MMI Department of Education and Child Development supports Maverick Food Pantry
The Munroe-Meyer Institute Department of Education and Child Development in February collected more than 525 items and more than $350 to donate to the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Maverick Food Pantry.
The “Spread the Love” drive allowed department members to donate funds directly to the UNO Maverick Food Pantry through its online donation portal, while department members also collected and delivered food and other needed items. The final dollar amount raised included a cash-match donation from interim department director Jolene Johnson, EdD.
“One of our staff provided weekly informational e-mails about the needs of college students who may be choosing between buying groceries or paying tuition,” said Rosie Zweiback, associate department director. “We thought this drive would be a nice way to support the Maverick pantry and show cross campus/university support.”
Health, aging experts to discuss pandemic at UNO conference
How are older adults faring in the pandemic? How did we get to where we are today? And how can we best care for ourselves amid the pandemic from a holistic point of view?
Local health and aging experts, including the director of the Douglas County Health Department, Adi Pour, PhD, will discuss these questions and reflect on changes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the eighth biennial Aging with Passion & Purpose Conference. This year’s theme is “Unmasking COVID-19.”
The conference, hosted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, will be held virtually on Monday, March 15, and is open to the general public at no cost; however, registration is required.
UNMC speakers at the event will include:
- UNMC and UNO Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaking on “Where We Are, How We Got Here;” and
- Steven Wengel, MD, assistant vice chancellor for wellness at UNMC and UNO, speaking on “How are older adults faring in the pandemic and what can we learn from them?”
Sessions and speakers will focus on the implications of COVID-19 on older adults from a biopsychosocial perspective, including disparities across cultural groups, and provide an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past, present and future.
Portions of the conference will be pre-recorded. Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be presented live.
A full listing of events and additional information can be found on the conference website.
UNO programs seeking stories of health care challenges, triumphs
The University of Nebraska at Omaha Medical Humanities program is seeking short pieces of fiction or creative non-fiction — ranging from 500-to-750-words — related to struggles, questions and triumphs surrounding U.S. American health care, particularly stories related to the pandemic. Pieces will be workshopped into monologues or short plays to be presented to the public through visiting organization JNS Theater for Social Change.
There will be a public Zoom reading on April 19 from 5:30-7:30 p.m., in which selected work will be performed alongside that of undergraduate and graduate students from UNO. (Author availability in and around the week before the public reading, including the evening of April 12 also will be helpful.)
Authors should be available and willing to work with JNS Theater for Social Change workshop facilitators via Zoom meetings to discuss a plan for workshopping your story into its final work. JNS instructors are professional theater artists and educators based in New York City.
Up to eight health care workers/staff members will be selected for participation.
Submit stories in narrative form via email by the end of the day on March 31. For questions, reach out to the same email address or to UNO professor Steve Langan.