A Career Dedicated to People’s Diets

On any given day, one might find Carmen Schroeder biking the back roads of Door County or picking fresh tomatoes grown in The Community’s Garden at the Door County Medical Center campus in Sturgeon Bay.

Her freshly picked produce will eventually end up as homemade salsa and marinara. In fact, she has canned more than 60 pounds of tomatoes this season, one of many fruits and vegetables she preserves for family and friends, and one process of retaining fresh food nutrients she has taught to dozens of classes.

Schroeder recently retired from Door County Medical Center after serving 38 years as a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified diabetes educator.

“Most rewarding has been the ability to share my knowledge to help people improve their health,” she said. “It’s exciting to learn about nutrition and see how it can change lives.”

For many years, her work focused on nutrition care for patients in the hospital and nursing home. This shifted to outpatient services, where patients were referred by their health care providers and worked with Schroeder to modify their diets due to diabetes, kidney disease or other chronic conditions. Prior to this, she was director of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program where she educated low to moderate income women and families about good nutrition and about feeding their infants and children as part of their healthy development.

Understanding how important nutrition is to proactive health and wellness, Door County Medical Center promoted Schroeder’s expertise as a lifestyle nutrition coach and created an opportunity for anyone with specific nutrition concerns to make an appointment. She worked directly with clients who had a myriad of objectives to solve, including hypertension, gluten intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome and more. She helped to create personal nutrition plans for weight reduction or sports performance based on how and what each client liked to eat.

“I think I made a difference by helping people interpret the overwhelming amount of information about nutrition, vitamins, minerals and protein that is out there and made it personal to them.”
– Carmen Schroeder

“I think I made a difference by helping people interpret the overwhelming amount of information about nutrition, vitamins, minerals and protein that is out there and made it personal to them,” she said. “Nutrition information is everywhere, and people wanted to create a realistic nutrition approach for themselves.”

Schroeder continues to educate others whenever she can. She is a seven-year board member of The Community’s Garden, a nonprofit entity that has become a living laboratory for learning about how what we eat is directly related to how we feel, something Schroeder is passionate about.

Schroeder has taught classes on gardening, plant and soil sustainability and food preservation techniques. While these seminars were put on hold due to Covid 19, the virus brought more attention to the outdoors in general, and the community garden met needs in the community that went well beyond the actual produce.

Forty-two garden plots were planted by 38 gardeners in The Community’s Garden.

“It was an incredible growing season,” she said, “but even more so this year, the garden gave people who may not have been working or working alone from home the opportunity for safe outdoor socialization or meditation.”

In addition to her space at the garden, Schroeder and her husband compost at home, and although they are not strictly organic, they pay attention to where their food originates. Variety and freshness are also key.

“Whether you are growing your own organic food, have access to grass-fed meat, or if your food selections are coming from a food pantry, try to make the best choices for nutrition by keeping it simple and balanced,” Schroeder said.

The focus on wellness today has shifted to prevention rather than managing a disease.

“Wellness is about the whole person, including nutrition, physical activity, stress management and psychological health, including spiritual health,” she said.

Healthy eating for disease prevention and overall vitality might look different or vary during different times of one’s life, but to Schroeder good nutrition is one thing that remains a constant.