EHE News
84,000 Ohioans learn how to make food dollars count
Joyce McDowell
It's all about choices.
With $6.5 million this year, the Family Nutrition Program is showing 84,000 cooks in 69 Ohio counties how to stretch a dollar so they can buy healthy foods.
Family Nutrition Program (FNP) participants receive food assistance benefits (formerly known as food stamps). In FNP classes with six to 12 participants, Family and Consumer Sciences educators and FNP program assistants also teach low-income Ohioans to be physically active every day and to store and handle food so it is safe to eat.
The program started in 10 Ohio counties almost 20 years ago. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and contracted though the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. More than $3.2 million from USDA, matched with $3.2 million of nonfederal public funds, will enable OSU Extension to offer the nutrition education in 2011.
The Family Nutrition Program is also known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed). This is an equal opportunity. FNP educators recruit participants where they live, work and do business. They use flyers, public service announcements and referrals from other professionals such as counties' Department of Job and Family Services social workers.
"The success of FNP is linked to the partnership with local agencies and organizations whose outreach includes low-income people," said Joyce McDowell, leader for OSU Extension's community nutrition programs and associate professor of human nutrition, along with Ana Claudia Zubieta, director of Ohio FNP.
Classes vary from a single session to a series of sessions. In addition, information is available from newsletters and fact sheets, demonstrations at local health fairs and community events, and radio or television public service announcements.
"We use a '4-A' approach: Anchor, add, apply and away," McDowell said. Lessons begin with basic information (anchor), and then move to a lecture (add) followed by an activity (apply). They finish with setting goals for using the new information at home (away).
In sessions, information starts with the general MyPyramid recommendations for a healthy diet followed by in-depth instructions on fruits and vegetables, fat-free and low-fat milk equivalents (including soy), whole grains, shopping and preparation and food safety.
McDowell said, "We combine information with activities they can apply to their lives."
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