HUNGER
By participating in organizing different food packets into their respective shelves at Shrim6 food mart helped us to learn about availability of specialty foods in Kingsville community. Most of the people that shop at this store are the international students, mainly Indian students, studying at Texas A&M University Kingsville. There are other stores such as Walmart and H-E-B, but these are not fulfilling the needs of these people. Our demand is determined by cultural background and knowledge of food preparation. Students will try the Subway sandwiches, hot dogs, tacos and burgers for a while. Sooner or later cravings for Indian food will begin. In such situations, grocery stores like this come handy.
They may not solve the problem completely but at least to some extent. People get the groceries that they need and cook for themselves solving their nutrition problem. People who come here often are very happy that there is a place like this which can meet their demand. This store is located very close to the campus and most of the students live around the campus as well, so they don’t have to drive long distances to get what they want.
NUTRITION
N.M Harrell Elementary School, is one of the schools in the Kingsville Independent School District (KISD). By observing the school lunch program at Harrell elementary, we were able to gain some insight about nutrition. Besides their meal program, Harrell elementary also provides some basic health care, and guidance counseling services. Harrell Elementary School offers free breakfast, lunch, and often times, after school meals to all students in their School funded by federal and state grants. This program is administered and monitored by KISD. The free lunch program is community eligibility provision under USDA guidelines. According to these guidelines, if 40% or more of the identified student’s population qualifies for either free or reduced meals, that campus is permitted through state and federal regulations to offer meals at no charge to all students. This assistance was put in place to cater to the nutritional requirements of the students in the area. The school also serves meals to the students during summer. The summer meal initiative was put in place by the school district as a supplemental nutritional program for students and children in Kingsville community whose parents or caregivers cannot afford those meals during summer. The meals are supplied to the school by KISD via their vendors, mainly Lebal and Cysco through a purchasing co-up.
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SUSTAINABILITY
By visiting the Kingsville Farmers Market, the only farmer’s market in Kingsville, we learned about sustainability. Chain grocery stores in the community, such as HEB and Walmart, offer some organic produce. However, the farmers market offers locally grown and seasonal produce, encouraging sustainability in the Kingsville community. This event is located at the downtown pavilion on the fourth Saturday of every month, from 9am to 12pm. There we are able to find different products like locally grown fruits & veggies, canned fruit, jelly, baked goods, breads, locally produced honey, grass-fed beef, organic chicken and hand-crafts.
Products that are grown locally will have less need for preservatives to increase shelf life. By talking to the vendors, we are also able to understand the impact and benefit to the community of being able to produce and sell their products. There are two main goals of this event taking place in this small town; first, to provide the community with good healthy food options, while also allowing the local producers to have a market to sell their products.
HUMAN IMPACT
By participating in a nutrition class offered by the Kleberg-Kennedy County Agrilife Extension office we studied the human impact. The Kleberg-Kennedy County Agrilife Extension office provides family nutrition courses funded by the Expanded Food and Nutritional Education Program federal grant. This program has been funded since 2014, and previously there was a similar program under a different name. This grant focuses on making knowledge available to the community through a media, including the local paper, newsletters and social media, as well as direct education through class series. Classes are usually held once weekly for six weeks, this schedule is to encourage development of a habit. The Kleberg county extension service partners with other community organizations with similar goals, such as WIC (supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children), the Kingsville Independent School District, and Head Start (educational program for children under the age of 5 of low income families). Through these partnerships, nutrition classes are offered to participants in the programs or organizations. These classes are for the public, but the partnering organizations offer a targeted audience, such as parents of young children, or underprivileged families.