Tag: success stories

The University of Georgia Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (UGA SNAP-Ed) offers shortened free nutrition education classes in a series known as “Food Talk: Farmers Market.” Adapted from full-length “Food Talk” curricula by faculty and staff from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Food Talk: Farmers Market nutrition education is a collection of short classes taught by UGA Extension staff at stops along the “FRESH on DEK” DeKalb Mobile Farmers Market route. 

“We are very excited to provide this new curriculum for our SNAP-Ed program in DeKalb County,” said Judy Hibbs, Nutrition Program Coordinator for UGA SNAP-Ed. “The Mobile Market is very popular in the community, and county staff are doing a great job of recruiting participants from shoppers and delivering sessions.”

The DeKalb Mobile Farmers Market provides access to healthy, affordable food at multiple stops in food deserts and low income communities throughout the county where fresh produce might be hard to come by. The Mobile Market accepts EBT (SNAP benefits), credit cards, checks, or cash and is a program of DeKalb County Extension. “The great part about our new curriculum is that it’s designed to be completed in a short amount of time,” Hibbs added. “Shoppers at the Mobile Market don’t typically have as much time to spend learning as participants do in the full Food Talk class, so people can still learn something even when they’re in a rush.”

Food Talk: Farmers Market offers eight lessons that are taught by SNAP-Ed peer educators and cover topics like how to make healthy choices when dining out; adapt traditional Southern recipes to reduce sodium and increase vegetable servings; and how to plan meals and shopping trips to save money.  Participants can take different classes at the same location on different weeks or visit multiple Mobile Market sites to benefit from each lesson.  “Food Talk: Farmers Market has been a tremendous addition to the Mobile Market this season,” said  Edda Z. Cotto-Rivera, County Extension Agent for SNAP-Ed. “These programs are making real differences in people’s lives, and participants have shown great enthusiasm for what they are learning.”

UGA SNAP-Ed is building upon the existing Food Talk lessons to include topics on obesity in addition to adapting lessons for use at farmers markets and in an online course known as “Food eTalk.” Healthy Child Care Georgia, an additional project in UGA SNAP-Ed, is a multi-level Policy, Systems, and Environment (PSE) intervention for early care and education (ECE) centers being piloted in Athens-Clarke County.

“We have a great need for this type of program in the state of Georgia, and we have a capacity to meet that need,” said Jung Sun Lee, an associate professor in the department of foods and nutrition who serves as principal investigator for UGA SNAP-Ed.

Food Talk: Farmers Market is provided by UGA SNAP-Ed for SNAP-Ed eligible Georgians and classes are currently being offered only in DeKalb County. Those interested in attending a Food Talk: Farmers Market class may find how to contact the local UGA extension office at www.foodtalk.org. Visitors to the website may click the green “Attend a Class!” in the main navigation to find local contact information.

In Tennessee, a team of state specialists working with the University of Tennessee Extension SNAP-Ed: Tennessee Nutrition and Consumer Education (UT SNAP-Ed: TNCEP) program in the Department of Family and Consumers Sciences (FCS) have launched a state-wide social marketing program – Farmers’ Market Fresh.  The primary objective of Farmers’ Market Fresh is to encourage limited-resource families to increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption through farmers’ markets.  
 

Throughout the summer, FCS County Agents, para-professionals, and assistants have booths at farmers’ markets where they offer food demonstrations, recipes, and research-based advice on best ways to select, prepare, and store some of our favorite summertime items.  The best part of the program – each person who stops by the booths receives a recipe card for the food being demonstrated.  At the end of the season, consumers could have an entire collection of recipes all featuring items fresh from the farmers’ market.  Adults, however, are not the only ones who learn from the Farmers’ Market Fresh booth.  Children enjoy a sample of the food prepared, and they are able to participate in a weekly children’s challenge.  Through the challenge, children are able to earn prizes for the fruits and vegetables their families purchase, prepare, and taste at home.  There is even some buzz that a special visitor – Rudy the Raccoon – makes an appearance at the markets.
 

