By Beth Ann Johnson, Mountain View Community Center community coordinator
EDGEWOOD — It’s 2 p.m. on a Thursday, and Pacific Lutheran University nursing student Quinn Taylor has her stethoscope out, ready to take the blood pressure of waiting clients.
At a separate table, nursing students Elaina Mills and Ashley Wright have set up “Alphabet Soup” for the kids. Each child pulls a letter of the alphabet from a soup bowl, and then draws a fruit, vegetable or healthy activity that starts with that letter.
The nursing students are at Mountain View Community Center to take part in a new partnership between PLU's School of Nursing, Mountain View Community Center and Edgewood Community FISH Food Bank. For 14 weeks this spring, nursing students under the supervision of Kathy Moisio, clinical instructor of nursing at PLU, will come to Mountain View to visit with clients of the food bank and the center’s Seeds of Change Community Meal. The community meal feeds between 125 and 150 people each week; the food bank provides more than 60,000 pounds of food to over 1,000 families each month.
Their first week, nursing students took blood pressure, educated clients about the importance of flu vaccines, and took a survey of clients to find out what they were concerned about when it came to their health.
“We want to provide services that meet the needs of those who are served,” Moisio said.
This is just one of several changes happening at Mountain View Community Center. Thanks to a partnership with the Medical Reserve Corps, clients received free flu shots. And in coming weeks, food bank clients will get cooking lessons.
“The over-reaching goal is to provide children, families and seniors in our community with opportunities to improve their physical, mental and social well-being,” said Dr. Don Mott, chair of the community center's board. “It is very exciting to see this unfolding in our community.”
Pictured: Elaina Mills, at right, sets to work.
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