Solutions for Food Insecurity Will Take Many Partners: 2023 Mississippi Hunger Summit

Solutions for Food Insecurity Will Take Many Partners: 2023 Mississippi Hunger Summit

The 2023 Mississippi Hunger Summit was an example of Mississippi public health organizations doing what they do best: coming together as partners to address our state’s critical issues.

In October 2023, the University of Mississippi CREW (Community First Research Center for Wellbeing & Creative Achievement) hosted the Mississippi Hunger Summit. Food access was a key component of the summit. As shown in presentations, food insecurity is an issue with effects that affect everything from mental health to education performance to obesity and health outcomes. With so many issues affected, welcoming input from a wide range of partners offers the best opportunity for innovative solutions.

One of the pillars of our work at UProot (you can read about it in our State Health Improvement Plan) is to tackle Food Insecurity. Food Insecurity is when people do not have enough quality food to ensure their health. This can mean insufficient food, or that the only available food does not provide the variety and nutrition required for good health.

Food Insecurity is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, stroke, and dementia. It also has a direct link to obesity. The reason is simple: When good food is hard to come by, families have no choice but to eat poorly. You can measure the accessibility of fresh, wholesome food in an area, and in many places in Mississippi, a lack of this constitutes what is known as aFood Desert.The distribution of these areas makes Food Insecurity a classic example of a Social Determinant of Health (SDOH).

Watch a clip from the opening remarks here:

Food Insecurity and Mental Health

Since hunger touches on many aspects of health, there was much to discuss, including the role of hunger and food insecurity on mental health. There are many connections between nutrition and mental health. Some are more obvious, such as the role of blood sugar in alertness or how the brain uses B vitamins and omega acids. Others are less obvious. Scott Hambleton, MD, Medical Director of the Mississippi Health Plan, also discussed the connection between the gut and the brain, a new area of interest that may become a powerful way of understanding mental and physical health that links both to the conditions in a community.

Food Insecurity’s Effects on Children

Children are especially vulnerable to food insecurity. The interplay between mental health, physical health, and the environment is precisely the sort of scenario that the SDOH concept attempts to address. 

From Dr. Hambleton’s presentation; “Nourishing the Mind: The Connection Between Nutrition and Mental Health”

Uproot Partners in Action

Several UProot partners attended. The Mississippi Food Network presented information about food pantry resources.

From MS Food Network Presentation

While many people want to help with food insecurity, it takes skill to provide food safely and effectively for many people. These requirements, why they are in place, and what they achieve, were the focus of one of MFN’s presentations. 

The 430 agencies that are part of the Mississippi Food Network are a testament to the number of people helping with food insecurity in Mississippi. It’s a big problem, and one a large number of Mississippians are eager to end.

To learn more about how to partner with the Mississippi Food Network, go to their website.

View a slideshow of photos from the 2023 Hunger Summit here.

You can help, too. UProot is all about ways to build a healthier Mississippi

3 Ways to Build a Healthier Mississippi

3 Ways to Build a Healthier Mississippi

UProot was developed to spark new ideas and opportunities to improve our state’s health. Read on for ways to connect to the great work happening to improve our state’s health. 

Read the State Health Improvement Plan

Developed using feedback from more than 19,000 residents, public health professionals, and community partners across the state, the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) is a great place to start when looking to build a healthier state. 

It breaks down the cause and prevalence of Mississippi’s most pressing health issues, and contains actionable next steps employers, residents, educators, health-care professionals, faith-based organizations, and public health professionals can use to put the plan into action. 

Here’s an example for community residents: 

  1. Notice what chronic diseases (obesity, for example) are impacting your town or community. 
  2. Check the SHIP for tips on how to improve this health issue. In this example, you could help lower obesity rates by improving food access (volunteering at a food pantry, donating to organizations that provide food to those who are low-income or on disability, or starting a neighborhood food drive or community garden). 
  3. Spread the word. Get more people involved in improving this issue to help grow more solutions for a healthier Mississippi. 

Keep in mind that simply sharing, supporting, and lifting up healthy behaviors for friends and family members can have a big positive impact on our state’s health as well! Check out our resource directory to learn more about chronic diseases in your area and connect to free health management classes to boost wellness.

