It really hit me this week that this internship is almost over for me. The week was so jam-packed with activities that I barely had time to breathe- let alone sleep! Realizing how little time I have left at Meals On Wheels spurred me into action, and I’m frantically trying to complete each of my assignments and projects before next Friday.
On Monday we had two guest speakers come in, both of whom I enjoyed listening to. In the morning, we learned about food justice (like social justice, but with access to healthy food) and what Tarrant County is doing to combat this issue. The presentation was incredibly motivating and solidified building a community garden as one of my professional goals. Later that afternoon, Dr. Lyn Dart spoke with us regarding the RD exam and answered all the questions we had about how to become a dietitian. Her explanations gave me confidence in my ability to pass the exam next May.
For an assignment for my community nutrition rotation, I volunteered at the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program on Tuesday. The Tarrant Area Food Bank partners with a farmer to set up this program every Tuesday and Thursday morning throughout the summer. It’s a WIC sponsored program, so participants were required to show a WIC shopping list to determine their allotted funds for the fruits and vegetables. There was also a table of ‘freebies’ provided by the Food Bank, with prenatal vitamins, granola bars, and bags of popcorn. My role during this involved handing out flyers and recipes that I created to encourage healthy eating. People responded really well to the colorful flyer, but I should have considered the location and printed some in Spanish as well. After all flyers were handed out, I passed out water and directed people. The Farmer’s Market program is fantastic, and I think all of the interns would benefit from volunteering with it a few times.
The rest of the week was just as busy. I went on two site visits, did van checks twice, and visited a client with a dietitian. On top of this, I made calls for the Healthy Moves program, worked on the intern reflection video, and created two presentations for next week. On Thursday afternoon, we all got to leave the office and volunteer at a quality control shift at the Food Bank. We spent three hours sorting items they received from HEB into categories like snacks, cans, baby food, and beverages.
Next week is my last week interning here, and I can’t quite believe it. There are so many things that need to be completed in a mere 6 days, but I trust myself to get everything done and turn in my best work. I’ll be very sad to leave such an awesome group of interns, though I’m excited about my trip to Europe!
