From Maize and Blue to the Home of the Blues: A Personal Reflection on Community Work in the Mississippi Delta
Antonio Mercatante
2nd Year MPH Student- Global Health Epidemiology
With my public health practice experience now being over, I have had a chance to think and reflect about my experiences on the Public Health Action Support Team (PHAST) trip to the Mississippi Delta. Without question, I learned incredibly valuable lessons about community work, interdisciplinary cooperation, Mississippi culture and history, and lastly, myself.
I believe that the trip had high and low points for all of those who participated. Some of my personal highs included learning about Mississippi culture and history, speaking with participants of the food prescription program, taking part in the food distribution process, and establishing meaningful relationships with my peers. One aspect that I’d like to highlight is that, through this trip, I had the great opportunity to visit important civil rights locations and receive moving insight into the lives of those who dedicated their work and lives towards making a change. These sites were powerful and I felt myself experiencing strong feelings of emotion and personal self-reflection while learning about these incredibly important people.
Working with the community and an interdisciplinary team of peers was a humbling experience as well. Navigating various personalities, identities, and privileges was no easy task, but a valuable and worthwhile experience nonetheless. Accomplishing tasks within the context of the Mississippi Delta communities and my peers was not always easy. It required patience, communication, and cooperation to achieve what we set out to do. I believe that the tasks that we completed and the work that we did were all great exercises in resiliency, understanding, cooperation, and healthy discussion.
In terms of the project itself, we conducted focus groups with food prescription participants and staff in both Tallahatchie and Quitman Counties. These focus group discussions allowed us to collect qualitative data and identify common thoughts, feelings, and themes about the program as well as allow participants to give input on future recommendations. We also partook in a recruitment activity to expand the food prescription program in Quitman County. During this activity, my peers and I were able to recruit 67 new participants to the program. Hopefully, all those that we recruited end up participating in the program and improving their access to fruits and vegetables. In addition to conducting focus groups, analyzing qualitative data, and recruiting new participants, I also had the opportunity to utilize my quantitative data skills through running statistical tests on biometric and food frequency data collected by the project staff. Using the skills that I have learned through coursework at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, I was appreciative of the opportunity to produce a digestible quantitative analysis to present to the project team.
Before I close out this blog post, I would like to say that this trip has taught me a lot about myself. Different events throughout the week have provided me with insight into my own gaps in knowledge about U.S. history, culture, community work, and interdisciplinary cooperation. I am thankful to have had the privilege of being a part of a trip like this and can only hope that my peers and those that come after me will continue to have similar opportunities.