24 minute read
Keep It Sweet - Potato Pie
Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Sweet potato pie is the epitome of Southern comfort food - particularly within African American households. But, you might not like all the fat and calories that come with that comfort. Try this recipe that takes advantage of low-fat skim milk and leaves out the butter.
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SERVES 16
PER SERVING
INGREDIENTS
Crust
1 1/4 cups flour 1/4 tsp. sugar 1/3 cup skim milk 2 Tbsps. Canola oil Filling 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 3 large eggs, beaten 1/4 cup evaporated skim milk, canned 1 tsp. vanilla extract 3 cups sweet potatoes (cooked and mashed)
PREPARATION
Crust
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Farhenheit.
• Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl.
Add milk and oil to the flour mixture.
• Stir with fork until well mixed and then form pastry into a smooth ball with your hands. • Roll the ball between two 12-inch squares of waxed paper using short, brisk strokes until pastry reaches edge of paper. • Peel off top paper and invert crust into pie.
Filling
• Combine sugars, salt, spices and eggs. Add milk and vanilla, stir. Add cooked sweet potatoes and mix well. • Pour mixture into pie shell. • Bake for 60 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
140 calories 3g total fat 230mg sodium 40mg cholesterol
Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays
Part of the mission of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission includes addressing disparities in minority communities and educating the communities on healthier lifestyles. One of the most glaring disparities that minorities face is the epidemic of obesity. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, African-Americans are 1.4 times more likely to be obese than whites. Hispanics are 1.2 times more likely to be obese than whites.
Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays is a program designed to educate minority communities about healthier alternatives to preparing Southern-style (soul) foods. The program seeks to reach communities and individual participants to offer healthier ways of preparing dishes that are culturally relevant. To learn more, contact Ronda Gilbert-Hines, health specialist, at 501-682-8825 or Ronda.Gilbert-Hines@arkansas.gov.
Change from the Other Side
Judy Smith
BY BRITTANY DESMUKE
Prior to becoming the second director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, former Arkansas state representative, Judy Smith, turned down the position at least eight times.
This project hit very close to home for Smith. For more than 18 years, she’d run a nonprofit organization in her hometown of Camden, Arkansas, but once she finally gave the commission her yes, Smith got to work, determined to make a change.
Her first project, Eating and Moving for Life, was a dietary intervention and prevention project that aimed to reduce the risk of nutrition-related diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.
On Thanksgiving Day in 2001, her husband was diagnosed with diabetes after experiencing a blood sugar reading of over 1500. He was given two options by his doctor - get disability right away or continue working, exercising, eating healthy and taking the proper medication.
He chose the latter.
Smith saw this encounter as an opportunity to educate others about the symptoms of diabetes and how the lack of going to a doctor could lead to bad outcomes.
Her second project and one of the agency’s most well-known initiatives – Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays – came to life through a correlating event.
While still in the hospital following the Thanksgiving Day incident, Smith and her husband sampled two weeks’ worth of nutritious meals to see how their new food options would look and taste.
Having been equipped with fresh, new recipes for healthier living in her personal life, Smith seized the opportunity to do the same for others. She connected with the University of Arkansas’ Cooperative Extension Services and with their help, the Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays (SAFS) cookbook came to life.
The cookbook consisted of healthier versions of classic southern dishes like fried chicken, mac and cheese and sweet potato pie.
To test out the recipes and kickstart the SAFS program, ten churches were recruited and given cookbooks. They were asked to prepare one meal from it each month to replace their normal Sunday dinner.
By the second year, the SAFS program experienced a massive increase and now included 40 churches and more than 9,000 participants.
Although this program was a major success, Smith says of all the work she accomplished at AMHC, she is most proud of the Minority Health Today Show.
Each week, she used her televised platform to address a different health disparity through the lens of a survivor and a medical expert who focused not only on treatment, but prevention.
The show eventually reached 13.5 million households across the country,
with topics ranging from breast and prostate cancer to mental health and wellness to prenatal care. Throughout her five years of service to AMHC, Smith’s work was influenced by so much of her personal and professional experience and kept her motivated to fulfill the mission and vision of the agency each day.
“I grew up po, P-O,” Smith said. “So for me, I live my life with such gratitude to the good Lord that I want to improve the part of life for every human that I can. And for me, health is a part of that.”
