These groups are tasked with speaking to key leaders in the different cities under study. Each group was required to submit a plan of action by Thursday, so they met throughout the early part of the week to discuss what stakeholders they wished to interview and what questions they should ask, as no clear specifications had been given by CHE.
Working independently, each group arrived at interviewing more or less at the same types of stakeholders, which included mayors, doctors and nurses, owners of grocery stores and municipal health officials. The basic strategy that most group members indicated they want to employ is to ask the same basic core questions to all stakeholders that they interview, with a few questions then tailored directly to the individual.
Most groups mainly focused on what questions they wanted to ask and selecting general categories of stakeholders, but a few have already come up with specific names of individuals for at least a few of their stakeholder categories and also spent time fine-tuning questions to avoid biased or leading questions.
Samples of questions include:
1. What are the primary issues relating to food availability and healthcare?
2. What are the health outcomes and effects you see? Who are the most vulnerable populations?
3. What are the governmental policies to address the issue of food availability? What are the non-profit responses to this problem?
4. What is the economic impact of malnutrition on the community and the healthcare system?
5. What kind of food is served in your hospital?
6. Does your store take any initiative to sell healthy food to your customers?
The groups were required to submit their action plans yesterday, and some are meeting again over the weekend to discuss feedback and decide how to best move forward with interviews.
