Margarita Mendoza
(Image by: Vivian Nguyen)
By Vivian Nguyen
Since being certified as a LifeLong Health Promoter,
Margarita Mendoza has played a valuable role in improving the health outcomes
of her community as both a community health worker and a Cooking Matters
instructor.
Through a 10-week leadership training program, LifeLong Medical Care builds
the capacity of health center patients as educators and advocates for their
community. Upon completion, trainees become certified volunteers and commit to
a minimum of one year working as a LifeLong Health Promoter. Community Clinic Consortium,
in partnership with LifeLong Medical Care, launched the pilot program with a
generous grant from The
California Endowment. Margarita and her husband, Luis, both graduated
with the first cohort of Health Promoters on August 22, 2012.
In their health analysis, Margarita and her fellow Health
Promoters prioritized obesity and diabetes as the greatest concern for their community.
Because of this, Community Clinic Consortium contracted with 18 Reasons (formerly
Three Squares), a Bay Area non-profit organization that provides nutrition
education to low-income families through a program called Cooking Matters. With
funding support from Kaiser
East Bay Community Benefit, Margarita and other Health Promoters
successfully completed an 8-week training program and became certified to teach
the Cooking Matters program in the Richmond community.
Below, Margarita shares her personal transformation from
patient to Promotora and offers insight
into why cooking really does
matter.
Q: Why did you decide to become a Health
Promoter (Promotora) and what kind of
work do you do?
A: I really
wanted to help my community and get the word out that there are places for
people to go when they want to see a doctor. During health fairs, I try to give
out telephone numbers and addresses [of our community clinics] to people in
case they need to see a doctor. For example, at the Cinco de Mayo Fair in
Richmond, I found out that some people go far away to clinics in Oakland even
though there are nearby clinics in Richmond and San Pablo. There are health centers available and I want
people to know that.
Q: In addition to being a Health Promoter,
you’re also an instructor for Cooking Matters. Can you tell us a more about the
program?
A: Cooking
Matters offers free lessons to the community on healthy cooking and eating. Lessons
take place once a week and are 2 hours long. There are 6 lessons total. During
the first 5 lessons, [students and instructors] cook together. On the last
lesson, only students make food but they have to use all the knowledge that
they’ve learned so far. The lessons are led by a 3-person team of instructors—a
teacher, a chef and a helper. The instructors switch off roles every lesson.
Q: Who takes these lessons?
A: Many students are mothers with
children or people who live in apartments or people with different health
problems, such as a chronic illness. Cooking Matters gives [the instructors]
all the ingredients in a bag before each lesson but it’s important that those
ingredients are also readily available in the home. Any unused ingredients are
shared with the rest [of the class] after the lesson ends.
Q: What is
the process for becoming a Cooking Matters instructor?
A: To become
an instructor, you have to complete 8 lessons and each one is 3 hours long. You
learn things like which foods to buy and the best seasons to get certain fruits
and vegetables. There is a lesson on how to cook lean meats, grains and
protein. There is also a lesson on how to cook with dairy, lactose, yogurt and
cheese. A lot of what we learn is how to know which [ingredient] is better for
you and how to make healthy substitutions, like using yogurt instead of
cream. I completed the program last year
and began teaching as an instructor.
Q: What motivated you to become involved
with Cooking Matters?
A: On a personal level, I needed to
make a change in my food choices to get healthy. I love hamburgers but having
good health is more important. Before [the program], I would only want meat and
no fruits. My husband is diabetic and so are my mother and brother. I realized
I needed to make a change for me and for them.
Q: What types of healthy changes have you
made and have you noticed any results?
A: In the morning for breakfast, [my
husband and I] used to have tortillas, eggs and beans but now we eat oatmeal,
cereal and fruit. For lunch, we’ll have a light meal with veggies or soup. And
at night for dinner, nothing too heavy. We also snack every 2 hours to maintain
a good metabolism. I noticed that with my husband, it is easier now for him to
control his blood-sugar level but these good habits need to continue for him to
stay healthy. And once I understood how
important eating healthy was, I lost weight—that’s the best part!
Q: It seems like you and your husband have
made a lot of positive changes! How do you inspire others to do the same?
A: What’s
important is that if you think about your health first, everything else will
come after. You don’t need to diet, just eat in moderation. Or just make
healthy substitutions. For example, I’ll eat anything but in smaller portions
or only during special occasions. So instead of [eating] 2 pieces of sweet
bread, only eat 1 piece. And other people can make the same changes! I think
you can talk to anyone and tell them how to be healthy but it’s important to
make changes that are realistic and that people will believe in.
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For more
information about the programs and organizations discussed in this post, please
visit:
Vivian Nguyen is a Community Affairs Intern at Community Clinic Consortium of Contra Costa & Solano Counties. She can be reached at [email protected].