And so it was.
With the help of the AMHC staff, board of commissioners, and legislative body, Smith’s contributions to the agency have left a long-lasting impact on the agency and the state of Arkansas.
rewards.”
It Takes A Village
Dr. Wynona Bryant-Williams
BY BRITTANY DESMUKE
Dr. Wynona Bryant-Williams is a teacher at heart, so the feeling was bittersweet when leaving her role at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) to serve as director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission (AMHC).
The transition from professor to director of AMHC was seemingly a great fit because the agency’s goals and mission aligned with the work Bryant-Williams was passionate about, and it also brought her closer to home.
While at UCA, Bryant-Williams taught African American studies with an emphasis on black families and was overjoyed with the impact this subject had on her students.
“They were like sponges just soaking up that information about their history,” Bryant-Williams said. “When a teacher sees that lightbulb go off in its students, it’s just one of the greatest
Although she would no longer be in the classroom, Bryant-Williams looked to have a continuous impact while at AMHC.
“I think the commission was already doing great work,” she said. “One thing we did to expand that work was to be more inclusive of bringing other minorities into the work of the commission.”
This all started with the Marshallese population in northwest Arkansas.
Following World War II, the U.S. military performed 12 years of nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands, causing exposure to radiation and forcing relocation and other consequences that the Marshallese community continue to experience today.
In 1986, the U.S. government and the Republic of Marshall Islands signed the Compact of Free Association, which granted the Marshallese community the freedom to travel between the two countries as they pleased. Thousands of Marshallese have since migrated to northwest Arkansas and nearby communities.
Understanding the gravity of their experience, AMHC knew it had to gain the community’s trust before ever implementing a program, study, or health fair, so they started by approaching the Marshallese leaders.
“It was because of their foot work that we gained entry into that community and were allowed to do the work that we felt was so very important,” said Bryant-Williams.
From there, partnerships between the agency and other organizations only grew.
“It takes a village to do all of this important work,” said BryantWilliams. “One agency cannot do it alone.”
Of the things accomplished during her tenure with AMHC, Bryant-Williams is most proud of the work started with populations effected by HIV/AIDS.
From her recollection, “the numbers started to go down where incidence of AIDS was, but the latter part of the 90s, those numbers started to increase again.”
In response, Patricia Minor, project manager for AMHC’s hypertension program, was accepted as a fellow into the Black AIDS Institute, and as a result of her training, introduced HIV/ AIDS screenings to AMHC’s roster of healthcare screenings.
“The staff that I worked with every day was a great staff,” said Bryant-Williams. “I was honored to have been able to work with them. They were dedicated individuals and I was just very proud to become a part of something good that was already there.”
Three months after her tenure as director of AMHC, Bryant-Williams was diagnosed with cancer.
Not only was she grateful to have built long lasting relationships with individuals and partnerships with organizations like the Arkansas Cancer Coalition, the Arkansas Department of Health and other non-profits, but she was also grateful to have known the importance of early detection.
“I just wish that I could be the poster child for early detection because I am a living example of how that saved my life.”
In the future, Bryant-Williams hopes to see AMHC incorporate mental health care in a greater capacity but in the meantime, continues to root for the success of the agency.
Many Members. One Mission.
Idonia Gardner
BY BRITTANY DESMUKE
For Idonia Gardner (formerly Idonia Trotter), the work of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission (AMHC) wasn’t just business. It was personal.
In 2000, Gardner’s mother passed away from lung cancer and although doctors never said how the disease developed, Gardner and her family knew the cause was secondhand smoke.
“If my mother would’ve ever known that secondhand smoke was as dangerous as it was, she would have kicked my stepfather out of the house and he likely would’ve smoked outside the house,” Gardner said. “But because they were unaware, it just happened.”
making a difference in the area that completely changed her life. In response to her loss, Gardner would either dive into her grief or find things to do that helped her feel as though she were
In the early 2000s, Gardner joined the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas to inform people about the dangers of secondhand smoke. By 2009, she was the newest director of AMHC.
With a joint law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law and the Clinton School of Public Service, Gardner was well equipped for what lie ahead. She was guided by the vision set forth by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, one of the founding members of AMHC, and the strategic plan developed by the agency’s board of commissioners.
