Bright Bodies Bucks

A Bright Bodies “Buck” is basically a raffle ticket.  We will have a raffle twice per each 12-week session.  When a participant in the Bright Bodies program does the following, they earn a buck (raffle ticket) towards a raffle prize:

1. Weigh the same weight as you did the week before (i.e., don’t gain weight)
2. Weigh less than you did the week before
3. Bring in your exercise log for the staff to review

___________________________

Congratulations, you’ve earn a:

BRIGHT BODIES BUCK

 

NAME __________________

Not Giving Up, Even After 4 No-Shows

I couldn’t figure out why all the intake equipment was set up in the conference room. It was a typical day in the Diabetes Prevention Program; soup being served that raises funds for the garden, administrators talking to Yale about the joint child-obesity program, patients calling throughout. Intakes usually take place before the start of a new Intensive Lifestyle Intervention, when the program needs to be filled with those whose results from OGTT screenings placed them in the category called prediabetic. We were six weeks into our twelve-week program, however. Hardly the time to begin filling the next program.

Mari flies in the office door, her scrubs swishing against a busting notebook. She mumbles to herself, ‘She’s not here!’

I couldn’t help but ask.

‘It’s the intake I had scheduled. This patient isn’t here…again.’

‘Again?’

‘She’s been scheduled four times.’

Mari picked up the phone with resolve. She plays with the patient, in a stern voice informing her of the missed appointment, and then laughing with compassion as the patient realizes her folly on the other end of the line. When they get off the phone, I ask how they decided to resolve the patient’s continued absence.

‘I’m going over to her house to do the intake.’ Mari exclaims proudly, like a woman who’s taken fate by the horns.

I couldn’t help wondering why – with 15,000 patients at FHCHC, how has this particular patient instigated a home visit? And what is Mari’s motivation for persisting?

‘It’s hard.’ She explained. ‘Weather, wrong numbers, messages left without call-backs. It’s difficult to generate participation. So when someone is interested and simply can’t get here, I’ll take an extra step.’

Yale Daily News Reports on DPP Garden!

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/oct/28/fair-haven-garden-gets-greenhouse/#

Fair Haven Garden Gets Greenhouse

By Jenny Dai

Contributing Reporter

Thursday, October 28, 2010

While Yalies may complain about skimpy salad bars, some residents in Fair Haven can barely afford fresh vegetables or fruits every day. A new community garden hopes to change that.

This month, during the Yale Graduate Day of Service, graduate students completed the construction of a greenhouse for the garden. The community garden is part of a diabetes prevention program organized by the Fair Haven Community Health Center (FHCHC) and launched in June. The prevention initiative encourages people at risk for the disease to exercise, learn about nutrition and work in the garden in exchange for fresh vegetables. Chabaso Bakery, a chain of bakeries, and Growell, a greenhouse-building company in Cheshire, donated the materials to set up the garden and build the greenhouse.

Photo by Sarah Sullivan

Photo by Sarah Sullivan

Diabetes prevention is particularly important in Fair Haven, a low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, where residents are at a higher risk for diabetes because they usually eat the cheapest and most unhealthy food, said Rebecca Kline, Diabetes Prevention Program communications and community garden manager for FHCHC.

Typically, three or four participants come to work in the garden from 9-11:00 a.m. or 5-6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Kline said. They plant, and at the end of a work session, they divide up whatever is ready to be harvested to bring home to their families, she added.

Parents are also encouraged to bring their children, “because diabetes is a family, community-based disease,” Kline said.

“I like working here because it relieves stress and I learn how to plant things,” said Margarita, one of the participants who has been working in the garden once or twice a week since June. Having no children of her own, she said she often brings her niece.

Catherine Fontana GRD ’15, an organizer of the Yale Graduate Day of Service, said she hoped that “the event allowed students to connect with their community in such a way that they continue their service there beyond the Yale Day of Service.”

In fact, Yalies are more connected to Fair Haven than they realize, said Kline, adding that Fair Haven is the neighborhood where many Yale dining hall and maintenance workers live.

The Chabaso garden was originally developed by Nancy Dennett, wife of owner Charles Negaro of Chabaso Bakery, to supply employees with healthy food. This spring, she collaborated with Elizabeth Magenheimer from FHCHC to set up a community garden dedicated to helping Fair Haven residents who are at risk for diabetes. A study by the National Institutes of Health concluded that effective exercise and a healthy diet can reduce risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent. The garden is a way to carry out the results of the study in the Fair Haven community.

“Now the work is to translate that and implement that,” said Dr. Anne Camp, director of the Diabetes Prevention Program at FHCHC.

“One day, I want to start a farm in Fair Haven so that everybody will be able to eat vegetables of this quality at least once a day,” said Kline after Margarita informed her that the vegetables she took home last time lasted three days.

The community garden is located behind the Chabaso Bakery at 360 James St.

