After you've taught as long as I have, it begins to make you wonder what the hell it is you're doing. TNAP has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the W. H. Kellogg Foundation, the Nassau Fund, private donors, and the University of Pennsylvania. The program was started when staff at Turner became concerned about the prevalence of obesity at the school and in the neighborhood. The problem is just lack of food. When you look at developed countries like the U.S., the whole pattern changes.
Obesity becomes a disease of the poor.
Undergraduates who register for Nutrition, Health, and Community Schools learn about the course's subject matter in a traditional classroom setting, but they also take part in TNAP projects. Other Penn students take part in research and data collection projects, working together with Turner students to assess community needs, survey nutritional status and attitudes, and determine the dietary intake of the student body. The data and research findings help shape future TNAP initiatives. So the theories that students are learning about anthropology and about nutrition and about the social and cultural aspects of health derive from their actual experience at Turner. At the same time, they're providing a service to the school and the community.