Join an UProot Work Group

For organizations looking to make a difference, joining one of UProot’s work groups is a great first step. Work groups meet on a monthly basis to track progress and develop new strategies for improving our state’s health. Priorities are based on the SHIP and are represented in the following focus areas: 

Social Determinants of Health contribute to health disparities across the state, and can have a major impact on the prevalence of chronic diseases. By joining in this work, your organization can take action to improve the environmental conditions of Mississippians, including people of color, tribal members, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Click here for a breakdown of this priority.

There’s also work being done specifically to lower obesity rates that your organization can take part in. Since obesity is a root cause for most chronic illnesses, it is a very important issue to address at both local and state levels. Improving obesity rates alone could save Mississippi over $13 billion annually in unnecessary health care costs. 

With three specific focus areas, we’re able to develop a more holistic approach to building better behaviors and lowering obesity rates. Click here to learn more about this priority and its focus areas.

See a workgroup that seems like the perfect fit for your organization? Click here to join! 

Share the Wins

Whether you’re a community organization or community leader, resident or public health advocate, always share the wins! Send us the health projects or events happening in your area, and we’ll amplify them to help spread the word and inspire others to grow a healthier Mississippi. 
If you already have a story ready to share with us, click here to send it to us!

FAT to Fit Olympic Games Makes Health Fun

FAT to Fit Olympic Games Makes Health Fun

In 2004, Jefferson County was reported as the most obese county in America. In 2010, Janell and Anthony Edwards attended the Global Obesity Summit in Jackson, and they realized that something needed to be done in terms of improving public health in Mississippi, starting in their community of Jefferson County. That same year, they created the FAT to Fit Olympic Games.

This past year, the Fayette Community Service Organization (FCSO) held its 9th Annual FAT to Fit Olympics Games on July 19 and 20 at Alcorn State. The FAT to Fit Olympic Games consists of many field day games, ranging from 3-on-3 basketball to tug of war, and they have recently added a qualifying event in other counties for four of the tournament games. Winners of all of the games receive a bike or a cash prize. All participants also go through a free health screening.

“Our mission is to foster health and wealth among young men and women, including youth, by empowering service and guidance. Our vision is to create healthier and wealthier communities in Mississippi by turning a negative that has plagued our state for so many years into a positive,” says Janell Edwards.

To date, the Fayette Community Services Organization has conducted over 15,789 free health screenings, and has awarded over 1000 new bicycles and over $4000 in cash and healthcare products. Their goal for the 2020 event is to have a total of five counties participate, and they hope to reach even more counties. 

One of the most helpful people in their journey has been Dr. Olu T. Ekundayo, who helped them realize the importance of getting clean data. 

“When you get the data on somebody’s blood pressure, it comes from a hospital where they have a blood pressure issue. So, we had an event where you’re at the best health possible, and we’re getting those real numbers. You get clean data — you’re not getting sick data,” says Anthony Edwards.

FAT to Fit Olympic Games outgrew both their locations at the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors facility and the local junior high gymnasium in Fayette, and when they realized they were going to be expanding into multiple counties and attracting more people, they decided to partner with Alcorn State and use their larger facilities. 

“We are dedicated to be a part of the solution. We are the inspiration for the nation fighting obesity. We want FAT to Fit to go nationwide. We’ve had participants from thirteen different Mississippi counties and five U.S. states. It will be based in health and people just coming out to have fun,” says Janell Edwards. 

FCSO is also involved in other projects that work to create a culture of health and help lessen the high rates of obesity in our state:

The Fitness is Fun – Community Health Engagement Awareness Program (FIF-CHEAP) implements community engagement activities in targeted counties to increase health knowledge. They provide community meetings, live radio talk segments, and live social media prize campaigns to foster deeper understandings of obesity risk factors and its correlation to social and lifestyle factors, while also promoting obesity prevention and treatment strategies. 

The Healthy Intervention Project Community (HIP-C) tracks the health of 3rd-6th graders with annual health screenings up until their senior year of high school. They have been doing this program for seven years, and their first class of students just graduated. The goal for this project is to establish health consciousness in young children.

The Community Garden in Fayette, MS will open in March 2020 and includes a pond, a walking trail, and a garden. The garden will also have a classroom style demo set up, and through partnerships with MSU Extension and Alcorn State Extension, they will offer gardening classes on site. 

