It wasn't the healthy meal everyone expected, but on a dreary February morning, the consensus was unanimous: "Mmm... delicious."

The 15-minute meal of sloppy Joe sandwiches, tortilla chips, baby carrots and punch served as the exemplary nutritious meal for the parents to be, as Natalie Webb, a registered dietician, used ingredients from the grocery store down the street, and met all the food group requirements on a tight budget.

Efforts were well received by teens gathered in a home economics room, who quickly polished off their meals, while noting the tips they would need to remember in order to eat healthy and get the proper nutrients during their pregnancies.

"I would have never thought of this," said Mayeline, a senior at Kennedy who is due in March and attended the session with her baby's father, Donny.

Every year the Montgomery County section of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) receives funding from the African American Health Program to raise awareness around a particular health topic. This year they decided to tackle infant mortality, with the four-part workshop, "Better Me, Better Baby, and Better Village."

"It was sort of an ah-ha moment for us," said Pat Grant, president of Montgomery County Section of NCNW. "As we looked at the statistics, especially for the African-American community, we were startled, so we said ‘how can we reach them? How can we work to make families healthy?'"

Infant mortality refers to the death of a child during the first year of life.

In 2004, the U.S. rate for infant mortality was 6.78 deaths per 1,000 live births, mainly due to the high rates in the African-American community at 13.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to a report[PDF, 787KB] by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For teenage girls, the rates for bad birth outcomes can be even higher than their older counterparts within the same ethnic group, as they simultaneously deal with the trials of impending adulthood and motherhood.

"I hope that we raise the awareness of what our theme is saying, Better Me, Better Baby, and Better Village." said Pat Grant. "And for teens, I think it's a lot of information and a lot of them have challenges already."

To raise awareness, the organization is working with teens at Kennedy High School in Silver Spring before taking the message to other area high schools.

"NCNW is about making lives, communities better," said Juanita Goudy, second vice president and College Institute Coordinator at Kennedy. "We're about our seniors, our people and anyone in crisis."

Under the umbrella of A Healthy Baby Begins with You, an African American infant mortality awareness campaign from the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH), the first session dealt with local and national resources for young, tired and sometimes frustrated parents or anyone who comes in contact with a young child and put emphasis on safe sleeping habits.

OMH's campaign has shown that sometimes there are community and local resources untapped because those who need them don't know they exist. Hotlines, such as OMH Resource Center's 1-800-444-6472 are invaluable for young parents and parents to be, in particular for teens who may not even know which questions to ask.

That was the message Kimberly Myers, OMHRC's information specialist, brought to the event. "We can find resources available for you anywhere in the country. You need to know we are there to help," she said.

The second session focused on the physical aspect of pregnancy with topics of healthy meals and nutrition. To prevent people from crediting budget constraints as an obstruction to healthy eating, Webb dispelled the myths.

"Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive," Webb said. "The most expensive thing about food is convenience. The more someone does for you the more it's going to cost."

Goudy said she felt that even she benefited from the hands-on demonstration.

"When you think of eating healthy, sometimes you don't think it will taste good," she said, "now if I can just eat like that from now on, I'll be better off."

The two remaining sessions take place during the month of February and deal with the topics of prenatal, infant and mother's care and infant and child safety. As incentives for attendance, participants are given gift cards to neighborhood grocery stores, and baby-safe items, like plugs for electric sockets and locks for cabinet doors.

For this second session, Webb brought students blue, insulated lunch bags with healthy snacks inside. She included a bag of baby carrots, mozzarella cheesesticks, an orange, a trailmix bar, a mini bag of popcorn and about an ounce of canned tuna to show students items in the correct sizes they can consume.

"There's no greater division than the division in health disparities," Webb said.
"The earlier you start in doing the right thing or the wrong thing, the greater impact it's going to have in the long run."

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Fia Curley is a writer for the OMHRC. Comments? E-mail: fcurley@omhrc.gov

Healthy Meals on a Budget

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