Hello! I’m Kari the summer intern at Mower Refreshed. It has been
about a month since I moved to Austin and started this new role in
community engagement.

• What have I learned in this past month?
Well, I feel like I have gotten more hands on experience working
with community engagement in this past month than in the last 4
years of college. While I was getting ready to launch my first event
called, Family Kitchen Connection, I learned that if you find yourself
getting too caught up in program planning and try to do too much too fast, you have to take a step back and remind yourself of the purpose.

​As a dietitian, I am always interested in how to help patients and families consume more fruits and vegetables. Several studies have been published in the last few years showing increasing promise to the idea that involving our kids in the process of food production will actually increase their willingness to taste new foods. I find this idea to be very intriguing! But what if we took it a step further…

• ​How do I decide when to get care?
• Where should I go when needing care?
• What choices do I have in the Mower County area?
• How much might the care cost?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. These very questions surface frequently as we all adapt to the continuous changes in healthcare. So while facilitating a conversation at an English Language Learner (ELL) class in the Austin Public School’s Community Learning Center, it wasn’t a
surprise when similar questions began to be raised.

​When exploring what determines our individual health status there are key components at play. These are called health determinants and there has been much research on not only what makes up the determinants but also to what extent do each of the determinants impact yours and my
health. Common categories identified as determinants, those things that determine our wellness, are genetics: the DNA we were born
with, behaviors: what we do or don’t do, social: our relationships and connectedness,  environments: physical spaces we spend time in, and health care: our interactions with our care
provider.