Tuesday: Service, Sugar and Seniors

Today we were lucky enough to spend the day at the St. Philip Neri Parish in South Shore, which also happens to be the church where our very own UHS scholar Bianca grew up attending as a child! We were hosted by Bianca's lovely grandmother, coincidentally also named Evelyn, and her wonderful church members who greeted us so, so warmly.

We also had a special guest join us for today's activities -- prospective medical school student Chinwe, a native of Chicago. We began the day by helping out at St. Philip Neri's weekly food pantry, which runs from 9am-noon every Tuesday and is staffed by church volunteers who generously donate their time each week. Eligible local residents line up starting early in the morning and are let in 10 at a time to choose among the various items available -- canned goods, pasta, cereals, vegetables, fruits, meats, and more -- donated by local supermarkets and neighboring parishes. All clients of the food pantry are registered and sign-in at each visit. Due to the high volume of need in the area, all participants are limited to one visit per month.

 

 The UHS Scholars were glad to be put to work right away stocking and sorting items. Once the food pantry was open for business, Asha C. and Bianca helped clients choose items as they walked through the canned and dried goods section; Asha M. and Chinwe handed them their cabbages, potatoes, and celery, and Evelyn manned the fruit stand. We had over 50 clients coming through today, and it was amazing to see people walking out with bundles, bags, and suitcases (literally) full of food for their families. It was an awesome feeling and a great way to start off our morning!

 For lunch, we were treated to a wonderful lunch prepared by Bianca's grandmother and her church members. We then spent the afternoon giving a talk about diabetes management to a group of church women, who were a mix of diabetics, pre-diabetics, and those just interested in maintaining better health. The session opened up with a few women sharing how diabetes affected their daily lives, and what their biggest struggles were in maintaining their illness and health -- in particular, keeping up with exercise, eating right and managing portions, taking their insulin/medications, and forgetting to eat meals, especially a challenge for the women who lived alone. Several women also expressed frustration at the lack of coordination between multiple providers, particularly when it came to redundancy in medications and prescriptions. The need for better communication between providers and patients about what each of their medications was for exactly and why it was important to take, was something that emerged as a theme in our discussion, and something we all really took to heart as future providers.

 Afterwards, we delved into our talk about healthy eating by demonstrating as we did yesterday at the Ukranian Village clinic, the shockingly high amount of sugar in favorite every day items such as soda, orange juice, fruit cups, and flavored yogurt by scooping out the actual amounts of sugar onto a plate. And just like yesterday, everyone was shocked! We also discussed alternatives to these items and healthy snack ideas, the importance of reading food labels, as well as proper portion recommendations using My Plate. We then touched upon the way common diabetes drugs worked, and ended the session with the women sharing a few goals for their diabetes and/or health management. It was a long, but productive day, and such a wonderful experience with all of the church volunteers and women who were so generous and receptive, and reminded us of our own grandmothers.

A special thanks to Chinwe, for joining us today and being AWESOME in her help with the food pantry and diabetes education!

We ended the evening with a wonderful dinner with two awesome Geisel Alum's (who met as first years in on doc!!) Dr. Jill Rosno and Dr. Chetan Huded are both in residency at Northwestern, love the city and enjoying serving Chicago's diverse and urban population. We had an amazing time hearing about their path to residency, and their memories from Hanover. 

-Evelyn