2018 National EFNEP Coordinators' Conference

Nebraska EFNEP partnered with 4-H Food Smart Families program, a National 4-H Council grant funded by UnitedHealthcare, to equip youth and their families to make healthy living part of their everyday lives through nutrition education, cooking skills and food budgeting skills, as well as physical activity. The program utilized Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness (CHFFF) curriculum that was developed by Cornell University's Division of Nutritional Sciences in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension's 4-H Youth Development Program. At the end of the program, participants received a bag of groceries to take home and practice their new cooking skills, which encourages replication at home. Family and Community Engagement (FACE) events were offered to help reinforce program concepts within participant families as well as strengthen community partnerships. EFNEP staff engaged in adult-youth partnerships and taught these lessons along with 4-H Youth Ambassadors, who assisted in the implementation of the lessons and preparing the take-home groceries. The 4-H Food Smart Families program implementation was a partnership between Nebraska Extension's EFNEP, SNAP-Ed, and Extension's Food, Nutrition and Health team.

A few years ago, Colorado EFNEP staff conducted focus groups with EFNEP participants and agency partners to determine the information and wording that would be helpful in recruiting new EFNEP participants and agency partners. The results from those focus groups were published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.1,2 Resulting from those focus groups were a series of recruitment materials to use in varying recruitment situations. Materials developed included brochures for use with potential participants and agency partners, posters, customizable flyers, and banners. While ensuring the content still matched the results of the focus groups, Colorado EFNEP staff worked with graphic designers to develop a new look and brand for the materials. Poster visitors will have the opportunity to see the materials and learn how these materials can be customized for use in their programs. 1. Baker, S., Auld, G., Burdock, L., Biever, E., McGirr, K., & Banman, N. (2011). Recruiting EFNEP Agency Partners-Process and Materials. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43(6), 551-554. 2. Burdock, L., Auld, G., McGirr, K., Banman, N., & Baker, S. (2011). Recruiting EFNEP Participants-Process and Materials. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43(6), 548-550.

Forty percent of adult EFNEP participants nationally identify as Hispanic or Latino. It is important that EFNEP programs have engaging Spanish language materials that reflect the current Dietary Guidelines. Eating Smart • Being Active has everything EFNEP programs need to serve Spanish-speaking adults. Eating Smart • Being Active lesson plans are available in Spanish making it easier for bilingual educators to teach classes in Spanish. Other Spanish materials available include handouts, worksheets, visuals, program entry and exit forms as well as our award-winning cookbook. Poster visitors will learn how Eating Smart • Being Active Spanish materials were developed and have the opportunity to explore the materials firsthand.

Nebraska Extension's EFNEP program partnered with Lincoln, Nebraska's refugee resettlement program at Lutheran Family Services and the Karen Society of Nebraska to bring EFNEP's educational program to Karen refugees from Burma. More than half of the refugees that resettled to Lincoln, Nebraska between October 2015 and September 2016 were from Burma or Bhutan. With Lincoln being named by Welcoming America as one of the Top 10 Most Welcoming Cities in America, there have been a large number of refugees resettled in recent years. This sub-population of community members were provided Cultural Orientation services by several social service agencies. As a part of their Cultural Orientation, EFNEP staff in Lancaster County taught refugees from Burma about diet quality, food security, food safety, and physical activity, as they relate in Nebraska versus their home country. Three concepts of learner engagement were applied specifically when teaching the refugees North Carolina's Eating Smart, Moving More adult nutrition education curriculum: being extra-prepared, being flexible, and being a learner. Especially when working with participants from different cultures, being a learner of their habits, patterns, interests, and overall culture is essential for creating a relationship-based program, as exemplified in EFNEP.

In 2015 West Virginia University’s EFNEP program established a five-year goal to increase its percentage of effort toward adult programming from 5% to 20%. Through the development of both formal and informal state and regional-level partnerships, this has increased to 13% in 2017. This poster will outline the nature of these partnerships, describe unique features of program implementation, and training resources provided to paraprofessional staff to increase the probability of success at the local level.

Rookie Cooking Class (RCC) is a youth nutrition education program offered by Kentucky State University’s Center for Family Nutrition Education Program. Classes were held for one hour, three times weekly for 9 weeks during the day. Each learning experience was facilitated by the EFNEP professional and EFNEP part-time student workers. Nutrition education lessons were integrated into existing math, science, English, language arts and health classes. The core focus was to discuss the nutritional value and health benefits of the five food groups. Students also explored healthy meal planning, practiced measuring and conversion techniques, knife safety, and discussed Advertisement Awareness related to food choices. After completing this program, 67% of the 6-8th grade youth ate vegetables more frequently, 40% of the 6-8th grade youth ate more fruits frequently, and 33% of the 6-8th grade youth increase the number of days they were physically active for at least 1 hour. Eighty-eight percent of all RCC students improve their abilities to choose foods according to Federal Dietary Recommendations or gain knowledge in Diet Quality Practices. Fifty-nine percent of all children and youth improve their physical activity practices or gain knowledge in Physical Activity Practices. Forty percent of all children and youth improve their ability to prepare simple, nutritious, affordable food or gain knowledge in Food Resource Management. Extension programs like the Rookie Cooking Class are vital in filling in the gap from the decline in Family Consumer Science programs and educators teaching nutrition education in current school systems.