Comments from Ann Patrick

The Interest Meeting was a great success. Thanks to everyone who came out and shared ideas for starting community gardens in the Williamsburg area. We had some great speakers, including Ann Patrick, a local nurse and diabetic educator who spoke about the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables in combating obesity and treating diabetes -- and how disadvantaged folks have limited access to them because of cost and because food banks and USDA subsidies often don't offer them. Below are her comments in full.

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My name is Ann Patrick—I’m a nurse working as a diabetic educator at The Lackey Free Clinic in Yorktown. My patients are all uninsured and living close to the poverty line. Many of my patients live on food stamps or supplement their food supply at area food bank distribution points.

Last fall I was getting increasingly frustrated that my diabetic patients didn’t seem to be listening to dietary advice. I try to encourage them to eat at least 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily along with adequate servings of protein from lean sources. At one group meeting one of my patients tearfully admitted that she couldn’t afford to buy fruits and vegetables for her family—one serving was expensive; five to seven servings for a whole family was impossible. Soon four other women, all mothers, were crying and agreeing with her that they couldn’t possibly afford to eat the way they knew they should.



It truly was an eye-opener for me—almost a shock. Most of us here are probably able to buy whatever food we want or need. I had assumed that they didn’t know, or most probably didn’t care how important eating the right foods is for a diabetic. For a diabetic, food is medicine—good food, a healthy well-balanced diet combined with daily exercise is the only way to change an escalating spiral of diabetic complications even if they are taking all of their medications.

Let me tell you a little about diabetes.

Did you know that one child in three born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime?

As of 2007, there were 24 million people in the US with diagnosed diabetes. Another 57 million are estimated to have pre-diabetes—a condition that puts people at increased risk for diabetes.

Did you know that diabetes is the leading cause of heart disease and that 75 percent of those with diabetes will die of heart disease?

Did you know that the total medical cost of diabetes in the US in 2002 was $92 billion—combined with the indirect cost of $40 billion from disability payments, days of work lost and premature death, the total cost in 2002 was $132 billion.
Whether you develop diabetes or not depends on many different factors—the most prominent are the genes you inherit, continued obesity and lack of exercise. If you have the genetic makeup and are at an unhealthy weight, your chances are high that eventually you will develop pre-diabetes or full-blown diabetes.

Diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Its outcome can be changed drastically by a committed change in the way we eat and the amount of exercise we get. It can be held at bay with no symptoms with simple lifestyle changes.

In the U.S. we’ve seen a huge increase in obesity in all age groups---the most disturbing of which are children. It’s not that unusual for a child of 15 and under to show up in an emergency room deathly ill from Type II diabetes caused by morbid obesity. Previously we wouldn’t suspect Diabetes II in an overweight person until at least 25-35 years and usually older. Childhood used to be reserved for Type I diabetes—which is usually caused by a viral disease that kills the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. Now it is very common for young adults in their teens and early 20s to succumb to Type II.

In January, 2009 The National Center of Health Statistics released a study that showed that 34percent of Americans are obese—with another 32.7percent who are just overweight. In other words, two thirds of Americans are overweight –half of those are obese with a body mass index over 30. Look at the girth of those around you. Waist size over 40 inches in males and over 32 inches for women is considered overweight and probably signals metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the unhealthy combo of high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance that leads directly to diabetes and heart disease.

This increase in obesity and diabetes is directly connected to our dependence on fast-food and sugary drinks. Fast food mega companies are pouring great amounts of money and effort into getting us all addicted to high fat, high sugar diets. With the dollar menus that are so low priced –lots of fat and calories for very little money and no prep time! And it is addictive—the more we eat the more we crave—it’s a vicious cycle of overeating.

As parents and as a community we need to focus on changing this trend. Schools don’t teach home-ec or basic nutrition anymore—and with Mom and Dad both working, cooking at home ‘from scratch’ , as my Mom used to say, is almost obsolete. So many of the foods cooked at home are processed, quick-to fix meals that are high in fat and quick carbs with very little nutritional value—empty calories! Schools have stopped daily recess and exercise classes for kids. The school lunch programs are a disgrace. We teach kids how to eat both at home and in school—and what they’re learning is high-fat, high carb, high calorie lunches and fast-food for dinner.

My sister and I are very fortunate to have grown up in a family that always ate dinner together and it was food fixed from scratch by my mother who was a stay-at-home Mom. We almost always had a garden and in the summer a lot of our veggies came from that garden. Diabetes runs in our family—my Dad was a pre-diabetic for more than 40 years due to carefully watching what he ate. Unfortunately we lost our brother to heart disease caused by undiagnosed diabetes when he was 46 years old—you can understand our passion to fight diabetes!

Getting back to my patients at Lackey, the group meeting that got my attention led me to explore just what food is available to people who have to rely on food banks and USDA subsidies. Chances are if you pick up a bag of food packed for the poor, you’ll find mostly ‘quick starchy carbs such as pasta, rice and white flour based mixes, canned vegetables and sugar-packed fruits and canned juice—very little lean protein and only occasionally, fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m not criticizing the food banks. They do wonderful work gleaning food from restaurants and grocery stores every single day! Disadvantaged folks truly would starve without these much needed food supplies. The problem is that if these people are already obese and many of them are, they’re getting subsidies that will guarantee that they will stay obese and probably develop diabetes and heart disease in the future. If they are already diabetics, this type of food will cause out-of control blood sugars and many complications. I’ve witnessed distribution days at a local food pantry—more than three quarters of the food distributed was bread and bakery products—very little fresh produce is available.

Fresh produce is expensive and very perishable—our food banks need more refrigerated space and more fresh food to distribute. Fruit is even more expensive. If we could supplement the food banks with food grown organically and locally and feed our own families as well it would benefit the entire community. We rely a lot on imported fruits and veggies during the cold season. Did you ever think about the fact that other countries don’t have the same rules we have about types of pesticides they use?

My sister, MK and I took this problem to Grove Christian Outreach Center a few months ago and discussed the need to get fresh vegetables to my patients and their clients. Out of this discussion, my diabetic patients are now receiving bags of highly nutritious food—good lean meats, whole grain breads and fruits and vegetables packed especially for them by the gracious volunteers at Grove Christian Outreach. Harvesting Hope also delivered about 60 container gardens to clients at Grove Outreach yesterday to be tended and harvested by the clients themselves.

As a community, if we could make an effort to help supply our food banks with locally grown, organically grown, vegetables and fruits by growing them ourselves, we would also be learning and promoting healthy eating habits for ourselves and our own children. These gardens could be located almost anywhere in the community.

There’s a program that was started in Berkeley, CA in 1995 that is a model of building a school garden and incorporating it into the curriculum of the school. Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse, calls it the ‘edible schoolyard’. She’s written books about her efforts and has stormed Washington for years trying to get the‘powers that be’ see the value of community, especially school-based gardens. In fact we finally have a White House kitchen garden resulting from the First Lady’s leadership.

Growing a community garden is not just about gardens and growing good, nutritious food, it’s also about bringing our community together to learn to work with each other for the common good. If we put our heads together today, I’m sure we can find some solutions. We need everybody’s help to make this work. Click here to continue reading...

Interest Meeting May 9

Want to help get community gardens started in the Williamsburg area? Join your neighbors for an informational and organizational meeting to spark the creation of community gardens in our area. During the meeting, we'll have a speaker panel, Q&A session, and group discussions.

When: Saturday, May 9 from 10:00 am to Noon
Where: Williamsburg Community Building, 401 N. Boundary Street

Questions about the event? Post a comment below or email MK at msizemore@two-rivers.com.

We look forward to seeing you there! Click here to continue reading...