29 4.5: Case study #6: Creating Culturally Appropriate Resources

Authors: Zoe Barnett, RD and Bianca Cordeiro, RD, from Ontario

Evelyn, a new black dietitian of Ghanaian descent, was looking for sodium content information in traditional Ghanaian foods to host a community education session about hypertension for her Ghanaian-Canadian community. After looking in both the Canadian and US hypertension and sodium resources, she was unable to find the information. When she mentioned it to co-workers and asked if any of them knew of any resources for her, their response was, “No, sorry. Why don’t you just make a resource yourself?” Resolute to provide culturally relevant information to her community, she asked around
for other black dietitians. One of her colleagues, Michelle, said: “I heard something about a black dietitian network, but I don’t think they really do anything.” Evelyn was able to get in touch with CBRDA, and she found 2 dietitians, Esther and Sarah, were working on a very similar resource for their clients. Evelyn joined Esther and Sarah and created a West African Hypertension working group to develop a resource for both Ghanaian and Nigerian clients. The working group was able to save all 3 dietitians so much time, and they were able to bond with each other in the process.

You willl earn about improving Black representation within the fields of food nutrition and dietetic work in Chapter 5.