 

Yale Graduate School Day of Service Adventure

October 9th we hosted 25 Yale graduate students at our community garden, giving them the option of preparing the garden for the winter months, constructing our new and beautiful greenhouse, or completing the mural begun during our Slow Food Dig In Celebration. Miracle after miracle made the day possible. Mike Trepadino, owner and operator of Growell in Cheshire donated a greenhouse valued way higher than we could ever pay. Oscar, Alfredo, Pedro, Tony, John, all Chabaso employees fearlessly led by owner Charlie Negaro, picked up the greenhouse materials and began construction without any worries. Saturday morning, Bom Menino, a Capoeira student and the driving force behind our mural, worked with a group of the Yale students to add carrots, sunflowers, and the Diabetes Prevention Program logo to the garden wall.

With the greenhouse, we are going to be able to extend our growing season through the winter. Maria, one of our Diabetes Prevention Program participants, led the soil preparation efforts.

A group of the volunteers harvested our entire batch of basil. We made pesto over the weekend, and as I write this, the Diabetes Prevention Program staff are selling the batch so we can buy seeds for the winter garden.

Yale students studying everything from aeronautics to biology, joined forces with Chabaso Bakery’s operations staff, Massaro Farmer Steve Munno, and the husband of one of our Diabetes Prevention Program participants to piece together the greenhouse.

Overall, a very successful day.

Dr. William Tamborlane – Principal Investigator

William V. Tamborlane, MD, is Professor and Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at Yale School of Medicine. He is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he completed his residency in pediatrics before going to Yale as a post-doctoral fellow in pediatric endocrinology. He is the recipient of many awards and honors including the JDRF 2006 Mary Tyler Moore and S. Robert Levine, M.D. Excellence in Clinical Research Award, the 2009 Diabetes Technology Society’s Diabetes Technology Leadership Award, the 2010 American Diabetes Association Outstanding Physician Clinician Award  and is frequently listed in publications such as The Best Doctors in America, and America’s Top Doctors. He has served on the FDA Endocrine Advisory Board and National Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association. He is currently on the Clinical Advisory Board of the JDRF, Co-Chair of the JDRF Continuous Glucose Monitoring Study Group and is Chair of the newly formed Pediatric Diabetes Consortium, a group of seven leading pediatric diabetes treatment centers in the U.S. who are working together to share and evaluate best practices. He served as the Steering Committee Chair of the Diabetes Research in Children’s Network (DirecNet), a NIH multicenter clinical research group for 6 years. He has published more than 500 original articles, chapters and reviews in the area of diabetes. Major accomplishments have included pioneering studies in the development of insulin-pump therapy, direction of Yale Center in the DCCT/EDIC study, investigations of diabetes-induced defects in counter-regulatory hormone responses to hypoglycemia, and demonstration of the role of insulin resistance in obesity, diabetes and related pediatric metabolic disorders. Current research effort is directed at applying recent advances in insulin pump and glucose sensor technology towards the development of an artificial pancreas. He leads a multidisciplinary team of physicians, diabetes nurse educators, dieticians and social workers that care for more than 1000 children, adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Tamborlane is the Program Director of the Yale Pediatric Diabetes Post-doctoral fellowship (T32) program that is helping to train the next generation of young pediatric diabetes clinicians and investigators. He is also the principal investigator for Fair Haven Community Health Center’s Donaghue Foundation-funded Diabetes Prevention Program.

September 25th Dig In Success!

September 25th marked a transition in our Diabetes Prevention Program Community Garden – the end of summer and inquiry into the fall/winter plan. To celebrate the occasion, we constituted ourselves as the only Connecticut participant in Slow Food USA’s Dig In day of action. It was magnificent. Kids and adults with more paint on their hands than on the mural they were creating, clinicians and business owners chatting about how to collaborate for employee health, the garden’s carrots getting the enthusiasm they deserve for their months of effort. Amazing how one  little plot of land can bring so many extraordinary change-makers together. And in the spirit of acknowledging those who may never acknowledge themselves publicly, a special shout out to Grand Paint for donating ALL the mural’s paint, to Bom Menino and Catherine for donating their artistic expertise without any prior knowledge of the program, to Jensen for the Yale love, to Margarita, Georgina, and Mariella who stayed until the last leftover salad bits was packed and car-safe, John Ferreira for being game to all sorts of crazy ideas, and Victor who is the definition of service. Let’s not forget those who have made the whole deal possible: Dr. Anne Camp, Elizabeth Magenheimer, Dr. Bill Tamborlane, Katrina Clark, Charles Negaro, and Nancy Dennett.

Clinic staffers dig in!

 

Never too young to paint

Painters & sunflowers, all doing their jobs

So many choices!

Parsley gone to seed!

Mural + Garden + Kids = Way Fun

Chabaso Bakery owner Charles Negaro and grandson Oliver, enjoying a moment with the cherry tomatoes

Who says kids don't like vegetables?

Sharing the love

Elizabeth Magenheimer, family NP, teaching nutrition at the source

 

DPP Community Garden Flyers

This flyer is for people interested in the garden’s intended outcomes.

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