Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee
Food for Thought now available in print and online
The Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee newsletter, Food for Thought, is now available in print and online. The newsletter will be published three times per year in July, March, and November and will profile efforts to increase food security in Middle Tennessee, include updates about Food Security Partners activities, and will feature helpful information about finding and preparing healthy foods. View the July 2007 issue of Food for Thought in pdf format by clicking on the name.
Food Security Partners launches new Food Security Awareness Training program
One of the strategic goals of the Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee is to develop a comprehensive awareness campaign to educate the community about the existence of food insecurity in Middle Tennessee and promote public dialogue and corresponding action about its root causes, consequences, and solutions.
On August 8th at 11:30 am the Awareness Campaign strategic team will hold its first meeting at the Nashville Farmers’ Market 2nd floor conference room. The team will create a training program that will graduate “food security spokespeople” who have the resources and skills they need to go out into the community and:
- introduce the concept of food security;
- raise awareness about the existence of food insecurity in Middle Tennessee;
- highlight groups/programs working to increase food security;
- and to help people understand what they can do to promote food security in their community
Food Security Spokespeople will be available to speak to churches, schools, and community groups and represent Food Security Partners at events. If you are interested in becoming a Food Security Spokesperson, or if you would like to request a presentation, please contact Cassi at cassi.a.johnson@vanderbilt.edu.
New Report Cites Linkages Between Food Security and Family Health
According to a new report by Child Trends, one in eight U.S. households with infants (12.5 percent) reports being "food insecure.” The report also cites troubling linkages between food insecurity and mental and physical health problems.
Among the findings:
- Among households with low-birthweight infants-infants born weighing less than 5.5 pounds-about one in seven (14.4 percent) is food insecure.
- Among poor households with infants, nearly three in 10 (28.9 percent) report food insecurity.
- Mothers living in food-insecure households are significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression than are mothers living in food-secure households.
- Parents in food-insecure households have less positive interactions with their infant children, such as less responsiveness to infant distress and less behavior directed at fostering their babies’ social and emotional growth.
Child Trends' findings are presented in a new research brief, Food Insecurity and Overweight among Infants and Toddlers: New Insights into a Troubling Linkage, by Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Ph.D., Martha Zaslow, Ph.D., Randolph Capps, Ph.D., and Allison Horowitz, B.A.
A link to the full report is available at: this link. 
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