–by HealthCorps members Ran Xiao and Megan Cairns

The numbers are grim. One in every three adults are considered overweight or obese, and almost a tenth of us are diagnosed with type II diabetes.

So we know that exercise has never been more important for health of the nation. According to the CDC, a minimum of 15-20 minutes of active physical activity per day is recommended to maintain weight, and reduce the risk for type II diabetes along with several other health issues (e.g. heart health, hypertension, osteoporosis, depression). That adds up to about 2.5 hours a week.

Well, with free yoga classes and new exercise programming, Bread for the City is excited to be offering 3 total hours of led physical activity to our clients every week.

And best of all: it’s a lot of fun!

During the week, Bread for the City hosts regular exercise classes that meet at noon on Mondays and Wednesdays. We are joined by one of two volunteer personal trainers Shawn Lyles and Peter Escoffrey. After a recent winter lull, we decided to breathe some new life into the class this week. The volunteers of the Health Resource Room gathered a group of clients and headed to Shiloh Baptist Church, who have graciously allowed us to use their fitness center.

There, our trainers led clients in a question-and-answer session. We discussed how to take care of our bodies, and how to exercise when we know certain things bother us (injured knees, sore backs, etc). After an in-depth talk with some very good questions from our clients, everyone got up and did some leg raises and squats.

Aside from some sore thighs and a bit of sweat, people were smiling and laughing. One participant said, “Oohh I feel it!” followed by, “But that was good, I need more of this!”

After a few more squats, we left Shiloh and came back to Bread for the City to meet with Sharon Feuer Gruber, our resident nutrition consultant, who talked with the group about making healthy choices. We refueled with some curried lentil soup and garden salad made by our gleaning coordinator and medical volunteer Megan Cairns.

Everyone sat, ate, and talked about taking steps to eating healthier and making changes in their lives to be active. With stomachs full, bodies invigorated and a handful of new friends, we ended our workshop looking forward to meeting again for our regular exercise classes.

Our exercise classes meet every Monday and Wednesday in our Northwest Center’s Medical Waiting Area from noon to 1pm. Our yoga class runs every Thursday, also in the Medical Waiting Area from noon to 1pm. Let’s get fit!

I’m pleased to announce Bread for the City’s first big news of the new year — and it’s a doozy:

We have a new dental clinic, and it’s up and running!

In a way, this landmark represents the true completion of our Northwest Center Expansion — which actually opened just over a year ago. See, during our planning process for the expansion, we consulted closely with our clients to determine how our growth should best serve the community — and the single most requested service was dental care. Indeed, access to dental care is one of the great unmet needs in our community.

So when we opened in January of 2011, our new building featured a dental suite with two chairs — but we did not yet have a program to use it. We originally anticipated that it would take us up to three years to raise the money for this new program. But our community of supporters rallied around this new cause, and we raised far more money, far faster, than we’d expected. As a result, we decided to fast-track this project.

For the hundreds of clients who are about to enroll in this program, it’s not a moment too soon. Take our very first patient, for example. Marian joined us last week for her first dental visit in four years.

“I’m deathly allergic to latex,” Marian told us, “and I just didn’t trust any other clinics to know how to care for my situation.”

Marian chatted excitedly with our new dentist, Dr. Steven Myles, about dental hygiene and his new role in our community. After an initial assessment, Dr. Smyles (yes, we totally call him that) decided to get on some non-latex gloves and extract the tooth that was causing her pain.

And with that, Bread for the City’s dental clinic was operational.

“It feels so good that, after months of preparation, I’ve finally met a person’s need,” says Dr. Smyles. “And she really needed it!”

You Are Invited.

We want you, too, to share in our celebration of this new program. Please join us for the Dental Clinic’s Ribbon Cutting ceremony on February 16th, 6pm, at our NW Center. RSVP to rsvp@breadforthecity.org.

If you can’t make it, but still want to celebrate with us, please make a donation to our new dental program today! We only need to raise $7,913 additional dollars to cover the cost of equipping and staffing this new clinic.

Our deep thanks to all of the donors who’ve made this great step forward possible. Particularly, the DC Department of Health, the DC Primary Care Association, CareFirst, and, of course, the Christie Family. (More on them soon.)

Smile!

Our Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011 (July 1st 2010 – June 30th 2011) is out! Download a PDF here, or check it out on Issuu here or embedded below. It’s also on its way to mailboxes throughout the land.

Thanks to our terrific design partners, Groff Creative and Maggie McGrath. Also thanks go out to Leonard Edwards, our client, volunteer, advocate and friend, for contributing his story to the report.

(If you would like a print copy of this beautiful piece of company literature, yet you don’t normally receive our mail, send us a note with your mailing address. We’ll drop one to ya!)

Tonya (left) and Ran (right), our DCPCA Community Healthcorps members, stand with Victor at the Great American Smoke Out. Victor resolved to stop smoking just before his 70th birthday.

We’ve got a great story about a New Year’s Resolution made right here at Bread for the City. So far it’s going well, so let’s take a look at how and why:

In November, we here at Bread for the City hosted the Great American SmokeOut to promote smoking cessation. One of the clients in attendance, Victor Duncan, sat down with me last month to have a followup conversation from the SmokeOut. At the time of this interview, Victor had been smoke-free for 25 days.

“At 14, I started [smoking]. Man I remember that [back then it] was a little different. Every time has its good points. When I started, everyone was smoking, made me feel like a big boy.”

“And ever since all docs have said the same thing. Smoking is bad. I understand. I’ve been at Bread for the City since ’08. I came to feel better. At the worst, I was smoking 2 packs a day. When she [Dr. Randi] first came in, she said, ‘You gotta stop.’ Something was not logical about goin’ to the doc and not listening.”

“I found about the SmokeOut event while I was waiting [in the medical waiting area]. I heard there would be food and I said well, okay. I came over to talk and listen. I was turning 70 [in a month].  I wasn’t gonna say it, I was just gonna do it [quit smoking]. When I leave outta here…you ain’t catching me smoking. 70 years old, just jump into the cold water, quit cold turkey. ”

“The hardest part for me was just doing it. If you can convince yourself you doing the wrong thing, then you’ll do better. If you convince yourself, then you doin alright. I’m gonna make today it. à My smart day. Drop the cigarette, just be cool. You never know when the moment is. I’m breathing better, not even a month in. I’m just waiting for my lungs to clear out. I did it “slow turkey.” I’m this far, I won’t start again. My only advice is if you don’t get it the first time, go back.”

Smoking is an addiction and quitting can take several tries to be successful. So far, Victor is going it alone. There are resources out there — like the DC Quitline, which co-sponsored our SmokeOut — for people who need help along the way. In Victor’s case, just hearing the encouragement of others’ stories at the SmokeOut was enough, and he can count on the watchful eye of our Dr. Randi along the way. Together, we can muster the motivation: pick a day and finally do it.

It’s a new year, and we’ve got a crop of new opportunities to work with Bread for the City!

Check them out at the following pages, with summaries in the complete post after the jump:

• Medical Clinic Coordinator
• Representative Payee Case Manager
• Development Intern (unpaid)