Health Radio Segments – FCSO will have segments on their local radio with healthy advice and recipes in hopes of expanding health literacy throughout the community. This project is funded by the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Learn more about the Fayette Community Service Organization on their Facebook


The UPside, Episode 2: Preventative Medicine and Health Education with Joshua Mann, MD, MPH

The UPside, Episode 2: Preventative Medicine and Health Education with Joshua Mann, MD, MPH

The UPside is a series in which we learn how state agencies, businesses, and other organizations in Mississippi are helping to build a culture of health from the ground up.

In this episode, Dr. Mary Currier, State Health Officer of the Mississippi State Department of Health, talks with Joshua Mann, MD, MPH, Chair and Professor of the Department of Preventative Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, about all the ways in which preventative medicine and health education contributes to the overall health of Mississippians.

 

 

 

UProot Mississippi builds bridges that connect Mississippians to opportunities and resources that can help inspire them to lead healthier lifestyles. So we were excited to feature our state’s strong legion of public-health workers for National Public Health Week 2018; these hard workers are committed to improving the health and quality of life of all Mississippians, and strive every day to achieve that goal. (You can check out the State Health Assessment and State Health Improvement Plan for more about Mississippi’s public health goals!)

Each day of National Public Health Week 2018 spotlighted a particular public health-concern, with insight from a Mississippi public-health expert. We started off the week with a focus on Behavioral Health:

 

Communicable Diseases:

 

Environmental Health:

 

Injury and Violence Prevention:

 

and finished the week with an empowering message on Ensuring the Right to Health.

 

We also celebrated with the Dr. Ed Thompson Walk for Public Health! See even more photos, and the live stream, on our Facebook page.

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Check out these videos on our YouTube and subscribe to our channel for even more updates!

 

The year-old organization provides information and feminine-hygiene products and underwear to women of all ages.

 

It started out as a chance meeting.

 

The two women—Kate Roos was in Knoxville and Bloom, a Mississippi native, was working in Memphis —met at a women’s interfaith meeting a year ago after both women had relocated to Oxford. Drawing on inspiration from knowing people who’d done similar work in the past, Roos pitched a community outreach idea of giving back to their communities by delivering feminine hygiene projects, from tampons and pads to even underwear, to women in need. Spurred by their passion for the work, Roos and Bloom developed the project into a much larger program: Dignity Period.

 

In the short year since the founding of Dignity Period, they’ve served hundreds of women schools, shelters, they’ve served schools and many social welfare agencies, including the Department of Health in Lafayette County. Distributed over 4000 projects.

 

Roos says the organization serves two purposes. One is to provide feminine hygiene products to girls and women in need, primarily homeless people and people in poverty. The other part of their mission is to educate the public about not just the need but the impact of the stigma associated with periods, which can impact not only the dignity and self-esteem of those who have to go without hygiene products, but also can hurt their physical health, too.

 

“There’s a sense of shame at not having access to this material. You isolate yourself. You’re embarrassed at something that’s a natural bodily function,” Roos said. And for the women who might not isolate themselves, they’ll go to desperate measures to stem the flow. “One woman said she uses wads of paper towels that she gets out of the public bathroom. All of that can lead to infection. And if you’re not educated about it, you can use tampons and pads and not change them, and that could lead to infection, too,” she said

 

“The populations that we need to reach are kids in school, women who are homeless or victims of abuse, or people who just don’t have the money to buy the products, who can’t use food stamps, and in Mississippi they’re taxed, so it can be pretty costly if you’re a woman with low income who might have two daughters in school,” she said. “One women we spoke to had four daughters. That’s 30 or 40 dollars a month—a lot for someone who has limited resources.”

 

For the future, Roos says they begun expanding their services to older women with bladder issues, who might also isolate themselves for the same reasons a woman without access to tampons and pads would, but whose products are more expensive. They’ve also reached out to offer guidance to groups in Louisiana, the Delta, and North Carolina. But there are other ways to help Dignity Period; as a nonprofit, all financial contributions made to them are tax-deductible.

 

“It’s part of a larger empowerment of women,” Roos said.

Helping Out At Home:

 

Roos says it’s simple to start a similar project wherever you live. You can:

 

 

Dignity, Period of Oxford is glad to have partnerships, help other organizations get started, and accept both financial and product donations. To learn more about how you can help Dignity Period, visit their website: https://www.dignityoxford.org/you-can-help