Your browser doesn't support javascript.
“More Worthwhile than the Paycheck”: An Innovative Summer Internship in Northern Manhattan to Engage Youth in Food Justice Promotion
Journal of Adolescent Health ; 70(4):S64-S65, 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1936685
ABSTRACT

Purpose:

Youth engagement in food justice movements to address healthy food access and nutrition-related disparities is a powerful tool for community health promotion and youth empowerment. Such opportunities are often unpaid and inaccessible to low-income youth. Launched in 2019, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) Youth Market is a paid 8-week summer internship in Northern Manhattan that engages youth in a community health intervention and supports their personal professional development.

Methods:

Youth ages 16-22 were recruited from NYP partner schools and youth programs in Washington Heights, Inwood, and the South Bronx, communities with suboptimal access to healthy food and disparately high rates of obesity and food insecurity. Interns managed their own weekly farm stand and provided nutrition education and cooking demonstrations at GrowNYC Fort Washington Greenmarket. They participated in didactics led by NYP staff and community partners on nutrition and disease, food systems, and small business management. Due to COVID-19, the 2020/2021 programs were adapted to become partially-virtual with interactive didactics on Zoom, and responded to community needs by distributing emergency food packages to food insecure families. Matched, de-identified pre-post online surveys for 2021 assessed attitudes, self-efficacy, and lessons learned via Likert scale (analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test) and open-ended questions (assessed for common themes).

Results:

2021 interns (n=20, median age=17, 100% self-identified as persons of color) largely aspired to careers in healthcare/public health/nutrition (65%). Youth led 21 nutrition workshops for community members;a total of 17,645 pounds of healthy food was distributed to the community via farm stand sales, emergency food distributions, donations, and redemptions of NYP fruit and vegetable prescriptions. Pre-post analysis findings (missing=1) demonstrated several statistically significant findings of improvement. Interns self-reported a median increase of one more fruit (p<0.01) and one more vegetable (p<0.01) eaten per day, but did not significantly change their sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (p=0.48). Youth expressed increased confidence (5-point scale 1=not confident at all to 5=very confident) in their ability to share information with friends/family about healthy eating (mean pre=3.20, post=4.21, p<0.01) and information on resources for someone experiencing food insecurity (mean pre=2.40, post=4.00, p<0.001). In response to open-ended questions, interns emphasized improvement in their public-speaking/communication skills and felt enriched by mentorship from both their peers and a diverse group of professionals. They gained positive feelings of community connectedness through customer nutrition education and emergency food distributions. One intern stated, “There are so many people that don't have the key information about nutrition and how to overall live healthy lives and it's so important to acquire and spread this knowledge because it allows you to become self-reliant and more responsible with your lifestyle.” Another intern commented, “The experience is so much more worthwhile than the paycheck”.

Conclusions:

NYP Youth Market demonstrates a valuable model of youth engagement in paid work to promote community access to healthy food, improve their own nutrition behaviors, and develop their burgeoning health careers. Next steps include developing program enhancements, such as hands-on farming experience and strengthening the program’s mentorship component. Sources of Support NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Choosing Healthy & Active Lifestyles for Kids Program, partnered with GrowNYC Greenmarkets.
Keywords

Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

Similar

MEDLINE

...
LILACS

LIS


Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health Year: 2022 Document Type: Article