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017. The American Heat Association. "Overweight in Children." Overweight in Children. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2017. Power, Mark, and Sunand Prasad. "Schools for the Future: Inner City Secondary Education Exemplar." Arq : Architectural Research Quarterly 7.3 (2003): 262-79. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
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I’m designing a Living Building certified middle school that features IB curriculum, locally sourced products for the meals (through the Farm to School program) and a community green house that will be open to the public year round, will be maintained by the kids during school and by the community center during the summer. Archives
May 2017
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