SERVICE
This semester, I had the privilege of working with the Community Market of East Alabama, a vital resource dedicated to helping solve food insecurity in Lee County. The Community Market operates as a grocery store-style resource, offering essential food items sourced directly from donations to the Food Bank of East Alabama. Guided by their core values of hospitality and kindness, I contributed to their mission by answering phone calls, scheduling appointments, organizing files, helping weigh food at check-out, providing in-person nutrition education and assistance, aiding clients in selecting the most nutritious foods, and establishing connections with both clients and the dedicated staff. Through this experience, I gained valuable things about the power of service and how I can genuinely make a positive impact in Lee County.
PROJECTS
My peers and I successfully completed a comprehensive grant proposal aimed at bettering the Community Markets of East Alabama. This proposal focused on three objectives: securing funding for a building expansion, ensuring the hiring of full-time staff, and implementing nutrition education within the Community Market. Our grant proposal explained essential components, including an abstract, an introduction, well-defined objectives and methods, a plan for evaluating the effectiveness of our objectives/methods, a detailed timeline, and an extensive literature review.
I had the privilege of participating in a nutrition education health fair in Opelika, Alabama, where my peers and I prepared a presentation. Our project, titled "Bringing Balance for Wellbeing," centered on the topic of blood sugar regulation. The interactive aspect of our project featured an activity where fair attendees could select the ideal meal to help maintain steady blood sugar levels. To further support their understanding, we distributed pamphlets outlining the importance of managing blood sugar, its potential health implications, and strategies for prevention. These pamphlets also included a helpful grocery list, meal suggestions, and references to additional resources on blood sugar and diet management. It was a full filling experience to engage and educate others in such an enjoyable and impactful way.
Together with my peer group, we have created a service learning poster that conveys the impact of our service activities on ourselves and the community, but also details our proposed objectives outlined in the grant proposal. This poster shows crucial elements, including an introduction to the Community Market, a description of our core academic principles related to the course, our sense of civic responsibility, a reflection of personal and professional development, reflective insights into our service experience, and a presentation of our grant proposal objectives.
In my first year of college, I decided to launch my Instagram account, @balanced.bails, as a platform to share my passion for workouts, healthy meal ideas, nutritional insights that I gained from my coursework, and the simple joys in my life. The name "balanced.bails" shows my firm belief in the significance of balance, a core value not only in my personal journey but also within the realm of dietetics and nutrition. My love for cooking nourishing meals, and my dedication to running and workouts, found a home on this account. This account also opened doors for me to collaborate with many nutrition companies. Today, I'm thrilled to have gained a following of 1,000 individuals, and I take every opportunity to share my experiences and insights. To explore more and view images of my meals, please visit my Instagram account through the following link!