At the start of her tenure, Gardner and her team focused intently on HIV/AIDS, sickle cell awareness, and healthcare diversity. Further down the road, the commission sought to direct more attention to the root causes of diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure, and so developed an overarching focus on physical education and nutrition.
This gave way to AMHC’s Camp iRock, the state’s first residential fitness program. Camp iRock was designed for girls in grades 6-8 and provided fun educational activities, workshops and exercises that promoted healthier lifestyles, physical activity and self-confidence.
As the agency continued to stay the course, focusing on its overarching goals, talks of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) begin to spring up across the
state.
“We were aware of the conversations nationally and even statewide around the Affordable Care Act, but who knew if Arkansas would ever pass it,” Gardner said.
In 2010, ACA was signed into law and in 2013, the legislation was authorized in Arkansas.
From the passage of ACA until the end of Gardner’s tenure, this became AMHC’s primary focus.
“If we could ensure that people were insured and had the ability to walk into the hospital without having the burden of a huge bill, or even go to a regular doctor’s appointment and maintain regular checkups without huge bills, we knew that that would really positively impact the overarching disparities that we were trying to address.” ACA was designed to make affordable healthcare accessible to more people, so AMHC did its part to educate lowincome communities about the law and how to sign up. This was done through community meetings, forums, and the
agency’s first State of Minority Health event. AMHC also hosted minority health summits, gathering community partners, leaders and healthcare providers from across the state to educate them on the latest health issues, ensuring they were equipped to deal with the newly informed public.
The efforts of AMHC during this time were largely influenced and supported by the Arkansas Minority Health Consortium, a collaboration of nonprofit, faith-based and community organizations that focused on public policy initiatives. Much of the work the agency was able to accomplish after the passage of ACA was because of the consortium’s leadership and commitment to the communities being served.
Gardner believes more than 240,000 Arkansans gained access to healthcare once ACA passed, and that couldn’t have happened without the collective work of the agency and its many, devoted partners.
PARTNERSHIPS
HOW AMHC CONTINUES TO FULFILL ITS MISSION AND REACH ARKANSANS ACROSS THE STATE
BY BRITTANY DESMUKE
PARTNERSHIPS have been instrumental in the work accomplished by the Arkansas Minority Health Commission (AMHC) since its inception 30 years ago. As many of the former directors have emphasized throughout this publication, it has taken the collaboration and commitment of numerous community partners, both large and small, to help push the mission of the agency forward. “We have enjoyed an excellent partnership with AMHC,” said Sue Espinosa, health outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Human Development Corporation (AHDC). “We have common goals and are committed to addressing the educational gaps regarding chronic disease prevention and incorporating healthy habits into the lives [of those we serve].” The partnership between AMHC and AHDC has been ongoing for nearly 10 years. This union developed out of AMHC’s need to expand its reach in Arkansas’ Hispanic communities.
Financial support provided by the commission to AHDC has allowed the organization to reach Hispanics in rural areas, who otherwise, would have no access to prevention services or information about available resources.
Sue Espinosa
In addition, AMHC supports the organization’s yearly Red Dress event. “Our Red Dress event has become a big success, thanks in part to the support of AMHC,” said Espinosa. “We have educated more than 3,000 Hispanic women about the dangers of tobacco use, heart disease, healthy eating habits, and mental health. We have also facilitated the offering of hundreds of screening tests.” Stork’s Nest, a cooperative project of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and the March of Dimes Foundation, uses its funding from the agency to increase the number of women who receive early and regular prenatal care to help prevent cases of low birthweight, premature births and infant deaths. According to a report from the March of Dimes, babies in Arkansas are more likely to be born prematurely than in most other states. Arkansas’ Stork’s Nest addresses this statistic through incentives and training made possible by funds from AMHC. “The Zeta Dove Foundation of Little Rock will always be grateful for the financial assistance we’ve received from AMHC,” said Beverly Cook, Arkansas State Director of Zeta Phi Beta. “More importantly, we value the partnership and look forward to their health advice, programming tips and assistance for years to come.” In addition to funding, AMHC has supported the Zeta Dove Foundation
by finding speakers, nurses, and vendors for health-related events.
