CNDH: Shopping for Healthy Groceries

By Arielle Gerstein and Leslie Malone
“Cooking Matters at the Store” is another CNDH nutrition education program. Sapna Batheja, nutrition specialist, coordinates the program, conducting outreach in all eight Wards of the District, teaching different age groups how to better understand what they are eating and make smarter decisions. Sapna leads “grocery store tours,” teaching participants how to shop healthy on a budget. These tours are conducted over a 12-week period in various grocery stores around the District, with an average of 5-10 participants per class. At the end of each tour, everyone receives a $10 food shopping gift card to be used towards the purchase of healthy foods. 

CAUSES Research Assistant, Arielle Gerstein, joined Sapna for one of her weekly, interactive grocery store classes and observed how she teaches participants how to read food labels, identify acceptable levels of salt and sugar in food, and understand if food is really as nutritious as advertised. The participants for this particular July class are part of a diabetes management group where learning how to eat healthy foods is vital for managing their disease. These classes are held in the typical grocery stores where participants would regularly shop for food. Sapna focuses on helping participants to make small life changes that will more likely be sustained rather than a total change in diet that will be more difficult to maintain in the future. 

As they make their way through the grocery stores, Sapna asks the participants to select a canned good, box of cereal etc. and read the nutrition labels before discussing why a particular product should or should not be purchased. She also includes tips to limit the effects of commonly purchased item. For example, she explained to the participants that if they choose to purchase canned goods, they should wash them off with water before use and it will reduce the sodium by about 40 percent. 

When asked what her favorite part of teaching the class is, Sapna quickly responded, “the participants.” 

“We are only in the middle of this multi-week course, but I can already see the progress made by the participants,” explained Sorelle N. J. Cooper, MSN, FNP-BC, Family Nurse Practitioner at Parkside Health Center part of Unity Health Care, Inc. “This is the type of knowledge they keep with them for the rest of their lives.”

“I really like coming to these classes,” commented one of the participants. “They are educational but also fun. And I like learning about food!” 

Sapna Batheja has been interested in helping educate and empower individuals to use food as medicine to help prevent or alleviate chronic diseases for a very long time. With both of her parents suffering from chronic diseases, she has seen firsthand how nutrition can play a role in heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

She completed her Master’s and Dietetic Internship at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she focused on Public Health Nutrition. This was when she first realized her passion for the field of community education. Since graduating from Case Western, she has had the pleasure of working in a variety of public health nutrition settings. From working in a local non-profit, a public school system, a national education non-profit, and now the University of the District of Columbia, she has learned valuable skills and gained remarkable experiences at each of these positions. In addition, at every step, her commitment to the field of community nutrition has continued to grow.   

"Cooking Matters at the Store" is funded by a grant from Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit that aims to end hunger in America by connecting people with the nutritious food they need to lead healthy, active lives. Through the $2,500 grant, the Center for Nutrition, Diet and Health is in the process of conducting grocery store tours for 250 individuals. Since starting the tours in April, 24 tours have been conducted to 184 adults. Program participants are organized through CNDH partners: Unity Clinics, DCPS community and parent outreach groups, Transition Housing Corporation, DC libraries, DCPS New Heights program and senior centers.

NUMBER OF TOURS IN EACH WARD

WARD	NUMBER OF TOURS SINCE APRIL 2014
1	3
2	1
3	0
4	8
5	3
6	1
7	1
8	7
TOTAL	24

For more information, contact Sapna Batheja at sapna.batheja@udc.edu.