During the pilot year (FY 2015), Farmers’ Market Fresh was implemented at 15 farmers’ markets.  A total of 121 food demonstrations were presented resulting in 29,071 educational contacts.  310,651 indirect contacts were made through exhibits, newspaper articles, publications, social media, and television segments.  As a result of the programming, fruit and vegetable consumption increased among the participants.  Additionally, SNAP redemption at the pilot markets increased by over $3,600.
 

Farmers’ Market Fresh is currently in its second year of implementation with programming occurring at 39 farmers’ markets across the state. 

Janice Colon, Lorna Campos, Gisela Panzardi, Elsa Arana, Ircha Martinez, Lisa Morales. Professionals of Puerto Rico EFNEP program. 

The second annual “Dining In” for healthy family day was celebrated on December 3, 2015.  Family & Consumer Sciences Day is an opportunity to promote family and consumer science programs, tools, and professionals that support family mealtime.  Additionally, this is a day to encourage families to make and eat a healthy dinner together at home.  This year more than 125,000 people committed to participate in “Dining In” Day.

Puerto Rico FCS Program and EFNEP Program from University of Puerto Rico promoted the “Dining in” for healthy families on Family and Consumer Sciences day in the work meetings, educative activities and communities. The Extension personnel shared information about healthy foods and the importance of building good relations in the families and work. 

OSU Extension Franklin County and OSU Wexner Medical Center have combined our efforts to teach over 260 youth about eating healthy plant based recipes. The children grow the vegetables and fruit in the Highland Youth Garden and Chef Jim prepares the recipes while I teach the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) in the classrooms.

You can see more information about our program at: http://oncampus.osu.edu/garden-to-table/.    Contact Peggy Murphy at murphy.1401@osu.edu for more information.

In 2012 Utah State legislature passed the Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act to combat the cycle of intergeneration poverty among low income families. This act requires the Department of Workforce Services establish and maintain a system tracking intergenerational poverty and to use that data to assist government entities in breaking the cycle.

Utah Food $ense (SNAP-Ed) is one of the agencies tasked with helping break this cycle of poverty.  A pilot program in Weber County named Next Generation Kids recruited six families. These families attended a series of classes focused on healthy food choices, family mealtime, budgeting food monies, and basic cooking skills. The end results were excellent and participants showed increased confidence in the kitchen, improved self-efficacy, and a greater awareness of safe food handling. Utah Food $ense proved to be an effective educational source for the IGP initiative and looks forward to more opportunities to teach families the SNAP-Ed principles of eating healthy on a limited budget.  

Next Generation Kids was featured in the KSL news for it’s great work.  To view the story and a short video clip, click here.  

The Hopkins County Community Health/Wellness Alliance completed the fifth year for “Kids’ Camp: Fun, Food, Fitness”, targeting Sulphur Springs students in grades 1 thru 4.  Components of the camp are nutrition (lots of hands-on activities), physical activity (including Walk Across Texas), and gardening (led by Master Gardeners).  The camp is a 4-week, 3-days-per-week, summer camp, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.  Volunteers assisting Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in implementation of the camp include Department of State Health Services staff, Community Action Network staff, High School Blue Blaze Drill Team, community partners, Master Gardeners, Master Wellness Volunteers, and Family & Consumer Sciences Committee members.

Evaluations indicated that students:

1. Could identify the five food groups
2. Understood the importance of eating breakfast
3. Learned that they need 60 minutes of physical activity every day
4. Indicated that they would replicate the recipes at home
5. Understood the importance of limiting sugary beverages and snacks

48 students enrolled in the summer camp program.

For more information about the program, contact Johanna Hicks at jshicks@ag.tamu.edu 

The State Nutrition Action Coalition (SNAC) in Utah released a report about the impact of collaboration with different agencies on nutrition education.   Collaboration is considered to be an important approach to foster the management of health education.  This report includes data collected from 2014 from numerous members of our SNAC and created one report to share with stakeholders and policy makers in the state.  This report shows how agencies are working together to help Utahns improve food security and overall health. 

To access the full report, visit 2014 SNAC Report.

April was National Garden Month!  We are pleased to highlight West Virginia’s work in school gardens. To learn more about the school garden project, visit here.