Oliver Tracy L, McKeever Amy, Shenkman Rebecca, Diewald Lisa K
MacDonald Center for Obesity Prevention and Education, Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085 USA.
BMC Nutr. 2020 Jul 14;6:27. doi: 10.1186/s40795-020-00352-9. eCollection 2020.
Delivering nutrition education within an emergency food pantry (EFP) provides an opportunity to reach many food insecure households and underserved populations. However, little is known about using a peer mentor model, " as a modality to deliver nutrition education within this setting. This research aimed to identify the successes and challenges of using a peer mentor model within an EFP to better understand the best approaches to deliver nutrition education among community residents.
In spring 2018, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 peer mentors after they delivered a series of nutrition workshops to community members of the EFP. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.
All peer mentors were women over 40 years-of-age, were recruited from the EFP community; most were high school graduates and currently received some form of federal nutrition assistance. All peer mentors reported that the nutrition education program offered many benefits. Key successes of the program included serving in the role as a peer mentor was an empowering experience which gave them a sense of community, purpose, and camaraderie; 2) the nutrition education was appropriately tailored towards those living with food insecurity; 3) the recipes required minimal cooking skills and included low-cost easily accessible foods available at the EFP. Key challenges of the program were the lack of community member engagement in the nutrition education workshops.
Challenges continue to exist when delivering nutrition education within a community EFP setting. While the use of peer mentors to deliver nutrition education messages is promising, more research is needed to quantify the impact of using a peer mentor model in underserved and food insecure communities.
在紧急食品救济站（EFP）开展营养教育为接触众多粮食不安全家庭和服务不足人群提供了契机。然而，对于在此环境中采用同伴指导模式作为提供营养教育的一种方式，人们了解甚少。本研究旨在确定在紧急食品救济站中使用同伴指导模式的成功之处与挑战，以便更好地理解在社区居民中开展营养教育的最佳方法。
2018年春季，11名同伴指导者在为紧急食品救济站的社区成员举办了一系列营养工作坊之后，接受了半结构化访谈。访谈进行了录音，并逐字转录。采用定性内容分析法对数据进行分析。
所有同伴指导者均为40岁以上的女性，从紧急食品救济站社区招募；大多数是高中毕业生，目前接受某种形式的联邦营养援助。所有同伴指导者均表示，营养教育项目带来了诸多益处。该项目的主要成功之处包括：1）担任同伴指导者是一次赋予权力的经历，让他们有了社区归属感、使命感和同志情谊；2）营养教育针对粮食不安全人群进行了适当调整；3）食谱所需烹饪技能最少，且包含紧急食品救济站提供的低成本、易于获取的食物。该项目的主要挑战是社区成员对营养教育工作坊缺乏参与度。
在社区紧急食品救济站环境中开展营养教育时，挑战依然存在。虽然利用同伴指导者传递营养教育信息很有前景，但仍需要更多研究来量化在服务不足和粮食不安全社区采用同伴指导模式的影响。