“They also have no qualms with rolling up their sleeves, helping with registration and even assisting with serving healthy foods,” Cook said. Hands on experiences like these have made partnerships among AMHC all the more meaningful. This was certainly the case for Tara Shephard, CEO and founder of Delta Community Based Services (DCBS). “My experience [partnering with AMHC] has been amazing,” Shephard said. “The level of professionalism and support is like none other.” In 2019, Shephard released a report titled “In Their Voices,” which focused on the survey responses of African American girls in Arkansas who had potentially been exposed to violence, crime, sexual victimization and other Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) in their homes or neighborhoods. According to Shephard’s research, ACES are the single greatest public health threat facing our nation today. To spread awareness of such a pressing matter, Shephard partnered with AMHC and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Race and Ethnicity Institute to host a panel event of women from legal, medical, mental health and education professions to discuss the daily adversity African American girls face and what can be done about it.
Former AMHC director ShaRhonda Love joined the panel to provide input and support of the work being done to address this issue.
“Her wealth of knowledge contributed to a very intriguing and dynamic conversation regarding the overall health and wellbeing of African American girls in Arkansas,” Shephard said. Since partnering with AMHC, Shephard has been able to reach and impact the lives of even more girls in the central and southeast regions of the state. For Joyce Raynor, the partnership between AMHC and her organization, Center for Healing Hearts and Spirits, has been longstanding. For more than 15 years, the organizations have joined forces to effect change across the state. During former AMHC director Idonia Gardner (formerly Trotter)’s tenure, she recalls Raynor’s organization being very active and committed to the work of the Arkansas Minority Health Consortium, a body of organizations who played a key factor in AMHC supported legislation and health policy
Beverly Cook Tara Shephard
Beatriz Mondragon
concerns.
“Joyce was always there at everything we did and she supported everything we did with her organization,” Trotter said. Having such an extensive relationship with the agency, Raynor has seen many changes within AMHC’s leadership, and at times, priorities, but through it all, her organization has remained engaged with the commission. “I can recall during a statewide meeting at the State Capitol, stakeholders were asked what they wanted as an outcome of the meeting,” Raynor said. “I shared with each state agency what our agency needed. I shared specifically with AMHC that we would like to see our agency tied to the AMHC to assist us with marketing our services and creating community awareness. AMHC subsequently listed our logo on their website and provided funding opportunities through mini grants for several of our initiatives that aligned with AMHC goals.” To this day, AMHC partnerships continue to move the needle on efforts made by the commission to decrease health disparities and create a healthier tomorrow for Arkansas’ minority populations. “Collaboration and partnerships are very important because it takes a village to be able to reach all the communities in the state,” said Beatriz Mondragon, AMHC grants coordinator. “What better way to do that than collaborating with organizations that are known and trusted within communities to help provide the help and services that are needed.”
Joyce Raynor
A Vision for Collaboration
Dr. Micheal Knox
BY MICHELLE STEWART
Dr. Micheal Knox served as executive director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission (AMHC) from 2015 to 2016.
“What excited me the most about the opportunity to be the executive director for AMHC was that I could actively participate in working in a collaborative spirit with various organizations to address the social factors of health.”
Prior to AMHC, Knox worked in several capacities at the Arkansas Department of Health, including as public health administrator, Medicaid Expansion facilitator, associate branch chief at the Preparedness and Emergency Response Branch, and senior epidemiologist.
Coming into his role at AMHC, Knox said his goal was to actualize the potential and promise of the agency by assisting those individuals who needed access to equal health care.
“The health issues and shortage of medical professionals that plagued Arkansans were beyond the scope of one individual and one organization. It was my mission to exhaustively work towards coalitions and collaborations with other state agencies, universities, state, county, and local municipalities, faith and community-based organizations, and federal partners to close this gap.”
It was a huge challenge, but one Knox embraced.
“My hope was simple—to educate, to empower, and to equip minority Arkansans, as well as any individual who did not have equal access to care and preventative services. I wanted to provide the tools necessary to advocate for those basic rights and to provide direct services to their communities.”
In May 2015, AMHC held a conference called “Educating, Empowering, and Equipping Communities,” which focused on community service and increasing preventive services. At the conference, a wide range of quality experts were brought in to provide training and certification for health screenings like blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, tobacco prevention and cessation, and CPR. Many of these individuals would be AMHC’s direct points of contact to aggressively enhance awareness, education, and screenings that addressed health issues associated with diseases that were preventable with lifestyle changes such as chronic conditions like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.
