Monica is the associate dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Louisville. She gave our team a lecture about the history surrounding Louisville's public health concerns. Some of the topics she addressed were redlining, school segregation, the meth problem, opioid crisis, childhood obesity, etc. This lecture connected us with Louisville on a deeper level and made it possible for us to really understand the importance of our work for the week.

This non-profit works with many communities in the Lousiville area to foster community engagement over healthy food practices by providing the means for people to have access to healthy, fresh food, with the only contingency being the community helps grow it. This ties back to information we learned about in class about food insecurity and food deserts. These community gardens help provide healthy, low-cost food for the community, in neighborhoods where they often don't have access to quality food. Our work was able to provide them with over 2000 plants potted for their annual greenhouse plant sale in April, which is their main fundraiser to bring in funds to support their many gardens. In class we learned about how simple access to fresh foods can improve people's diets and lifestyles, but one thing we never realized was that people can have this healthy food, but have no idea what to do with it. Louisville Grows works to create recipes for their consumers to have ideas on how to utilize the fresh fruits and vegetables and which ones are best each different season so people are conscious and educated on best food practices.

This organization works with HIV positive individuals who are experiencing homelessness. They provide housing and a weekly food bank to these individuals to help them get back on their feet. They understand that for homeless HIV positive individuals, it's difficult to stay on medication and take care of themselves if they are worried about how they're going to keep a roof over their head. This ties back to one of the core missions of public health, prevention. By keeping HIV positive people safe and healthy, they hope to prevent further transmission of the disease, and reduce the burden of the disease. At House of Ruth we went outside our health expertise and did some manual labor that cleaned up many of the properties that they use to house clients. While this was not necessarily related to the mission, it creates a more welcoming environment for people to feel proud of where they are living and keep working towards being financially stable and gaining independence to live on their own.