United Food Bank and Services of Plant City Annual Report FY18 (Pages)

Florida Department of Health
Partnership
Program Overviews
PreventT2, a proven program to prevent or delay type 2
diabetes, is brought to Plant City by the Florida Department
of Health in Hillsborough in partnership with the United Food
Bank. The curriculum used by the Florida Department of
Health (provided over a 12-month period) is furnished by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough reached
out to the United Food Bank in March of 2016 to implement
a PreventT2 year-long program on-site in Plant City. It is a
critical service to the community; approximately 1 out of 3
American adults has prediabetes while 1 out of 10 American
adults has diabetes (CDC Website, 2018).
Type 2 diabetes puts individuals at risk for serious health problems
such as those listed below, including a 50 percent higher
risk of death than individuals without the disease:
• heart attack
• stroke
• blindness
• kidney failure
• loss of toes, feet, or legs
By participating in a CDC-recognized lifestyle change program
an individual can cut their risk of type 2 diabetes in half. Specifically,
National Institutes of Health (NIH) studies have shown
that people with prediabetes who take part in a structured lifestyle
change program, lose 5 percent to 7 percent of their body
weight through healthier eating, and commit to 150 minutes of
physical activity per week can cut their risk of developing type
2 diabetes by 58 percent and by 71 percent for people over 60
years old.
Greg Champlin, Nutrition Educator in Community Health from
the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County, instructs
the PreventT2 curriculum at the United Food Bank. It is
the second 12-month course offering at this location. Multiple
sites are available in the county for the PreventT2 program.
The data produced following the first PreventT2 program held
at the United Food Bank with five people completing all 26
modules through a full year’s commitment are as follows:
• Total Lbs. Lost: 81 Lbs.
• Total Avg. % Weight Loss: 8.4%
• Avg. Lbs. Lost Per Person: 16.2 Lbs.
With a new 12-month program underway at the Food Bank,
local resident, James Beier, Ph.D., who attended the inaugural
PreventT2 program, came back to provide personal testimony:
he lost 21 pounds and has kept them off. He said he stopped
eating sugar and preservatives, started checking labels, and
put into practice what he was taught in the program.
United Food Bank seeks to stamp out hunger in East
Hillsborough County through a holistic approach, including
community referrals, to reduce some of the causes
of hunger: lack of access to food stamps, unforeseen medical
costs, low wages, housing costs, unemployment, and
poor money management. The following programs are part
of the food bank’s 2017-18 onsite continuum of care:
• Food Distribution: grocery stores, donors, cash
purchases, Feeding America, foundation partners
• Emergency Food Distribution: Funders/ FEMA
• FDIC Money Smart Program: Regions Bank
• ACCESS Site: approved DCF site for benefi t sign up
and monitoring (food stamps, etc.)
• Education Center: computer lab and internet for job
search, insurance registration, educational classes
and tutorials, GED preparation
• Hunger on Campus: with Hillsborough Community
College, lunch and learn sessions on campus and
provision of emergency food supply boxes
• Children’s Nutritional Outreach: Hillsborough
County Public Schools Area 5
• Diabetes Prevention Class: FL Dept. of Health
• Cooking Classes: Hispanic Services Council
• Health Literacy: Hispanic Services Council and
Florida Blue
• Flu Shots: BayCare’s South FL Baptist Hospital
• Interns: Hillsborough Education Foundation with
Bank of America and Take Stock in Children; and
Hillsborough Community College clinical program
• Volunteers: Plant City Housing Authority, Plant City
High, Durant High, Rotary, Elks, Lions Club, local
churches, court-order, and corporate employees
s
potlight on Childhood Hunger and Nutrition
United Food Bank partners with Hillsborough
County Public Schools Area 5 to
conduct a food drive and generate 174,000
pounds of food for children in need. During
the winter, spring, and summer breaks
from school, 600 bags go out per week to
approximately 7,339 children who are provided
food during vulnerable times, up from
6,515 children served in 2016.