In addition, the agency hosted and participated in foundational events and activities that were in line with the agency’s mission, including the 4th Biennial Minority Health Summit – Social Determinants of Health, a partnership with Shorter College to develop its Health and Wellness Center, the publication of the 2015-2016 Marshallese Acculturation Booklet, and the hosting of the agency’s first Marshallese Camp iRock.
To continue Knox’s goal of creating collaborations to heighten awareness, he established the agency’s partnership with Healthy Active Arkansas. This allowed organizations, both in local and state government along with public and private sectors, to work with individuals and families to create a culture that encouraged healthy eating and physical activity for all Arkansans.
The single, overarching goal was to increase the percentage of adults, adolescents and children who were at healthy weight. According to Knox, the work he accomplished while serving as director of AMHC would not have been possible without his staff.
“The staff of the AMHC during my tenure were a dedicated and resourceful group of individuals who, when allowed to do their jobs unabated, but supported did amazing work day in and day out.”
When it comes to the work of AMHC, Knox believes that it was critical then and remains to be critical today.
“There has to be an independent agency that continues to raise concerns, provide evidence, and seek solutions to the ongoing disparities that plague our community,” he said. “Whether intentional or unintentional, policies, procedures, programs and laws often have a long-term negative impact on minorities, especially if they are not participating in the negotiation, drafting and implementation of them in their neighborhoods, communities, counties or state.”
Shorter College Health and Wellness Clinic Opening
that I didn’t have then is very important to me.”
Empathy Leading the Charge for Change
ShaRhonda Love
BY MICHELLE STEWART
The director position of AMHC was not new to ShaRhonda Love when she was contacted about the role in 2017. In 2015, she’d applied for the position, was selected as a finalist but didn’t get the appointment.
Reluctant because she had just started another job, it took a call from former AMHC commissioner Willa Black Kennedy Sanders, a friend and co-worker, to give Love some motherly advice about never turning a job down when it was being offered. So, Love did just that, becoming the seventh director of AMHC.
For Love, the appointment represented much more than a title.
“I was born and raised in Little Rock very poor and didn’t see a doctor until I was 19-years-old,” she said. “The people that we serve that lack access to care—that was me—and I can totally identify. Being able to give back and provide access to services
That passion led Love to implement and reimagine several initiatives throughout her five years at AMHC.
At the start, Love focused heavily on health literacy in an effort to eliminate medical jargon from health education materials and ensure that communities served by the agency understood the information being provided. AMHC partnered with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Center for Health Literacy to develop health fact sheets written at a 6th grade level on topics related to chronic disease and oral health.
Later in her tenure, Love moved from idea to execution on the agency’s first state-of-the-art Mobile Health Unit (MHU).
MHU Nurses “I read an article that said units were not only able drive into communities but that communities trusted them,” she said. “AMHC had the trust but needed a way into communities. Initially it took some convincing, but we were able to get the funding for it and now it is working beautifully.”
In 2019, since first hitting the road in 2018, AMHC’s MHU served 62 counties and provided more than 6,400 screenings and services to over 850 community members. Participants received health education and preventative screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol,
glucose, A1C, HIV, and BMI.
Love’s goal for the MHU is to reach all 75 counties in the state and double the agency’s preventive screenings by meeting people where they are.
This resource definitely came in handy when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Initially, AMHC’s MHU was at a standstill, but as safety measures intensified and more information became available, the unit was OK’d to travel into communities of need.
Using the MHU, COVID-19 testing and vaccinations were provided, along with personal protective equipment (PPE) like hand sanitizer and masks.
“We were able to work with the CARES committee and became the reviewer and facilitator for minority health care funding requests. Through that, we were able to partner with entities throughout the state.”
The AMHC secured close to $11 million dollars in CARES funding and ensured
funds were utilized to provide testing, vaccinations, funeral services, PPE, cleaning supplies, and food.
“We met the community’s needs so we could continue what we do best— utilize our partnerships and trust to reach all corners of the state.”
When asked why the work of AMHC is so important, Love spoke again of her empathy.
“Until we can provide equal access for health at every level, we will continue to see numbers increase in disparities for all chronic diseases. When we move to a place where everyone sees how important equity is and wants to take a part in it…hopefully then there will be no need for a Minority Health Commission.”
