Accessing Nutritious Foods and Making Healthy Lifestyle ChoicesPlan of Work

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Hardin County CES

Title:
Accessing Nutritious Foods and Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices
MAP:
Adopting Healthy Lifestyle Choices for Overall Well-Being
Agents Involved:
Parrett, Aldenderfer, Stillwell, Adams
MAJOR PROGRAM 1:
Get Moving Kentucky (Physical Activity Based Programs)
MAJOR PROGRAM 2:
Family Mealtime (Curriculum)
MAJOR PROGRAM 3:
Plate It Up! Kentucky Proud
MAJOR PROGRAM 4:
Accessing Nutritious Foods (general)
Situation:
Nutrition Education Programs help families gain access to food and stretch food dollars; communities to decrease hunger; and local food assistance programs to educate recipients on healthy and safe food preparation methods. Agents, paraprofessionals and volunteers are pivotal in influencing policies, systems, and environments and in training consumers and producers to maximize local access to food products from farm to table.
Long-Term Outcomes:

Population will increase average fruit and vegetable consumption by 1 or more servings per day

More new mothers attempt to breast feed their babies and increase duration of breastfeeding to six weeks or more

Kentuckians improve food management skills and healthy eating habits

Youth will be food secure when school is not in session

People accessing emergency food sources will select from nutrient dense items


Intermediate Outcomes:

Increase the number of individuals who:

Bring their children to the Farmers' Market to allow them to make food choices

Access more local foods

Redeem Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program benefits

Plant, harvest and preserve produce

Apply improved food preparation skills, food management skills, food safety and healthy eating habits


Number of:

Residents who shop at the Farmers' Market

Youth who consumer fruits and vegetables

Workplaces and other organizations adopt policies supporting new mothers’ attempts to breastfeed

Youth who access other food sources when not in school

Households accessing emergency food sources

Initial Outcomes:

Participants in Cooperative Extension programs will:


Understand the importance of sustainable local agriculture to individual health and financial well-being

Learn to grow, prepare and preserve food

Learn to incorporate unfamiliar foods or foods not currently eaten into a healthy diet

New mothers and those who support them increase knowledge about the health and economic benefits of breastfeeding

Increase knowledge and understanding of healthy eating, food safety and food resource management

Learn about community support services to increase food security

Increase knowledge of local Farmers' Market and the produce and goods available

Increase the amount of physical activity in their daily habits

Evaluation:

Initial Outcome: Learn to grow, prepare and preserve food

Indicator: An increase in knowledge and skills of how to grow, prepare and preserve food. An increase in number of participants who choose to have a garden, cook, and preserve harvest. Increase in number of meals eaten and prepared at home.

Method: Evaluations from packaged curriculums, an increase in number of gardens, report of number of meals eaten at home, increase revenuefor Farmers' market vendors 

Timeline: 0-6 months after education


Intermediate Outcome: Increase in number of individuals who apply improved food preparation skills, food management skills, food safety, and healthy eating habits

Indicator: Reports of participants who feel more comfortable and confident in their ability, increase in number of meals being prepared at home, increase in sales at Farmers Market

Method: Follow up evaluation, Farmers Market sales

Timeline: 6-12 months after education


Long-term Outcome: Increase fruit and vegetable consumption by 1 per day

Indicator: Reports, increase in Farmers Market sales

Method: Follow up evaluation, Farmers Market sales

Timeline: 12-18 months after education

Learning Opportunities:

Audience: SNAP-eligible, low income families and individuals

Project or Activity: Healthy Kids, Super Supper Series, Physical Activity based programs 

Content or Curriculum: Nutrition Education Program, Wellness in Kentucky, Get Moving Kentucky

Inputs: CES agents, SNAP-Ed Nutrition Assistant, CES resources and publications, CES NEP resources and publications

Date: March - August


Audience: General Audience

Project or Activity: Cooking classes, Meats 101 classes, food safety programs, Farmers' Market promotion

Content or Curriculum: Plate It Up! Kentucky Proud, Weight The Reality Series, etc...

Inputs: CES Agents, specialists and volunteers,

Date: October - November, March - June


Audience: General Population

Project or Activity: food preservation programs

Content or Curriculum: Homebased Microprocessing, Food Preservation curriculum

Inputs: CES agents and specialists, CES resources and publications, NCHFP at UGA, So Easy to Preserve, Farmers Market vendors

Date: April - July



Success Stories

POP Club Gets Youth Excited About the Farmers' Market

Author: Dayna Fentress

Major Program: Youth Fruit & Vegetable Access

In Hardin County, what started as a conversation between the Family and Consumer Sciences agent and the Farmers’ Market board president became a population kids activity that saw over 600 children over the course of the summer. The "Power of Produce (POP) Club" was an interactive taste kitchen and activity center aimed to bring more youth and their parents to the market. With help from the UK School of Human Environmental sciences FCS mini-grant, POP Club was born. POP Club

Full Story

TRYathalon Encourages Competition, Fruit and Vegetable Eating

Author: Dayna Fentress

Major Program: Youth Fruit & Vegetable Access

When a local elementary school principal called the Hardin County Family and Consumer Sciences Program looking for something to get her students to be healthier, TRYathalon was born. The principal reported that her school did very well with competitive challenges, and that her youth were more apt to participate when something was riding on the line. In a school with just over 400 students, it was hard to have speakers come to speak to the full group as well.The TRYathalon is a way to encour

Full Story

Haycraft Urban Garden is on Its Own

Author: Amy Aldenderfer

Major Program: Local Food Systems

Haycraft Urban Garden  The Haycraft Urban Garden (HUG) is a community garden started as an appropriation of the Improved Health Outcomes Program (iHOP) Grant received by the Lincoln Trail Health Department in collaboration with the City of Elizabethtown, the Lincoln Trail Health Department and the Cooperative Extension Service.  This grant envisions that a community’s health status can be improved through convenient and structured opportunities for physical activity and nutrition

Full Story

Seasonal Eats at the Farmers' Market

Author: Amy Aldenderfer

Major Program: Farmer's Markets

The five-year collaboration continues between the Hardin County Farmers’ Market, the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Service and the Lincoln Trail Area Master Gardeners.The Master Gardeners  provide samples, recipes and information to the shoppers at the Hardin County Farmer’s Market once a month through the growing/selling season. The Master Gardeners prepare two recipes from the Kentucky Proud Plate It Up! Series. Then, pass out samples to the patrons of the Market, encour

Full Story
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