Week four definitely had its ups and downs. The week started off poorly, not only with a bad experience at our cohort lunch (see Cuisine Critique: German) but also with our guest speaker. A lactation consultant came in to talk to us about the benefits of breastfeeding, which we were all pretty excited to learn about. However, during her lecture we felt slightly attacked- she was pushing her breastfeeding agenda so hard that she didn’t recognize the many barriers to successful breastfeeding. While there are many benefits to not using formula, it is simply ignorant to blame every possible health problem on whether or not a child was breastfed for the recommended length. In this case, the recommended length was two years!! Breastfeeding for the first two years of a child’s life is highly implausible in many situations. As students, we are taught to look for evidence based information coming from good research. This presentation was mainly opinion based and as a result made us all very uncomfortable.
Site visits also began this week. This is a process where two interns head out to a distribution site and evaluate the volunteer’s procedures. On Tuesday, Peyton and I went to Azle, the furthest site from the office. It did not go very well, but it was definitely a learning experience. First, our address took us to a church when the meals were delivered at the building across the street. We were on the lookout for the Meals On Wheels van and never saw it! When we finally figured out where the meals were located, most of the volunteers had already left. Second, the minute we tried to get the temperatures of the meal, the thermometer ran out of battery. Essentially the entire visit was a waste of time, but we learned to always have a backup thermometer!
The most fun part of the week was creating next year’s Spring/Summer menu. It’s almost like a puzzle- we decided on entrees first, with two different meats or vegetarian options each day with enough variety to keep people happy. We created one day of cold entrees a week, and 3 or 4 days of each ethnic food (Mexican, Italian, etc.) with a majority of Southern comfort food days. After deciding on those, we picked two sides for each day, mostly veggies with the occasional grain. Then, it was time to put the puzzle together, ensuring that the similar days were separated, there were none of the same sides in one week, and no beans on Monday (they soak overnight). Finally we were able to choose breads and desserts- and that was just the first draft!
We had a great weekend to make up for our rough week, though- on Sunday we rented paddleboards on the Trinity River in downtown Fort Worth, then walked around Sundance Square for a while & overall had an awesome time. For the 4th we are all going to Caitlin’s house in Plano to cook out and watch fireworks, happy to have a day off in the middle of the week!