Thundermist Grows is a multi-generational community garden and associated educational program. Thundermist Grows impacted more than 500 children, adults and seniors during the 2012 growing season. We knew that by initiating Thundermist Grows we would increase the health and well-being of our community by ensuring that families have better access to organic fruits and vegetables (which are often cost prohibitive), increase their physical activity through gardening, and increase opportunities for multigenerational exchange of skills and experiences.
Thundermist opened the community garden in May 2012, which is adjacent to the parking lot of the Cotton Shed, Thundermist’s innovative patient-centered medical home facility. The garden was home to more than 30 individual raised beds, eight of which are accessible to those in wheelchairs and other physical challenges. It also housed a shared berry and herb garden and a sitting area open to the entire Thundermist community. Gardeners included members of the community, patients, as well as Thundermist staff.
This project engaged multiple community partners with the development of the garden, its build-out, and actual gardening and maintenance of the garden. Committed partners included the West Warwick Public Schools, the West Warwick Senior Center, the West Warwick Public Housing Authority, the Kent County YMCA, the URI Master Gardener program, a local Boy Scout troop and several local churches. All of the community garden beds will be built by participants in West Warwick’s Vocational Program.
To ensure that our community gardeners had the skills they needed to successfully grow food, as well as to increase the amount of organic gardening in our community, Thundermist Grows implemented a community-wide education program. This program trained local community members in key organic gardening techniques. A Beginner Gardener Series, a 4-part educational curriculum developed by the South Side Community Land Trust, was delivered to both community garden participants as well as local backyard gardeners. Additionally, we engaged local school children and local seniors in a program which taught them to plant and grow seedlings as well as participate in container gardening in their homes. All educational sessions were conducted by volunteer trainers who were either certified in the South Side Community Land Trust’s curriculum or URI Master Gardeners.
Thundermist Health Center and Farm Fresh Rhode Island presented a six class course entitled "Cooking Rx: A Kitchen and Clinic Skills Course for Health Care Providers."
Our course has finished for the season however, please e-mail PamelaMa@thundermisthealth.org for information about future classes.
Inspired by the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference, Cooking Rx was co-taught by a chef and a clinician. The course featured six fun, interactive classes designed to teach health care professionals to incorporate healthful cooking and eating into their own lives and to empower our patients to do the same. Classes were engaging and interesting for cooks of all skill levels. All equipment and supplies were provided.
» Cooking Rx was held in the Thundermist West Warwick Demonstration Kitchen at 186 Providence Street, West Warwick, RI 02893.
Check out our pictures on Facebook here!
If you were an enrolled participant, click below for the class PowerPoint slides and other course materials:
Session 1 Course Intro, Our Food Environment.pdf
Session 2 Outrageously Delicious Vegetables [Compatibility Mode].pdf
Session 3 Grains PowerPoint-1.pdf
Session 3 Grains - The Whole Story - PowerPoint -2.pdf
Session 4 Meat as a Condiment - PowerPoint.pdf
Seasonal Produce.pdf
Recipes from Class 2:
Recipes from Class 3:
Recipes from Class 4:
Thundermist runs school-based health centers (The Health Hut) at Woonsocket High School and in West Warwick, based at Deering Middle School, which also serves the West Warwick High School.
School-based health centers provide primary care services to students in schools, during the school day. All students must have parental consent to be seen at the school-based health centers. All services are provided at no out-of-pocket cost to the student; if the family has medical insurance the health center bills the insurance company. Services at The Health Hut include: physical exams (including school and sports physicals), immunizations, sick visits, treatment of minor injuries, health education, chronic care management (i.e. asthma, diabetes), and dental services-including examinations and hygiene services. No child is treated without a signed consent form from their parent.
School-based health centers work closely with school personnel including principals, school nurse teachers, and student support staff. They do not take the place, or do the job of, the school nurse teacher. School-based health centers are helpful to parents because:
- It is often difficult to get time off of work to take a child to the doctor.
- Many families face transportation, language, or financial barriers in traditional health care settings.
- Adolescents often do not seek out health care because of embarrassment. Adolescence is an important time to have access to a trusted health provider.
For more information, and/or to print a Patient Consent Form, click below:
Parent Notifcation:
Woonocket Parent Notification.pdf
West Warwick Parent Notification.pdf
Handbook:
Woonocket Health Hut Handbook.pdf
West Warwick Health Hut Handbook.pdf
Patient Consent Form:
Woonsocket Patient Registration 2012-2013.pdf
West Warwick Patient Registration 2012-2013.pdf
Patient Rights:
SBHC Patient Rights.pdf
HIPPA:
SBHC HIPPA.pdf
The ThunderKids Wellness Program in Woonsocket started when Thundermist was awarded a CDC grant based on a grant proposal for a treatment program addressing adolescent children who are overweight and are considered clinically obese. The program began in September 2010 and even though the funding expired, Thundermist continues to run this important program.
The Program targets children 11 - 13 years old through an intensive, therapeutic, multi-specialty intervention that runs throughout the entire school year. The components of the program are:
- Physical activity twice a week for an hour and a half each day at the Woonsocket YMCA
- 30 minutes of group nutrition and helath and wellness lectures per week
- One-on-one nutrition counseling per month
- One on one medical examinations per month
The Thundermist Community Dental Program uses portable dental equipment and offers on-site services in oral examinations, preventative, hygienic and restorative services and classroom-based oral health education.
A dentist and hygienist go to schools, Head Start classrooms, and after-school programs to screen children and then refer them for treatment to the Molar Express or their dental home.
Dental services are brought to children through a venture named, The Molar Express, presented by Ronald McDonald House Charities. The Molar Express is a 40-foot long, specially designed dental office on wheels which travels to 20 RI communities. The program targets 15,000 children aged 2-18, many of whom are living in poverty or have no dental insurance through our Community Dental Program. We partnered with two other highly experienced RI health and human service providers (Comprehensive Community Action Program and East Bay Community Action Program) along with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern New England to bring full dental services tailored for the communities the Molar Express visits. The Molar Express was an NBC 10 and Citizens Bank
Champions in Action.
Thundermist has experienced health educators on staff who provides health screening, health education, and outreach activities. Our medical and WIC staff are intimately involved in lead safety issues. We provide lead screening to 100% of our pediatric patients at multiple points in their lives. We provide lead safety information to our patients and work closely with all agencies involved in lead abatement efforts. Our social service case managers are familiar with the health literacy of the poor in our communities and are well prepared to lead outreach and educational activities in lead safety.